Sturmabteilung: Difference between revisions

{{for-multi|the assault detachments of the German Army during World War I|Stormtroopers (Imperial Germany)|the youth groups|Jungsturm (disambiguation){{!}}Jungsturm|other uses of stormtrooper|Stormtrooper (disambiguation)}}

| position = [[Far-right]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/09/05/were-nazis-socialists/ |title=Were the Nazis Socialists? |date=September 5, 2017 |access-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-date=November 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211116112119/https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/09/05/were-nazis-socialists/ |url-status=live}}</ref>{{bsn|date=May 2024}}

| size = 4,200,000 (1943){{cncitation needed|date=June 2023}}

| flag = [[File:Flag of the SA (Sturmabteilung).svg|150px]]

The '''{{lang|de|Sturmabteilung}}''' ({{IPA-de|ˈʃtʊʁmʔapˌtaɪlʊŋ|lang|De-Sturmabteilung.ogg}}; '''SA'''; literally "Storm Division" or Storm Troopers) was the original [[paramilitary]] wing of the [[Nazi Party]]. It played a significant role in [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power]] in the 1920s and early 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the ''[[Roter Frontkämpferbund]]'' of the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD) and the ''[[Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold]]'' of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD), and intimidating [[Romani people|Romani]], [[trade union]]ists, and especially [[Jews]].

The SA were colloquially called '''Brownshirts''' ({{lang|de|Braunhemden}}) because of the colour of their [[Uniforms and insignia of the Sturmabteilung|uniform's shirts]], similar to [[Benito Mussolini]]'s [[blackshirts]]. The official uniform of the SA was a brown shirt with a brown tie. The color came about because a large shipment of [[Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck|Lettow]]-[[shirtsshirt]]s, originally intended for the German [[Schutztruppe|colonial troops]] in [[German East Africa|Germany's former East Africa colony]],{{sfn|Toland|1976|p=220}} was purchased in 1921 by [[Gerhard Roßbach]] for use by his ''[[Freikorps]]'' paramilitary unit. They were later used for his Schill Youth organization in Salzburg, and in 1924 were adopted by the Schill Youth in Germany.<ref>[[Gerhard Roßbach|Roßbach, Gerhard]] (1950). ''Mein Weg durch die Zeit. Erinnerungen und Bekenntnisse''. Weilburg/Lahn : Vereinigte Weilburger Buchdruckereien.</ref> The "Schill Sportversand" then became the main supplier for the SA's brown shirts. The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, with [[uniforms and insignia of the Sturmabteilung|ranks]] that were later adopted by several other Nazi Party groups.

The term {{lang|de|Sturmabteilung}} predates the founding of the [[Nazi Party]] in 1919. Originally it was applied to the specialized assault troops of [[German Empire|Imperial Germany]] in [[World War I]] who used [[infiltration tactics]] based on being organized into small squads of a few soldiers each. The first official German [[StormtrooperStormtroopers (Imperial Germany)|stormtrooper]] unit was authorized on March 2, 1915, on the Western Front. The German high command ordered the [[VIII Corps (German Empire)|VIII Corps]] to form a detachment to test experimental weapons and develop tactics that could break the deadlock on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]. On October 2, 1916, {{lang|de|[[Generalquartiermeister#Germany|Generalquartiermeister]]}} [[Erich Ludendorff]] ordered all German armies in the west to form a battalion of stormtroopers.{{sfn|Drury|2003}}{{page needed|date=January 2021}} They were first used during the [[8th Army (German Empire)|8th Army]]'s [[BattleRiga ofoffensive Jugla(1917)|siege]] of [[Riga]], and again at the [[Battle of Caporetto]]. Wider use followed on the Western Front in the [[German Springspring Offensiveoffensive]] in March 1918, when Allied lines were successfully pushed back tens of kilometers.

