The newspaper was set up by Joseph Goebbels, who in 1926 had become the Nazi Party leader (Gauleiter) in Berlin, and the party provided most of the money needed to ensure publication. The paper was first founded to rally NSDAP members during the nearly two-year ban on the party in Berlin. Der Angriff was conceived as a mass circulation paper that fought the hated "System" with rude and aggressive language.