Blockleiter hitler biography

byPaul Hoser

Party that emerged in Munich from the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP – German Workers’ Party), from 1921 onward under the chairmanship of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). The main political characteristics were nationalism, anti-Semitism, a thrust against the democratic parties and a radicalism that that was prepared to resort to massive violence. Banned from 9 November 1923 after the Beer Hall Putsch (Hitlerputsch), the party was reestablished on 27 February 1925; but it was only the increasing economic crisis later on that allowed for the rapid rise of the ever more violent National Socialists. After the seizure of power in 1933, the party and the state became intertwined in many ways. The party's most important remit was now of a propagandistic nature. After the end of the war, the Allies banned the NSDAP on 10 October 1945.

Emergence from the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP – German Labour Party)

The Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP – German Workers’ Party) was established in Munich on 5 January 1919 on the initiative of Munich toolmaker Anton Drexler (1884-1942). Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) first appeared at one of the meetings in the Sterneckerbräu (Adress: Tal 54, Munich) on 12 September 1919, presumably on behalf of the city commandant's office, and became a member soon after.

On 24 February 1920, he gave a speech at the Munich Hofbräuhaus where he announced the 25 theses for the party`s policy statement In the tradition of the “Alldeutsche“ (All-Germans), it made demands for the unification of all Germans, colonies, strengthening the middle class and discriminatory exceptional laws for Jew

Political officer in Nazi Germany

Not to be confused with Blockältester or Blockführer.

Blockleiter (Block Warden), where block refers to city block, was from 1933 the title of a lower Nazi Party political rank responsible for the political supervision of a neighborhood. Referred to in common parlance as Blockwart, the Block Warden's duty was to form the primary link between the Nazi authorities and the general population. The derogatory termBlockwart ("snoop") survives in German colloquial language.

History and usage

The title of Blockleiter was first created in 1930 and was initially known as Blockwart. The purpose of the Block Warden was to organize local support for elections during a period when Nazis were attempting to gain both local and national political offices in the Weimar Republic. Block Wardens were organized by neighborhoods in German towns and cities, and answered to a "Cell Warden" known as the Zellenwart. Typically, there were eight to ten blocks in one cell.

In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, the old political rank of Blockwart was phased out of the Nazi rank system to be replaced by a new rank known as Mitarbeiter. It is at this point that the term Blockleiter was most often used, although not as an actual political rank but as a title for a Mitarbeiter assigned to the local level of the Nazi Party in charge of a neighborhood or a street.

Those Mitarbeiter assigned as Block Wardens now answered to an official known as a Zellenleiter (Cell Warden). The Cell Warden title, not an actual rank, was assigned to Nazis holding the political rank of Stellenleiter.

In 1939, with the establishment of a new array of Nazi Party political ranks, both Mitarbeiter and Blockleiter became political positions, denoted by special armbands. The organization of the Nazi Block unit now encompassed several positions; the complete array of Block titles was as follows:

• Blockhelfer – Block

Ranks and insignia were used by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) as paramilitary titles between approximately 1928 and the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945. Such ranks were held within the political leadership corps of the Nazi Party, charged with the overseeing of the regular Nazi Party members.

The first purpose of the Nazi Party's political ranks was to provide election district leadership positions during the years where the Nazis were attempting to come to power in Germany. After 1933, when the Third Reich had been established, Nazi Party ranks played a much more important role existing as a political chain of command operating side by side with the German government.

Contrary to modern-day cinema and layman perceptions regarding the Nazi Party, which often portrays all Nazis as wearing brown shirts with swastika armbands, Nazi ranks and titles were only used by a small minority within the Party, this being the political leadership corps. Regular Nazi Party members, unconnected with the political leadership, often wore no uniforms at all except for a standard Nazi Party Badge issued to all members (a golden version of this badge also existed for early Nazi Party members).

The history of Nazi Party ranks and insignia can be divided into the ranks used during several different time periods as well as the positions held by senior Nazis who were, by default, the supreme leaders of the Party regardless of what title they chose to call themselves by.

Early Nazi Party titles

The early titles used by the Nazi Party were far removed from their late 1930s and World War II counterparts. Between 1921 and 1924, considered the earliest time period that the Nazi Party existed, there were no titles or ranks used by the regular Nazi Party members although several members choose to wear World War I uniforms at party meetings. When Adolf Hitler replaced Anton Drexler as the leader of the Nazi Party, Hitler be