The DAP ({{lang|de|Deutsche Arbeiterpartei}}, [[German Workers' Party]]) was formed in [[Munich]] in January 1919, and Adolf Hitler joined it in September of that year. His talents for speaking, publicity and [[propaganda]] were quickly recognized.{{efn|Before the end of 1919, Hitler had already been appointed head of propaganda for the party, with party founder [[Anton Drexler]]'s backing.{{sfn|Toland|1976|p=94}}}} By early 1920 he had gained authority in the party, which changed its name to the NSDAP ({{lang|de|Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei}} or [[National Socialist German Workers' Party]]) in February 1920.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=87}} The party's executive committee added "Socialist" to the name over Hitler's objections, to help the party appeal to left-wing workers.{{sfn|Mitcham|1996|p=68}}

The precursor to the {{lang|de|Sturmabteilung}} had acted informally and on an ''ad hoc'' basis for some time before this. Hitler, with an eye to helping the party to grow through propaganda, convinced the leadership committee to invest in an advertisement in the ''{{lang|de|Münchener Beobachter}}'' (later renamed the {{lang|de|[[Völkischer Beobachter]]}}) for a mass meeting in the {{lang|de|[[Hofbräuhaus am Platzl|Hofbräuhaus]]|italic=no}}, to be held in Munich on October 16, 1919. Some 70 people attended, and a second such meeting was advertised for November 13 in the {{lang|de|Eberl-Bräu|italic=no}} beer hall, also in Munich. About 130 people attended; there were hecklers, but Hitler's military friends promptly ejected them by force, and the agitators "flew down the stairs with gashed heads". The next year, on February 24, he announced the party's [[National Socialist Program|Twenty-Five Point program]] at a mass meeting of some 2,000 people at the Hofbräuhaus. Protesters tried to shout Hitler down, but his former army companions, armed with rubber [[Baton (law enforcement)|truncheons]], ejected the dissenters. The basis for the SA had been formed.{{sfn|Toland|1976|pp=94–98}}

The leadership of the SA passed from Maurice to the young [[Hans Ulrich Klintzsch]] in this period. He had been a naval officer and a member of the [[EhrhardtMarinebrigade BrigadeEhrhardt|{{lang|de|Ehrhardt|italic=no|nocat=y}} Brigade]], which had taken part in the failed {{lang|de|[[Kapp Putsch]]|italic=no}} attempted coup. When he took over command of the SA, he was a member of the notorious [[Organisation Consul]] (OC).{{efn|The OC's most infamous action was probably the brazen daylight assassination of the foreign minister [[Walther Rathenau]], in early 1922. Klintzsch was also a member of the somewhat more reputable [[Viking League]] ({{lang|de|Bund Wiking}}).}} The Nazis under Hitler began to adopt the more professional management techniques of the military.{{sfn|Campbell|1998|pp=19–20}}

From April 1924 until late February 1925, the SA was reorganized into a front organization known as the {{lang|de|[[Frontbann]]}} to circumvent [[Bavaria]]'s ban on the Nazi Party and its organs. (This had been instituted after the abortive [[Beer Hall putschPutsch]] of November 1923). While Hitler was in prison, [[Ernst Röhm]] helped to create the {{lang|de|Frontbann}} as a legal alternative to the then-outlawed SA. In April 1924, Röhm had also been given authority by Hitler to rebuild the SA in any way he saw fit. When in April 1925 Hitler and Ludendorff disapproved of the proposals under which Röhm was prepared to integrate the 30,000-strong {{lang|de|Frontbann}} into the SA, Röhm resigned from all political movements and military brigades on May 1, 1925. He felt great contempt for the "legalistic" path the party leaders wanted to follow and sought seclusion from public life.{{sfn|Zentner|Bedürftig|1991|p=807}} Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s, members of the SA were often involved in street fights, called {{lang|de|Zusammenstöße}} (collisions), with members of the Communist Party (KPD). In 1929, the SA added a Motor Corps for better mobility and a faster mustering of units.{{sfn|McNab|2013|p=14}} It also acquired an independent source of funds: royalties from its own [[Sturm Cigarette Company]]. Previously, the SA had been financially dependent on the party leadership, as it charged no membership fees;{{sfn|Lindner}}{{sfn|Siemens|2013}} the SA recruited particularly among the many unemployed in the economic crisis.<ref name=berlin>{{Cite news |last=Klußmann |first=Uwe |title=Conquering the Capital: The Ruthless Rise of the Nazis in Berlin |work=Spiegel Online |date=2012-11-29 |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/how-the-nazis-succeeded-in-taking-power-in-red-berlin-a-866793.html |access-date=October 6, 2019 |archive-date=August 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828093733/https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/how-the-nazis-succeeded-in-taking-power-in-red-berlin-a-866793.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The SA used violence against shops and shopkeepers stocking competing cigarette brands; it also punished any SA member caught with non-Sturm cigarettes.{{sfn|Lindner}}{{sfn|Siemens|2013}} Sturm marketing was also used to make military service more appealing. Cigarettes were sold with collectible sets of images of historical German army uniforms.{{sfn|Goodman|Martin|2002|p=81}}

