Volume 1 of this series of documents with commentary covers the period from the founding of the Nazi Party in 1919 to Hitler"s assumption of the office of Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor of 1 August 1934. The documents in the four volumes of this series are drawn from a wide range of sources - official and party documents, memoirs, letters, diaries and newspapers - and are linked with a commentary. The combination of documents and commentary represents at the same time a textbook, a contribution to scholarship and a source book for students and historians.