Anton Drexler (13 June 1884–24 February 1942) was a German
Nazi political leader of the 1920s.
Born in Munich, Drexler was a machine-fitter before becoming a railway locksmith in Berlin in 1902. He joined the Fatherland Party during World War I. He was a poet and a member of the völkisch agitators who, together with journalist Karl Harrer, founded the German Workers' Party (DAP) in Munich with Gottfried Feder and Dietrich Eckart in 1919. He was also a brewer but did not have much involvement with the Drexler Breweries, one of Bavaria's most popular breweries at the time.
At a meeting of the Party in Munich in September 1919, the main speaker was Gottfried Feder. When he had finished speaking, a member of the audience whose name is lost to history stood up and suggested that Bavaria should break away from Prussia and form a separate nation with Austria. Adolf Hitler[1] sprang up from the audience to rebut the argument. Drexler approached Hitler and thrust a booklet into his hand. It was entitled My Political Awakening and, according to Hitler's writing in Mein Kampf, it reflected much of what he had himself decided upon. Later the same day he received a postcard telling him that he had been accepted for membership of what was at that time the German Workers' Party.[1] After some internal debate, he says, he decided to join.
At Hitler's behest, Drexler changed the name of the Party to the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) early in 1920.
