Stab-in-the-back myth in the context of "People's Court (Germany)"

The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP; German Workers' Party). He quickly rose to a place of prominence and became one of its most popular speakers. In an attempt to more broadly appeal to larger segments of the population and win over German workers, the party name was changed to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP; National Socialist German Workers' Party), commonly known as the Nazi Party, and a new platform was adopted. Hitler was made the party leader in 1921 after he threatened to otherwise leave. By 1922, his control over the party was unchallenged. The Nazis were a right-wing party, but in the early years they also had anti-bourgeois elements. Hitler later initiated a purge of these elements and reaffirmed the Nazi Party's support for collaboration with German businesses. This included killings of Hitler's critics within the party during the Night of the Long Knives, which also served as a tool to secure power.

In 1923, Hitler attempted a coup in Bavaria, known as the Beer Hall Putsch. He was arrested and put on trial, which garnered him national fame. He was sentenced to five years in fortress confinement, but served only nine months. During this time, he wrote Mein Kampf, which became the handbook of his ideology of Nazism. Once released, Hitler switched tactics, opting to instead seize power through legal and democratic means. During the 1920s, he and the Nazis ran on a platform of anti-communism, antisemitism, and ultranationalism. Party leaders vociferously criticized the ruling democratic government and the Treaty of Versailles, while promising to turn Germany into a world power. Most Germans were indifferent to Hitler's rhetoric as the German economy began to recover, in large part due to loans from the United States under the Dawes Plan. The German political landscape was dramatically affected by the Wall Street crash of 1929. The Great Depression brought the German economy to a halt and further polarized German politics. During this tumultuous time, the German Communist Party also began campaigning and called for a revolution. Some business leaders, fearful of a communist takeover, began supporting the Nazi Party.

The political views of Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, have presented historians and biographers with some difficulty. Adolf Hitler's writings and methods were often adapted to need and circumstance, although there were some steady themes, including antisemitism, anti-communism, anti-Slavism, anti-parliamentarianism, German Lebensraum ('living space'), belief in the superiority of an Aryan race and an extreme form of German nationalism. Hitler personally claimed he was fighting against Jewish Marxism.

Hitler's political views were formed during three periods; namely (1) his years as an impoverished young man in Vienna and Munich prior to the First World War, during which time he turned to nationalist-oriented political pamphlets and antisemitic newspapers out of distrust for mainstream newspapers and political parties; (2) the closing months of the war when the German Empire lost, since Hitler claimed to have developed his extreme nationalism and allegedly pledged to "save" Germany from both external and internal enemies, who in his view had betrayed it (stab in the back myth); (3) and the 1920s, during which his early political career began and he wrote his autobiographical political manifesto Mein Kampf (lit. 'My Struggle'). Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925, but did not acquire German citizenship until almost seven years later in 1932, thereby allowing him to run for public office. Hitler was influenced by Benito Mussolini, who was appointed Prime Minister of Italy on 31 October 1922 after his March on Rome. Hitler in many ways epitomised "the force of personality in political life" as described by historian Friedrich Meinecke. Hitler was essential to National Socialism's political appeal and development in Germany. So important were Hitler's views that they immediately affected the political policies of Nazi Germany. He asserted the Führerprinzip ('leader principle'), which advocated the absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors. Correspondingly, Hitler viewed himself at the top of both the party and government in this structure.