German Workers' Party
Riehl was aware from early on of the existence of the German Workers' Party in Germany itself and maintained correspondence with its early leader Anton Drexler. He was not a supporter of union with Germany but nonetheless he accepted a subservient role to Adolf Hitler at an early stage, referring to him "unseren reichsdeutschen führer" (our German Reich leader) in 1922. Certainly contact was established between the two very early and Carsten has suggested that Hitler added the epithet 'National Socialist' to his German Workers Party in imitation of Riehl's movement.