On 5 January 1919, Drexler created a new political party and proposed it should be named the "German Socialist Workers' Party", but
Harrer objected to the term "socialist"; so the term was removed and the party was named the German Workers' Party (
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP).
[36] To ease concerns among potential middle-class supporters, Drexler made clear that unlike Marxists the party supported the middle-class and that its socialist policy was meant to give
social welfare to German citizens deemed part of the Aryan race.
[33] They became one of many
völkisch movements that existed in Germany. Like other
völkisch groups, the DAP advocated the belief that through
profit-sharing instead of
socialisation Germany should become a unified "people's community" (
Volksgemeinschaft) rather than a society divided along class and party lines.
[37] This ideology was explicitly antisemitic. As early as 1920, the party was raising money by selling a tobacco called
Anti-Semit.
[38]
From the outset, the DAP was opposed to non-nationalist political movements, especially on the left, including the
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the
Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Members of the DAP saw themselves as fighting against "
Bolshevism" and anyone considered a part of or aiding so-called "
international Jewry".
