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Sturmabteilung

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The seal of SA

The Sturmabteilungⓘ or SA (German for "Storm division", usually translated as "stormtroop(er)s"), functioned as a paramilitary organization of the NSDAP — the German Nazi party. It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s.

SA men were often called "brownshirts", for the color of their uniforms, and to distinguish them from the SS, who wore black and brown uniforms (compare the Italian blackshirts). Brown-colored shirts were chosen as the SA uniform because a large batch of them was cheaply available after World War I, having originally been ordered for German troops serving in Africa.

The SA was also the first Nazi paramilitary group to develop pseudo-military titles for bestowal upon its members. The SA ranks would be adopted by several other Nazi Party groups, chief among them the SS. They were very important to Hitlers rise to power untill they were completely replaced by the ss.

History

File:Sturmabteilung.jpg
Hitler addressing SA members in the late 1920s

The term Sturmabteilung originally comes from the specialized assault troops used by Germany in 1918 in World War I utilising Hutier infiltration tactics. Instead of a large mass assault, the Sturmabteilung were organized into small squads of a few soldiers each. First applied during the Battle of Caporetto, the wider use in March 1918 allowed the Germans to push back British and French lines tens of kilometers. In Munich in the fall of 1920, Hitler himself created the Ordnertruppen, a body of muscular Nazis, ex-soldiers, and beer hall brawlers in order to protect his speeches and NSDAP (Nazi) gatherings from disruptions from Social Democrat and Communist elements. It originally functioned as a group of bodyguards to enforce order at Nazi gatherings. On November 4, 1921 the NSDAP held a large public meeting in the Munich Hofbrauhaus. After Hitler had spoken for some time the meeting erupted into a free-for-all in which a small company of Ordnertruppen distinguished itself by thrashing the opposition. After this the organisation came to be called the SA. Under their popular leader Ernst Röhm, the SA grew in importance within the Nazi power structure, eventually claiming thousands of members. In 1922, the NSDAP created a youth section, the Jugendbund, for young men between the ages of 14 and 18 years. Its successor, the Hitler Youth, remained under SA command until May 1932.

From April of 1924 until late February of 1925 the SA was known as the Frontbann to avoid the temporary ban on the Nazi party. The SA carried out numerous acts of violence against socialist groups throughout the 1920s, typically in minor street-fights called Zusammenstöße ('collisions'). The SS eventually took over their original role.

A rare, complete set of Nazi SA tin soldiers, from the 1940s.

Conflicts with other organizations

After Hitler took power in 1933, the SA became increasingly anxious for power and saw themselves as the replacement for the German army. This angered the regular army (Reichswehr) who already resented the Nazi party, and commonly regarded the SA as 'brown scum'. It also led to tension with other leaders within the party who saw Röhm's increasingly powerful SA as a threat to their own personal ambitions. The SA was also considered a dangerous and radical organization, especially since common SA practice was to swear loyalty to local SA commanders rather than Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party as a whole. The original purpose for the creation of the SS was to restrict the power of the brownshirts and its leaders.

Senior Nazis including Himmler faked a dossier which suggested that Röhm had received payment from the French to carry out a coup against Hitler. At first Hitler refused to believe it, but he was painfully aware that the SA had the power to remove him if it so wished. Röhm was unpopular in the party because others saw his ambition as threatening their own, and because he was rumored to be a homosexual.

Most of these conflicts were based on personal rivalries, but there were also key socioeconomic conflicts between the Gestapo and SA. The Gestapo's members generally came from the middle class, while the SA had its base among the unemployed and working class. As a result, the SA was more radical than the Gestapo, arguing the Nazi revolution had not ended when Hitler achieved power. The SA also participated in several strikes and anti-capitalist activities, occasionally in collaboration with the Communists, to the alarm of many Nazi supporters. It was far more common, however, for gangs of local SA men and Communists to pick street fights with each other. In these brawls the combatants on both sides were often armed with homemade melee weapons such as Blackjacks.

Eventually the pressure mounted and Hitler ordered the execution of the leadership of the SA, which took place on June 30-July 1, 1934, on what is known as the Night of the Long Knives. Victor Lutze became the new leader of the SA, and the organization was soon marginalized in the Nazi power structure in favor of the SS. This reduced the SA to insignificance and suppressed factionalism among the Nazi Party.

The SA remained active until the end of the war, but its only significant action after 1934 was Kristallnacht, when all SS and SA units were activated to riot against Jews, destroying Jewish businesses and synagogues.

Leaders of the SA

The leader of the SA was known as the Oberster SA-Führer, translated as Supreme SA Leader. The following men held this position throughout the existence of the SA:

In 1930, to centralize the loyalty of the SA, Adolf Hitler assumed command of the entire organization and remained Oberster SA-Führer for the remainder of the group's existence to 1945. The day to day running of the SA was conducted by the Stabschef SA (SA Chief of Staff). After 1931, it was the Stabschef who was generally accepted as the Commander of the SA, acting in Hitler's name.

