SA Brownshirts
The SA (Sturmabteilung, Storm Detachment or Storm Troopers) was formed in 1921 to serve as bodyguards for Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party leaders. Twelve years later, its leadership was purged, men killed in what’s known as the Night of the Long Knives, because of a supposed plot to overthrow the Nazi Party and eliminate Hitler and others. Except for a testy standoff between Hitler and an SA group in 1934, the organization posed no real threat to Hitler. Details of the plot were fabricated by Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, and Hermann Göring and fed to an increasingly frenzied Adolf Hitler.
Sturmabteilung (en-academic.com)
The SA
The SA grew from the ranks of unemployed WW I veterans or Freikorps (Free Corps), independent and volunteer paramilitary units, who were attracted to the Nazi movement because of their opposition to the groups they believed were responsible for Germany’s defeat—government officials who had capitulated by signing the Versailles Treaty, the so-called November Criminals, as well as Communists, Jews and Social Democrats who profited from the war, betrayed the German Army, and as a result “stabbed the country in the back.” (Christopher Ailsby, The Third Reich Day by Day), p 14).
Their purpose: to maintain order during meetings of the Nazi Party and disrupt those held by other political parties, thereby, as Hitler said, “ruthlessly prevent—if necessary by force—all meetings or lectures that are likely to distract the minds of our fellow countrymen.” (William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p 43.)
The SA played prominent roles in a number of high-profile events in the early days of the Nazi movement:
· The German Day folk festival on October 14 and 15, 1922. Hitler and 800 SA marched through Coburg and for the first time gained active support for the Nazi movement from people in attendance. (The Rise and Fall of Third Reich)
· The First Nazi Party Day from January 27 to 29, 1923. Members of SA for the first time publicly unveiled and flew the swastika flag in Munich. (Christopher Ailsby, The Third Reich Day by Day)
Munich Putsch on November 8 and 9, 1923. Hundreds of SA surrounded the beer hall while Hitler and 20 of their men rushed inside and overtook a meeting of Bavarian government officials while Hitler announced “The National Revolution has begun.” After holding Bavarian government officials overnight, Hitler and nearly 3000 Stormtroopers marched toward the center of town, where they were stopped by police and arrested.
(Because of the failed putsch, Hitler was tried and convicted of high treason, and the Nazi Party and its enforcers, the SA, were disbanded, at least temporarily.)
Membership in the SA increased markedly after the Great Depression threw many men out of work. From meager beginnings (SA membership totaled about 3000 in 1923), the organization grew steadily. Even though it was still considered to be illegal and called by another name—Frontbann—SA had 30,000 members in 1924. By 1930-31, 50,000 men were members, and in 1933-34, SA had between 2 and 4 million in its ranks. (The Third Reich Day by Day)
Falling Out
One man was responsible for the early growth and militarization of the SA: Ernest Röhm. After fighting for the Imperial German Army in WW I and receiving the Iron Cross for his wartime service, Röhm remained in the military and rose to the rank of captain. He joined the German Workers’ Party in 1919 and transformed Hitler’s so-called Ordnertrupe strong-arm guards into Brownshirts who were known not only for disrupting political meetings and speeches but for street violence against Jews and opponents of the Nazi party in the early 1920s. Because of his participation in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, Röhm was tried and found guilty of treason. After receiving a suspended sentence for the crime, he was dismissed from the army and served as a Reichstag deputy. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm#:~:text=After%20a%20stint%20as%20a,advisor%20to%20the%20Bolivian%20Army, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Third Reich Day by Day)
Röhm and Hitler had very different ideas about the role of the SA. From the first, Hitler viewed Stormtroopers as a political organization, one that would stir up enthusiasm for the Nazi Party among its own ranks and strike fear in the minds of those in other political parties. Röhm wanted the SA to be a revolutionary or people’s army that replaced old-guard Prussian generals with now seasoned Brownshirts and coalesced all military leadership—the armed forces, SA, and the elite SS--under his control. (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)
