Did you know that Hitler first made contact with the future Nazis to spy on them?

It’s well-known that Adolf Hitler fought in World War I, and that he, like many other German veterans, were drawn to far-right ideologies thanks to their war experience. The “stab-in-the-back” myth claimed that the German army remained unbeaten on the battlefield, but was betrayed by German citizens on the home front, mainly Jews and communists. What you might not have known is that Hitler was not directly propelled into the arms of the German Workers’ Party, the predecessor of the Nazi Party, by such sentiments. In fact, he first approached the party to spy on them.

In the summer of 1919, after the war’s conclusion, Hitler was assigned to the Education and Propaganda Department of the German military in Bavaria. The department was run by Captain Karl Mayr, whose orders were to use army assets to keep the civilian population under surveillance in order to avoid future unrest and uprisings. (This was a reasonable mission, considering the wave of uprisings, several of them communist in nature, in the final days of the war.)

Hitler impressed Mayr over a ten-day course on German history and how to counter Bolshevik propaganda. In Mayr’s words, Hitler was “like a tired stray dog looking for a master,” who was “ready to throw in his lot with anyone who would show him kindness.”  In July 1919, Hitler was appointed an intelligence agent of the German military and given the task of investigating an obscure little Bavarian political group, the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP, “German Workers’ Party”). Hitler started attending the party’s meetings; he found them disorganized, but was attracted to the anti-Semitic, anti-communist and anti-capitalistic ideas of Anton Dexler, one of the party’s founders. On September 12, he got into an argument with a visitor at one event, and his rhetorics so impressed Dexler that he invited Hitler to join the party. Hitler read Dexler’s pamphlet, and, acting on the orders of his superiors, joined the party.

The rest, as they say, is history. The intelligence agent became a full convert, and quickly shaped the party after his own image, laying the groundwork for the Nazi regime and the horrors of World War II unleashed by the Third Reich.

Save 22% until December 30!

We are offering all our available tours with a discount of 22% if you book and pay in full by December 30, 2024. Note that this offer applies only in case of new bookings, and it cannot be combined with other special promotions. As before, we will continue our mission of bringing history to life and sharing the stories of the Greatest Generation with our Passengers. Feel free to browse our website to find the right tour for you. We encourage our former Passengers to return and continue their journey with us on our tours meant for returning and new Passengers alike, such as our Channel Islands Tour, War in Poland Tour, Britain at War Tour, World War I Tour, Italian Campaign Tour and the Third Reich Tour. 
If you have any questions related to this promotion or our tours, please contact our travel consultants at info@beachesofnormandy.com or by calling our toll-free number: +1 855-473-1999.