The following personnel held the position of Chief of Staff of the SA:

SA Organization

The SA was organized throughout Germany into several large formations known as Gruppen. Within each Gruppe, there existed subordinate Brigaden and in turn existed regiment sized Standarten. SA-Standarten operated out of every major German city and were split into even smaller units, known as Sturmbanne and Stürme.

The command nexus for the entire SA operated out of Stuttgart and was known as the Oberste SA-Führung. The SA supreme command had many sub-offices to handle supply, finance, and recruiting. Unlike the SS, however, the SA did not have a medical corps nor did it establish itself outside of Germany, in occupied territories, once World War II began.

The SA also had several military training units, the largest of which was the SA-Marine which served as an auxiliary to the Kriegsmarine and performed search and rescue operations as well as harbor defense.

Similar to the Waffen-SS wing of the SS, the SA also had an armed military wing, known as Feldherrnhalle. These formations expanded from regimental size in 1940 to a fully-fledged armored corps Panzerkorps Feldherrnhalle in 1945.

SA Maxims

  • "Terror must be broken by terror" [1]
  • "All opposition must be stamped into the ground" [1]

Modern usage

Today, the term "Brown Shirts" has been used to disparage the extreme rank and file of right wing and left wing organizations. It can also mean an individual of a political organization who is seen as very aggressive, narrow-minded and loyal to the party.

Film and Media

The SA were prominent in Nazi propaganda newsreels of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

The SA make an appearance in several films depicting the end of the Weimar Republic:

  • scenes in the 1972 film Cabaret depict the savage beating of a nightclub bouncer by a group of SA men

In the Season 18 episode of The Simpsons, Rome-old and Juli-eh, Bart and Lisa get into a battle with a group of delivery people in brown uniforms. When they attack the children's castle, Bart says, "Who knew guys in brown shirts could cause so much trouble?"

See also

References

  1. ^ a b *Why Hitler?: The Genesis of the Nazi Reich by Samuel W. Mitcham (pg 139; Praeger, 1996, ISBN 0-275-95485-4).

Further reading


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History of the SturmAbteilung

The history of the Sturmabteilung (SA), often referred to as the "brown shirts", began when the Rollkommando was formed 1920 to protect the meetings held by the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (DAP) (that would later become the NSDAP).

Many of the early members were from the Freikorps (Freecorps, illegal right-wing military units formed following the First World War to combat the communist uprisings and protect the German borders), in particular from Brigade Ehrhardt but also from other units, however there are some disagreement on whether the SA should be regarded as a direct descendant of the Freikorps or not. There is no doubt however, that many of the traits from the less disciplined Freikorps units could be found in the SA-men engaging the communists in street battles.

The Rollkommando was reformed into the Zeitfreiwilligen Feb 1920. The men of this unit wore the field grey uniforms of the Reichswehr, armed with weapons provided by Hauptmann Ernst Röhm (who would continue to play an important role in the development) and many of them seems to have served in a Reichswehr mortar company. Following the failure of the Kapp putsch Mar 1920 the use of field grey were discontinued and the unit was redesignated Ordnertruppe.

The Ordnertruppe was soon banned but it was reformed in the summer as the Turn- und Sportabteilung. Emil Maurice took command of this unit Nov 1920, but was replaced by Leutnant Hans Ulrich Klintzsch (of Brigade Ehrhardt) in the summer of 1921. The Brigade Ehrhard also supported the development by helping them with training and also financing parts of their activities.


The SA was formally formed 4 Nov 1921 following a party meeting when a large number of opponents attempted to disrupt it but was beaten and thrown out by the men of the Turn- und Sportabteilung.

At the end of 1921 there was a conflict between Röhm and Hitler, Röhm wanted to train the SA as a an army but Hitler wanted to use it solely for propaganda and intimidating opponents. Röhm even began training parts of the SA according to his ideas (taking no notice of the SA leader Klitzsch) but Hitler quickly put a stop to this training when he found out.

When the foreign minister Walther Rathenau was murdered 24 June 1922 a law, the Republikschutzgestetz, was issued that made attacks (both physical and verbal) on the government a serious offence. The rightwing organisations (naturally) objected to this law and a very large demonstration (some 50.000) was held in Munich in Aug 1922. The SA turned up for this rally with 600 men and attracted a lot of new members, and some of the smaller right-wing groups merged with the SA. The largest group present at the Rally was Bund Bayern und Reich led by Dr Otto Pittingar (Röhm had joined that group following his dispute with Hitler) and it was agreed that it would lead an attempt to seize power in Bavaria supported by the other groups present, but in the end it came to nothing and it seems that Hitler was the only one who actually prepared for the putsch.

