Young Hitler
The book is divided into two sections: in the first part, a narrative retells the formative years of the young Adolf Hitler between 1907 and 1918, when he lived as a starving artist on the streets and in the asylums of Vienna, and then joined World War I as a volunteer on the Western Front. When the war ends, Hitler comes into contact with members of the Thule Society in Munich, an association of occultists who had launched a political party, the German Workers Party (DAP).The narration ends in 1920 when Hitler takes over the DAP and turns it into the Nazi Party (NSDAP). In an interview with The Guardian, author Claus Hant explained that the events after 1920 are exhaustively documented in the numerous Hitler biographies. But what the biographies do not investigate is the time before then, when Hitler was transformed from inconsequential artist and drifter to towering political leader. Hant says that he has centered Young Hitler deliberately around this momentous transformation. According to Hant, this decisive turning point in Hitler’s life can only be explained satisfactorily now that recent research has unearthed certain previously unknown data and facts.
Politischer Arbeiter-Zirkel
While Harrer believed there was something to be said for keeping the "Politischer Arbeiter-Zirkel" small and secretive, Drexler wanted to have a bigger audience and work on the spread of his ideals. Drexler wanted to make it a political party. Ultimately, Drexler proposed the creation of the German Workers' Party. With the uniting of the "Politischer Arbeiter-Zirkel" with the Workers' Committee, the German Workers' Party ("Deutsche Arbeiterpartei"; DAP) was founded. Besides Drexler and Harrer, founding members included Gottfried Feder and Dietrich Eckart. It met for the first time on January 5, 1919 in the hotel "Fürstenfelder Hof" in Munich. Drexler's vision for the party increasingly came into conflict with Harrer's. Harrer wished to ensure that an elite 'inner circle' remained in control of the party, while Drexler wanted to expand it into a mass movement. When Adolf Hitler joined the party, Drexler's position was strengthened. Hitler and Drexler worked on a new constitution to marginalise the role of the "Politischer Arbeiter-Zirkel". Harrer was outvoted, and resigned from the party. The DAP was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party ("Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei"; NSDAP) on February 24, 1920.