Up until 1929, the fascist grouplets had no real base in the population. Ever since the war a multitude of small groups and petty military leagues were established by disgruntled army officers, and other reactionary elements. Hitler’s fascist organization was just one amongst many: the Viking Bund, Oberland League, Thule Society, the Pan German League and so on.
Hitler’s group was established in 1919 and in the following year took the name National Socialist German Workers’ Party, from which the name Nazi was abbreviated. In its precarious early existence it attempted to attract disaffected reactionary elements from the Reichswehr. Yet apart from attracting a small number of disgruntled cranks, misfits and reactionaries, its influence was extremely limited. Only by uniting with other fascist groupings was there any possibility of affecting the situation.