In September 1930, as a consequence of the [[Stennes Revoltrevolt]] in Berlin, Hitler assumed supreme command of the SA as its new {{lang|de|Oberster SA-Führer}}. He sent a personal request to Röhm, asking him to return to serve as the SA's chief of staff. Röhm accepted this offer and began his new assignment on January 5, 1931. He brought radical new ideas to the SA and appointed several close friends to its senior leadership.

Previously, the SA formations were subordinate to the Nazi Party leadership of each {{lang|de|[[Gau (territory)#Nazi period|Gau]]}}. Röhm established new {{lang|de|Gruppen}} that had no regional Nazi Party oversight. Each Gruppe extended over several regions and was commanded by a SA -{{lang|de|Gruppenführer}} who answered only to Röhm or Hitler. Under Röhm as its popular leader and {{lang|de|[[Stabschef (SA)|Stabschef]]}} (Staff Chief), the SA grew in importance within the Nazi power structure and expanded to have thousands of members. In the early 1930s, the Nazis expanded from an extremist fringe group to the largest political party in Germany, and the SA expanded with it. By January 1932, the SA numbered approximately 400,000 men.{{sfn|McNab|2011|p=142}}

Many of these stormtroopers believed in the [[Strasserism|socialiststrasserist]] promise of National Socialism[[nazism]]. They expected the Nazi regime to take more radical economic action, such as breaking up the vast landed estates of the aristocracy, once they obtained national power.{{sfn|Bullock|1958|p=80}} By the time Hitler assumed power in January 1933, SA membership had increased to approximately 2,000,000—twenty times as large as the number of troops and officers in the {{lang|de|[[Reichswehr]]}} (German Army).<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=SA |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=2017-07-28 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/SA-Nazi-organization}}</ref>

Although some of the conflicts between the SS and SA were based on personal rivalries of leaders, the mass of members had key socio-economic differences and related conflicts. SS members generally came from the [[middle class]], while the SA had its base among the unemployed and [[working class]]. Politically speaking, the SA was more radical than the SS, with its leaders arguing the Nazi revolution had not ended when Hitler achieved power, but rather needed to implement socialism in Germany (see [[Strasserism]]) in Germany. Hitler believed that the defiant and rebellious culture encouraged before the seizure of power had to give way to using these forces for community organization. But the SA members resented tasks such as canvassing and fundraising, considering them {{lang|de|Kleinarbeit}} ("little work"), which had typically been performed by women before the Nazi seizure of power.<ref>[[Claudia Koonz]], ''The Nazi Conscience'', p. 87</ref> {{lang|de|[[Rudolf Diels]]|italic=no}}, the first [[Gestapo]] chief, estimated that in 1933 Berlin, 70 percent of new SA recruits were former Communists.{{sfn|Brown|2009|p=136}}

In 1933, General [[Werner von Blomberg]], the Minister of Defence, and General [[WaltherWalter von Reichenau]], the chief of the {{lang|de|Reichswehr}}'s Ministerial Department, became increasingly concerned about the growing power of the SA. Röhm had been given a seat on the National Defence Council and began to demand more say over military matters. On October 2, 1933, Röhm sent a letter to Reichenau that said: "I regard the {{lang|de|Reichswehr}} now only as a training school for the German people. The conduct of war, and therefore of mobilization as well, in the future is the task of the SA."{{sfn|Alford|2002|p=5}}