In Oct a "German Day" was held in Coburg and Hitler arrived with 800 SA-members. Hitler ignored pleas from the city officials not to march through Coburg, and the march soon became a street battle against the communists. The victory in the "battle for Coburg" was commemorated 10 years later with a badge, the Coburg Badge. The Bavarian Minister of the Interior, Franz Schweyer, banned the "German Days" and also informed Hitler that any attempted Putsch by him would be met with force by the police.

The first party day was held in Munich Jan 1923 and there the SA was presented with its first four standards.


Klintzsch left the command of the SA 11 May 1923 to return to Brigade Ehrhardt and was replaced by Hauptmann Hermann Göring. Hitler would later comment on Göring that "he was the only one of its heads who ran the SA properly".

Göring reorganised the SA according to military lines and divided it into standarten, sturmbannen and hundertschaften (though the size of these units were smaller than their Reichswehr counterparts). A Vehrkehrsabteilung was formed in Munich of men with access to or knowledge cars or motorcycles, this would later evolve into the NSKK. An elite guard unit, the Stabswache, was also formed, but it later merged with the Stosstrupp Hitler and later evolved into the SS.

When a large right-wing rally was held in Nuremberg 1923 Hitler was made leader of the Kampfbund Bayern (aka Kampfgemeinschaft Bayern) made up of the NSDAP, Bund Oberland (led by Dr Weber) and Reichskriegsflagge (led by Hauptmann Heiss). This was also were Hitler began to cooperate with WWI hero Erich Ludendorff.

On 8 Nov 1923 Ministerpräsident Gustav von Kahr held a speech in the Bürgerbräukeller when it was surrounded by the SA and Hitler walked onto the stage announcing a revolution. The following day men of the SA and Stosstrupp Hitler began rounding up communist officials before the march towards Odeonsplatz. The marchers, over 2000 strong, consisted of men from the SA, Stosstrupp Hitler and Bund Oberland, came to Residenzstrasse when a fire fight broke out with the police that left four policemen and 16 putschists dead. This effectively ended the "Beer Hall Putsch" although some elements of the putschist held out longer, such as Röhm and the men occupying the War Ministry. Hitler was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison with the NSDAP and SA being banned.


Röhm was not sentenced to prison and formed the Frontbann from the remains of the Kampfbund, taking a lot of members from the banned SA as well. When Hitler was released from prison Dec 1924 and reformed both the NSDAP and SA Feb 1925.

Röhm didn't attempt to compete with Hitler and turned the leadership of the Frontbann over to Wolf Graf von Helldorf. He left Germany 1928 for Bolivia where he served as a military advisor to the General Staff and later as an inspector of two infantry regiments. He later commented "here I could be a solider to my hearts content".

The reformed SA was without a leader until Nov 1926 when the ex Freikorps member and gauleiter of Westfalen Franz Felix von Pfeffer von Salomon was named Oberster SA-Führer. The SA was banned in various parts of Germany in 1927 and 1928 but continued with expand rapidly with a lot of new members due to the large amount of unemployed who joined the SA to receiving clothes, food and payment.

Von Pfeffer left his post 12 Aug 1930 when Hitler refused to give SA members seats in the Reichstag and the former leader of Reichskriegsflagge, Dr Otto Wagener, was made temporary leader of the SA.

Later in August the SA in eastern Germany, led by Oberster SA-Führer Ost Walther Stennes revolted due to lack of payment and problems with the gauleiters. Sturmbann 31 in Berlin even attacked Joseph Goebbels offices and beat up the SS men who stood guard. The SA-men could only be forced out with the help of the police. Hitler rushed to Berlin from Munich to stop the revolt which was occurring less than a month before the elections. He managed to convince the angry SA-men to return to duty by promising them more money and power within the movement. 



Hitler took the post as Oberster SA-Führer personally 2 Sep 1930 and the leader of the SA (under Hitler) was now referred to as the Stabschef. Hitler recalled Röhm from Bolivia and he was made Stabschef 5 Jan 1931.

Röhms return to Germany and the SA did not please most of the leaders in the nazi movement, in particular Göring and Heinrich Himmler was upset, but neither the SA-leadership was pleased and it took the intervention of Hitler personally to secure their official approval of Röhms appointment.

Röhm now began reorganising the SA to minimize the influence of the part (in particular the gauleiters) and also to give the SA-members military training. Military-style units was also formed though Hitler disallowed the SA to be armed. The Reichs War Minister, General Kurt von Schleicher, had secretly agreed with Röhm to place the SA under command of the Reichswehr in case of war (the main concern at this time was a feared invasion of Silesia by Poland).

