In this table we see the growth over time of membership in the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP, Nazi Party). The NSDAP was founded in 1920, but throughout the following decade it remained a fringe party with support in the thousands found mostly in Bavaria. Only starting in 1928 did the party gain much of a national following. The chart begins the following year, when the NSDAP counted about 100,000 members. Restrictions were put in place on new membership in May 1933. These were loosened in 1937 and fully abandoned in 1939. In Germany’s last census before the war, about 79 million Germans were counted. Given the decline in population that accompanied the war, we can estimate that even at the NSDAP’s greatest size, only about 11 percent of the population had chosen to become party members.