Hitler had his own reasons for wanting Röhm removed. Some of his powerful supporters had been complaining about Röhm for some time. The generals opposed Röhm's desire to have the SA, a force of over three million men, absorb the much smaller German Army into its ranks under his leadership.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=306}} Since the officers had developed the [[Reichswehr]] as a professional force of 100,000, they believed that it would be destroyed if merged with millions of untrained SA thugs.<ref name="gunther1940">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n75/mode/2up |title=Inside Europe |publisher=Harper & Brothers |last=Gunther |first=John |author-link=John Gunther |location=New York |year=1940 |pages=53–54}}</ref> Furthermore, the army commanders were greatly concerned about reports of a huge cache of weapons in the hands of SA members.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=306}} Industrialists, who had provided the funds for the Nazi victory, were unhappy with Röhm's socialistic views on the economy and his claims that the real revolution had still to take place. [[Paul von Hindenburg|President Hindenburg]] informed Hitler in June 1934 that if a move to curb the SA was not forthcoming, he would dissolve the government and declare [[martial law]].{{sfn|Wheeler-Bennett|2005|pp=319–320}}

In November 1938, after the assassination of German diplomat [[Ernst vom Rath]] by [[Herschel Grynszpan]] (a Polish Jew), the SA was used for "demonstrations" against the act. In violent riots, members of the SA shattered the glass storefronts of about 7,500 Jewish stores and businesses. The events were referred to as {{lang|de|[[Kristallnacht]]}} ('Night of Broken Glass', more literally 'Crystal Night').<ref>GermanNotes, {{cite web |url=http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww2_kristallnacht.shtml |title=Kristallnacht |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20050419213618/http://www.germannotes.com/hist_ww2_kristallnacht.shtml |archive-date=2005-04-19 |access-date=November 26, 2007}}</ref> Jewish homes were ransacked throughout Germany. This [[pogrom]] damaged, and in many cases destroyed, about 200 [[synagogue]]s (constituting nearly all Germany had), many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish shops, and 29 department stores. Some Jews were beaten to death and more than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to [[Internment|concentration campcamps]]s.<ref>[http://www1.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/kristallnacht/kristallnacht_photo2.html The deportation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006155005/http://www.yadvashem.org/exhibitions/kristallnacht/kristallnacht_photo2.html |date=October 6, 2018 }} of {{lang|de|[[Regensburg]]|italic=no}} Jews to [[Dachau concentration camp|{{lang|de|Dachau|italic=no|nocat=y}} concentration camp]] ({{lang|he-Latn|[[Yad Vashem]]|italic=no}} Photo Archives 57659)</ref>

Thereafter, the SA became overshadowed by the SS; by 1939 it had little remaining significance in the Nazi Party, though it was never formally disbanded and continued to exist until the war ended. In January 1939, the role of the SA was officially established as a training school for the armed forces, with the establishment of the SA {{lang|de|Wehrmannschaften}} (SA Military Units).{{sfn|McNab|2013|pp=20, 21}} With the start of World War II in September 1939, the SA lost most of its remaining members to military service in the {{lang|de|[[Wehrmacht]]}} (armed forces).{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=22}}