In Feb 1931 Stennes once again began complaining about the situation of the SA-men under his command. He wrote in a letter to Röhm "it is much more important to undertake measures to relieve the economic position of the SA. In Berlin there are regiments containing 67% unemployed. In Breslau a company could not turn out for inspection ... in frost and snow - because it completely lacked footwear". Röhm did not approve of his actions and split up Stennes Gruppe into three smaller ones and Stennes was soon removed completly from office (something he found out reading the newspaper). Stennes originally refused to accept his removal but was forced to accept it when Hitler intervened. Stennes and several of his officers left the party and instead joined Otto Strassers' Black Front. Stennes later left Germany and served in the staff of the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, commanding his bodyguard and the headquarters air transport detachment.



Chancellor Heinrich Brüning ordered the SA and SS to disband 15 Apr 1932 and the police occupied their offices and confiscated their supplies. Brüning was soon forced to resign and his replacement Franz von Papen lifted the ban on the SA & SS 4 June. Von Papen did not last long in his office and was replaced by General von Schleicher, who in turn was replaced by Hitler.

Hitler's rise to power, caused some concern within the SA after the initial jubilation. It was felt that the SA could be seen as unnecessary now that they Hitler was in power and many of their adversaries went into hiding. The SA-men took out their frustrations on people they did not like, in particular the Jews, but also members of the Reichswehr was assaulted, for example an office candidate was beaten for not saluting SA-Sportführer Tschammer und Osten.

The Reichstag building in Berlin burned down 27 Feb 1933 and it is generally believed that the SA was involved (in particular SA-Gruppenführer Karl Ernst) despite the fact that the Dutch communist Maninus van der Lubbe confessed to the crime and claimed to have worked alone.

Following the fire over 24.000 SA-men were formed into the Hilfspolizei der Gruppe Berlin-Brandenburg and used as an auxiliary police force by the Berlin police (controlled by Göring). These men used their new positions to attack their enemies and also established the first camps for political opponents. Göring began to worry about loosing control of these men and founded SA-Feldjägerkorps in Preussen 1 Oct 1933 to police the SA, a function it continued to have until it was disbanded in 1936.

Röhm said in June "The SA and SS will not tolerate the German revolution going to sleep or betrayed at the halfway stage by non-combatants", Hitler however, stated that "the revolution ... is not a permanent condition".

The SA did however cause too much trouble for the new regime and Röhm was forced to temporarily take a step back. He said in a speech to the diplomatic corps in Berlin "The Reichswehr is the sole armed force in the State", something quite different from his ideas to make a army of the SA: "You won't make a revolutionary army out of the old Prussian NCOs ... You only get the opportunity once to make something new and big and that'll help us lift the world off its hinges".

Early 1934 Röhm once again began to make plans to merge the SA with the Reichswehr to form a "people's army" and he also continued talking about a second revolution. The party leadership clearly did not approve of these ideas, not least due to the fact that Hitler needed the support of the Reichswehr.

Hitler and Röhm agreed 10 June 1934 that the SA would go on leave in July to let matters cool down. Meanwhile the enemies of the SA, both with in the party and Reichswehr continued to look for proof of a planned SA-revolt and demanded that Hitler act against Röhm. Hitler finally agreed and 30 June Röhm and his officers were arrested at Pension Hanselbauer in Bad Wiesee, Bavaria, by men from Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler.




Röhm was replaced as Stabchef by Viktor Lutze and soon other opponents of Hitler, or people who at one time had stood in their way was arrested or killed in what was known as the "Nacht der langen Messer" (Night of the Long Knives), see also a list of the victims. The SA leadership was purged of men seen as loyal to Röhm and everything reminding of those men were cleared from the SA-offices. Following these events the SS was separated from the SA and made an independent organisation, a reward for their services, as was the NSKK.

The SA was not disbanded following the purge, but did not have any real responsibilities until the war broke out. It was then made responsible for the military training before and after their military service and the SA-Wehrmannschaften was formed. They also provided personnel for the Heimatflak, Stadwacht, Landwacht and other non-military security forces.

In 1939 most of the elite SA-Standarte Feldherrnhalle was transferred into the Luftwaffe fallschirmjäger units and the rest into the 271. Infanterie-Regiment of the Heer.

Lutze was killed in a traffic accident 1 May 1943 and was succeeded by Wilhelm Schepmann in Aug. He began working to restore the morale within and the esteem of the SA. He managed to have units in the Heer (Panzerkorps Feldherrnhalle), Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe (Jagdgeschwader 6 Horst Wessel) given SA honour titles, and even a Waffen-SS division (18. SS Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Horst Wessel). He also began cooperating with the SS, he stated "I will support the Waffen-SS just as much as any other part of the armed forces. The Waffen-SS has been heroic".

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