In the years of the Time of Struggle of
the Nazi Party the SA became a crucial organization. It began in 1921
as the Gymnastic and Sports Section of the party, created to prevent
disruption in party meetings and disturb orderly meetings of competing
parties. In October 1921, this group was renamed the Storm Troopers.
Former soldiers and former members of the Free Corps were the principle
members of the SA.
A political correspondent of the Munchner Neuste Nachrichten described
the strong arm tactics of the SA, breaking up a meeting of the Bavarian
League on September 14, 1921.
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The meeting which was well attended, came to a premature
end owing to an attack systematically planned by the National Socialists.
National Socialist youths had early on taken the seats near the
speakers’ platform, and numerous National Socialists were
distributed throughout the hall. When Hitler, the leader of the
National Socialists, appeared in the hall, he was greeted by his
followers with demonstrative applause. His arrival gave the cue
for the violence that followed. The former editor of the Volkischer
Beobachter, Esser, climbed on a chair and declared that Bavaria
owed the situation it was in to the Jews. Ballerstedt had always
avoided the Jewish question. The National Socialists therefore
saw themselves ‘forced’ to stop Ballerstedt from speaking,
and let Hitler speak instead. Hitler’s followers, bent on
making it a National Socialist meeting, thereupon occupied the
platform. But a large section of the meeting protested and demanded
that Ballerstedt should speak. He had pushed his way through to
the platform, but could not begin because the National Socialists
were all the time shouting ‘Hitler!’ The uproar grew
even worse when someone tried to prevent the fight which was feared
by switching off the electricity. Ballerstedt declared that anybody
who tried to disturb the meeting would be charged with disturbing
the peace. After this the young people on the platform, many of
them hardly in their teens, surrounded him, beat him up and pushed
him down the platform steps. Ballerstedt received a head injury
which bled badly. As the audience were naturally growing more and
more excited, three members of the state police appeared in the
hall. A [plain clothes] detective declared the meeting dissolved.
A fairly strong group of state police then cleared the hall; this
operation went smoothly without further incident after an announcement
that the charge for admission would be refunded. |
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As quoted in J. Noakes and G. Pridham, eds., Nazism: A History
in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919-1945, Vol. I, pp. 24-5. |
The SA continued to play a role in the Time of Struggle, participating
in the Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, the reestablishment of the
party in 1925, and party election campaigns and meetings.
Ernst Roehm, Commander of the SA
Ernst Roehm became the commanding officer of the SA in 1924. Although
there were times in the late 1920s when Roehm fell from leadership after
disagreements with Hitler, he returned to leadership of the SA in 1930.
This was the very time that the party was beginning to increase its membership,
and membership in the SA grew to 170,000 members in 1931. After the party
came to power in 1933 the SA greatly increased; in 1934, there were 4.5
million members of the SA.
In 1930, Roehm’s statement entitled “The Uses of Fear and
Brutality,” summed up his attitudes:
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Brutality is respected. The people need wholesome fear. They
want to fear something. They want something to frighten them and
make them shudderingly submissive. Haven’t you seen everywhere
that after the beerhall battles those who have been beaten are
the first to join the party as new members? Why babble about brutality
and get indignant about tortures? The masses want them. They need
something that will give them a thrill of horror. |
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As quoted in Hermman Rauschning, Voices of Destruction, cited
in Howard J. Langer, ed., The History of the Holocaust: A Chronology
of Quotations, p. 34. |
After Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933, the tension between Hitler
and Roehm intensified. Roehm criticized the fact that the party had failed
to fulfill its promises of adopting socialist measures for a more equitable
distribuion of wealth. Roehm was especially critical of Hitler’s compromises
with industrialists. Roehm and other leaders of the SA began speaking of
a “second revolution” that would displace the existing class
structure and convert the SA into a peoples’ army that replaced the
Reichswehn.
The Night of Long Knives, June 30, 1934
The tension between Hitler and Roehm came to a climax on the night
of June 30, 1934. Hitler ordered the purge of Roehm and seventy other
leaders of the SA. The purge has come to be known as The Night of Long
Knives. The Nazi leadership justified the murders, with claims that the
SA was plotting to overthrow the government. Moreover, SA leaders were
accused of homosexual practices.
Increasingly, the SS gained superiority over the SA after 1934. The
removal of Roehm and other leaders of the SA cleared the path for the
SS to assume policing and terroristic functions in the Nazi state.
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