In January 1941, long-standing rivalries between the ''Auswärtiges Amt'' (Foreign Office) and the SS exploded with the attempted coup d'etatétat in Bucharest that saw SS back the coup by the Iron Guard under its leader [[Horia Sima]] against the Prime Minister, General [[Ion Antonescu]], while the ''Auswärtiges Amt'' together with the Wehrmacht backed Antonescu. In the aftermath of the coup, the Foreign Minister [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] made an effort to curb the power of the SS to conduct a foreign policy independent of the ''Auswärtiges Amt''. Taking an advantage of the long-standing rivalries between the SS and the SA, in 1941, Ribbentrop appointed an assemblage of SA men to head the German embassies in Eastern Europe, with [[Manfred Freiherr von Killinger]] going to Romania, [[Siegfried Kasche]] to Croatia, [[Adolf-Heinz Beckerle]] to Bulgaria, [[Dietrich von Jagow]] to Hungary, and [[Hanns Ludin]] to Slovakia in order to ensure that there would be minimal co-operation with the SS.{{sfn|Bloch|1992|p=330}} The role of the SA ambassadors was that of "quasi-''Reich'' governors" as they aggressively supervised the internal affairs of the nations they were stationed in, making them very much unlike traditional ambassadors.{{sfn|Jacobsen|1999|p=62}} The SA leaders ambassadors fulfilled Ribbentrop's hopes in that all had distant relations with the SS, but as a group they were notably inept as diplomats with Beckerle being so crude and vulgar in his manners that King [[Boris III of Bulgaria|Boris III]] almost refused to allow him to present his credentials at the [[Vrana Palace]].{{sfn|Bloch|1992|p=330}} As the ambassador in [[Bratislava]], Ludin arranged the deportation of 50,000 Slovak Jews to Auschwitz in 1942.{{sfn|Bloch|1992|p=356}} On 23–24 August 1944, Killinger notably bungled the German response to [[1944 Romanian coup d'état|King Michael I's Coup]] that saw King [[Michael I of Romania|Michael of Romania]] dismiss Antonescu, sign an armistice with the Allies, and declare war on Germany, thereby costing the ''Reich'' its largest source of oil.{{sfn|Bloch|1992|p=411}} Of the SA ambassadors, Killinger and Jagow committed suicide in 1944 and 1945 respectively while Kasche and Ludin were executed for war crimes in 1947 in Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia respectively. Beckerle spent 11 years in a Soviet POW camp, was released to West Germany in 1955, was charged with war crimes in 1966 for his role in the deportation of Macedonian Jews, which were dropped on grounds of ill health in 1968 and died in 1976 at a retirement home in West Germany.

The SA ceased to exist in May 1945 when Nazi Germany collapsed. It was formally disbanded and outlawed by the [[Allied Control Council]] enacting Control Council Law No. 2 on October 10, 1945.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Schutzstaffel (SS), 1925-1945 – Historisches Lexikon Bayerns |url=https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Schutzstaffel_(SS),_1925-1945 |access-date=2021-02-19 |website=www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de |archive-date=April 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200403184628/https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Schutzstaffel_(SS),_1925-1945 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1946, the [[Nuremberg trials|International Military Tribunal]] at [[Nuremberg]] formally ruled that the SA was not a [[Organized crime|criminal organization]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Sturmabteilung or SA |url=http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Sturmabteilung_SA.htm |work=History Learning Site |access-date=September 22, 2013 |archive-date=May 16, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516051019/http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Sturmabteilung_SA.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

* [[Wilhelm Schepmann]] (1943–1945){{sfn|McNab|2009|p=14}}

The SA also had several military training units. The largest was the {{lang|de|SA-Marine}}, which served as an auxiliary to the {{lang|de|[[Kriegsmarine]]}} (German Navy) and performed [[search and rescue]] operations as well as harbor defense. The SA also had an "army" wing, similar to the [[Waffen-SS]], known as {{lang|de|[[Panzer Corps Feldherrnhalle|Feldherrnhalle]]}}. This formation expanded from regimental size in 1940 to a fully-fledged armored corps ({{lang|de|Panzerkorps Feldherrnhalle}}) in 1945. As for units formed outside of Germany, after the success of the [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939, an SA unit, "Great Government" was formed. The units were re-namedrenamed SA ''Wehrschützen-Bereitschaften'' in 1942. The title was abbreviated to SA ''Wehrbereitschaften'', thereafter.{{sfn|Littlejohn|1990|pp=39–40}}

* [[National Socialist Flyers Corps]] - another Nazi Party organizaionorganization

*{{cite book |last1= Miller |first1= Michael D. |last2= Schulz |first2= Andreas |title= Leaders of the Storm Troops |volume= 1 |publisher= Helion & Company |location= Solihull, England |year= 2015 |isbn= 978-1-909982-87-1}}