thumb | right | [[Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, used the "Führer" title.]]
(, ; ,<!-- WP:DICTIONARY: derived from the verb , a cognate of the Old English words faran and fær and the Modern English words derived from the older terms such as ' now mostly used in compounds such as wayfarer and sea-faring. These are also cognates of the Latin peritus (), Sanskrit piparti and the Greek poros .--> spelled Fuehrer when the umlaut is unavailable) is a German word meaning or . As a political title, it is strongly associated with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler officially called himself der Führer und Reichskanzler () as well as the subsequent merging of the offices of Reichspräsident and Reichskanzler.
Nazi Germany cultivated the (),
In compound words, the use of remains common in German and is used in words such as (), (), (), a meaning Führer can also have in German. However, in the compound word ' and ', that part does mean , and is a cognate of the German Heerführer (military leader).
History
Background
has been used as a military title (compare Latin ) in Germany since at least the 18th century. The usage of the term "Führer" in the context of a company-sized military subunit in the German Army referred to a commander lacking the qualifications for permanent command. whose followers commonly referred to him as the , and who also used the Roman salute – where the right arm and hand are held rigidly outstretched – which they called the "German greeting". According to historian Richard J. Evans, this use of "" by Schönerer's Pan-German Association, probably introduced the term to the German far-right, but its specific adoption by the Nazis may also have been influenced by the use in Italy of "", also meaning "leader", as an informal title for Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Prime Minister, and later (from 1922) dictator, of that country.
of the Nazi Party
Adolf Hitler took the title to denote his function as head of the Nazi Party; he received it in 1921 when, infuriated over party founder Anton Drexler's plan to merge with another antisemitic far-right nationalist party, he resigned from the party. Drexler and the party's Executive Committee then acquiesced to Hitler's demand to be made the chairman of the party with "dictatorial powers" as the condition for his return.