Everything about Sturmabteilung totally explained
The, abbreviated
SA, (
German for "Assault detachment" or "Assault section", 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 colour of their
uniforms, and to distinguish them from the
Schutzstaffel (SS), who wore black and brown uniforms (compare the Italian
blackshirts). Brown-coloured 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 They were very important to Hitler's rise to power until they were superseded by the SS after the
Night of the Long Knives.
History
The term
Sturmabteilung predates the founding of the Nazi party in
1919. It originally comes from the specialized assault troops used by Germany in
World War I utilising
Hutier infiltration tactics. Instead of a large mass assault, the
Sturmabteilung was organized into small
squads of a few soldiers each. The first official German stormtroop unit was authorized on 2 March 1915; German high command ordered the VIII Corps to form a detachment for the testing of experimental weapons and the development of appropriate tactics that could break the deadlock on the Western front. On 2 October 1916 General Ludendorff ordered all German armies in the west to form a battalion of stormtroops. First applied during the German Eighth Army's siege of Riga, then again at the
Battle of Caporetto, their wider use in March 1918 allowed the Germans to push back British and French lines tens of kilometers.
In
Munich in late
1920, Hitler created the
Ordnertruppen, a body of ex-soldiers and beer hall brawlers in order to protect gatherings of the Nazi party from disruptions from
Social Democrats and
Communists. On
November 4,
1921 the Nazi party held a large public meeting in the Munich
Hofbräuhaus. After Hitler had spoken for some time the meeting erupted into a melee in which a small company of Ordnertruppen distinguished itself by thrashing the opposition. The Nazis called this event der Saalschlacht (meeting hall battle). After this the organization came to be called the SA. Under their popular
leader Ernst Röhm, the SA grew in importance within the Nazi
power structure, initially growing in size to thousands of members. In 1922, the Nazi Party 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 1924 until late February 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'). As the Nazis went from an extremist political party in the turbulent times of 1920's Germany to the unquestioned government of the nation, the SA was no longer needed for its original purpose. An organization that could inflict more subtle terror and obedience was needed and the thuggish SA who had been born out of street violence was simply not capable of doing so. The younger SS was more suited to this task and began to take over the previously held roles of the SA
Conflicts with other organizations
After Hitler took power in
1933, the SA became increasingly eager for power and saw themselves as the replacement for the German army. This angered the regular army (
Reichswehr) who already resented the Nazi party. 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. Originally an adjunct to the SA, the
Schutzstaffel (SS) was placed under the direct control of
Heinrich Himmler in part to restrict the power of the brownshirts and their leaders.
Although some of these conflicts were based on personal rivalries, there were also key socioeconomic conflicts between the SS and SA. SS members generally came from the
middle class, while the SA had its base among the
unemployed and
working class. The SA were more radical than the SS, with its leaders arguing the Nazi revolution hadn't ended when Hitler achieved power, but rather needed to implement socialism in Germany. Despite its sympathy for its own brand of socialism, the SA would often pick street fights with
Communists and
Social Democrats.
Perhaps the greatest single factor leading to the downfall of the SA however, was Röhm's decision to directly challenge the army, or
Reichswehr. After Hitler's seizure of power in
1933, Röhm lobbied Hitler to appoint him Minister of Defense, a position held by the conservative
General Werner von Blomberg. While Blomberg and others in the traditional military saw the SA as a source of recruits for an enlarged army, Röhm wanted the SA to become the new German military itself. Röhm naturally wanted himself to lead this new German army. Limited by the
Treaty of Versailles to one hundred thousand soldiers, army leaders were concerned that they could be swallowed up by the much larger SA. In January 1934, Röhm presented Blomberg with a memorandum demanding that SA should replace the army as the nation's ground forces, and that the Reichswehr become a training adjunct to the SA.
President Paul von Hindenburg wouldn't stand for this, and threatened to impose
martial law if Hitler didn't act against Röhm.
After this ultimatum, Hitler ordered the arrest and subsequent execution of the leadership of the SA, which took place on
June 30-
July 2,
1934, on what is known as the
Night of the Long Knives. At Hitler's behest, senior Nazis including Himmler faked a dossier that purported to show that Röhm had received payment from the French to carry out a coup against Hitler. Hitler personally led the SS raid on the Hanselbauer Hotel in
Bad Wiessee, where Röhm and SA-Senior Group Leader
Edmund Heines were garrisoned.
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. Membership in the organization dropped from 2.9 million in August 1934 to 1.2 million in April 1938. It became little more than an old comrades association, appearing at the Nuremberg
Rallies and called out for lining the streets for parades. Another factor contributing to the decline of the SA was the reintroduction of conscription in 1935 and the buildup of the German Army. Members of the Hitler Youth enrolled in the Wehrmacht rather than "graduating" to the SA. 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. After that period until the end of the war, virtually all of its functions were taken over by the
SS.
Leaders
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 ensure the loyalty of the SA to himself, 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:
Ernst Röhm (1931–1934)
Viktor Lutze (1934–1943)
Wilhelm Scheppmann (1943–1945)
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 didn't 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.
Maxims
"Terror must be broken by terror"
"All opposition must be stamped into the ground" 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?"
P. G. Wodehouse satirises the Brown Shirts in his Jeeves and Wooster books with Roderick Spode, 8th Earl of Sidcup and his The Black Shorts.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sturmabteilung'.
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