Fake News
Other Nazis were growing weary of Röhm’s ambitions. Heinrich Himmler, his second-in-command Reinhard Heydrich, and Hermann Goring as well as the German Army pushed for a purge of the SA and the elimination of Röhm himself. The plan was to convince Hitler that Rohm was planning a putsch against the army and Hitler’s nascent government in 1934. Letters stating that Röhm was ordering the SA to arm itself in preparation for an attack on military headquarters were forged by Heydrich’s men. Telephone calls warning Hitler of an SA uprising in Berlin bombarded his hotel room in Essen. Over a full day and night reports told of an escalating situation: “armed bands of SA are marching through the streets of Berlin…the putsch will erupt all across Germany at 4 p.m. sharp…Rohm has set the machinery in motion for Hitler’s ouster.” (Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr., To Kill the Devil, p 9)
This “threatening intelligence” was highly exaggerated if not wholly fictional. Urgent messages told that an alarm muster had been ordered for 4:00 pm and a surprise attack leading to full occupation of government buildings in Berlin would follow within the hour, and in Munich SA had already been ordered to assemble in revolt. (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)
In reality, SA was on holiday. Hitler had told the SA to take a month off from its duties, and Rohm took sick leave, moving to a hotel in the resort area of Wiesse outside of Munich. (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)
Yet Hitler and the SS acted precipitously to stop Röhm and his minions.
The Night of the Long Knives
Beginning at 4:00 am on Saturday, June 30, 1934, leaders of the SA in Munich were arrested and taken to the Ministry of the Interior. SA in nearby Wiessee were dragged from their hotel rooms, hustled outdoors, and shot to death. Göring and Himmler rounded up 150 SA, stood them against the wall of a school, and executed them by firing squad in Berlin. Röhm himself was escorted to Stadelheim prison in Munich, presented with a pistol so he could take his own life if he chose, and then shot to death when he refused. (To Kill the Devil, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich)
Only two actual attempts on Hitler’s life were made by the SA. One was half-hearted. A man wearing an SA uniform was arrested at Hitler’s Berghof residence carrying a gun he said would be used for assassination in 1933. The other was in response to Röhm’s arrest during the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler confronted a band of SA bodyguards as he was returning to Munich from the prison where Röhm was being held and convinced them to shoulder their weapons. Realizing their mistake, the SA bodyguards regrouped, setting up machine guns on both sides of the road to Munich. Hitler and his driver backtracked, however, and took a different route, one that bypassed the Stormtroopers as they lay in wait.
Mystery surrounds another assassination attempt. One of Hitler’s personal bodyguards, SA member Heinrich Grunow, proposed picking off Adolf Hitler with a rifle shot as he traveled to his weekend retreat at the Berghof in 1936. Grunow even reported that he had fired off two shots, saw Hitler “screaming and clawing in the air” in the passenger seat, then fired again before turning the gun on himself and pulling the trigger. While Grunow did threaten Hitler’s life in 1939, he was arrested, imprisoned, and died in Sachenhausen concentration camp in 1945. (John Grehan, The Hitler Assassination Attempts)
There are conflicting reports about Hitler’s travels to the Berghof in 1936, however. Reichsführer-SS Julius Schreck, Hitler’s chauffeur, died suddenly in May of that year. Two days after his death, officials listed the cause of death as an infected tooth. Another report claimed his death was caused by meningitis. Later reports, including those from Humanitas International and the University of North Carolina’s D. H. Ramsey Library, state that Schreck was involved in an auto accident and died from his injuries. A Chicago newspaper article stated that Schreck and Hitler were traveling by car to the town of Bernau when shots were fired, and the man in the passenger seat was killed. That man was thought to be Julius Schreck, and Hitler, as the driver, escaped death. (The Hitler Assassination Attempts)
Sources:
Christopher Ailsby: The Third Reich Day by Day, Chartwell Books, 2011.
John Grehan: The Hitler Assassination Attempts, Frontline Books, 2022.
Herbert Molloy Mason, Jr.: To Kill the Devil, George J. McLeod Ltd., 1978.
William Shirer: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, MJF Books, 1960.