The German Question, Part One Hundred Eight

"The Rise of Hitler and The Nazis" Part One/E
"Hitler Finds a Political Party"

A number of groups and parties of many political persuasions arose with the defeat of the Kaiser's Germany, and with the change to a far more democratic form of governance. One of these parties began in Munich after the war and was called the German Workers Party (German: Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). It was a right wing party favoring strong German nationalism and "pan-Germanism,* as well as those who believed in the "stab in the back"** stories then circulating around the country. The "worker" part of the party name gave it a "socialist" tilt, mainly anti-capitalist, but also anti-Bolshevik. There were also anti-Jewish feelings espoused, as Jews were not seen as Germans by at least some elements of society. Apparently the party membership was quite small, perhaps fifty or less.

Hitler returned to Munich and chose to remain in the army after the war, as this was before the Versailles Treaty limited the size of German military forces. Hitler was part of a special unit of the army which quite literally spied on political groups. He was eventually sent to "spy" on the German Workers Party. He liked what he saw and heard, so he left the army and joined this new political party.

Next...."Hitler the Political Upstart"

* Pan Germanism supporters essentially wanted ALL Germans, regardless of their present country, to be united into one strong nation. It was an idea very much promoted by Hitler and the Nazis later on.

** The "stab in the back" legend, as it is usually called, was promoted by right wing army officers and politicians who claimed Germany had not been defeated on the battlefield, but had been "stabbed in the back" by socialist, Bolshevik, and Jewish led protests at home. It was all a bunch of absolute nonsense, but it played well with many Germans who were in denial about the country's defeat and who were devastated by the consequences of losing the war. Don't forget, whether you like the recent American health care reform or not, the charge of "death panels to kill Granny" was totally absurd, but a fairly substantial minority of Americans believed it, too. Like insurance companies don't make decisions every day affecting the life or death of Americans. If the Republicans get their way, and Medicare is essentially turned over to private insurance companies, talk about "death panels for Granny!" All part of what I call "the dumbing down of America." (10-8-22 note: This was written in 2011, when the health care law was still a hot issue.)

WORD HISTORY:
Dagger-The origins of this word are uncertain, but I'll take a "stab" at it. Much of the history of this word is so uncertain or speculative, I will be using words like "seems," "apparently," and "perhaps" in many instances. The beginning documentation on this word only goes back to just before 1300, but it "seems" Latin had "daca," with a long "a," a form of knife or short sword used in what is now essentially modern Rumania, but then called "Dacia," after the Dacians, whose language was Indo European (as is English). Linguists and historians speculate that the Dacian language died out in the 500s or 600s A.D. Exactly where the term "Dacian" comes from is not clear. Did the term for the knife transfer to the people who used it?^ Or did the name of the people already exist and the knife took the name from them? Some linguists believe the term (for the knife) may be of Celtic origin (Celtic is also Indo European), and the Celtic tribes were spread over a large portion of Europe at one time, including in that northern area of the Balkans; that is, southeastern Europe. Or did the Celts name the "Dacians?" While the Latin connection is somewhat shaky, it does come onto firmer ground as Latin's descendants had similar words: Old French, a Latin-based language, had "dague" and "daguard," and Old Italian had "daga." Apparently it was borrowed into some Germanic dialects from French in the late 1300s, as the English of those times had "daggere," German had "Degen," Dutch "dagge" and modern Dutch "degen," etc. The German and Dutch terms mean "light sword." Modern Welsh, a Celtic language has "dagr," but that could be a borrowing from English. There was also in Middle English a verb "dag," which meant "to stab, to skewer," and apparently this came from the noun, and was an English creation. German and some other Germanic languages, but obviously not English, use a form of Slavic "tulich" as their word for "dagger." This borrowing from Slavic gave German "Dolch," some Low German dialects have "Dorjch," and Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian all have "dolk."

^ While not everyone agrees, some believe the name of the Saxons came from the name of the ax they used.