of the National Socialist German Party began in southern Bavaria sometime in 1920, originating as a small isolated group of men, eventually designated
or hecklers, whose main function was to prevent the Social Democrats and Communists from disrupting Party meetings.
Historians such as Robert G. L. Waite and Max Gallo suggest that the Sturmabteilung had indirectly descended from the Freikorps movement of the post-World War I years, but this is not necessarily true. Inhis book, The Night of Long Knives, Gallo writes that, "the SA was recruited from the hardened veterans of the Freikorps, the marinebrigade of (Hauptmann) Lowenfeld: from the Jagerkorps, commanded by General Maercker; and from the Escherich Organisation" This statement is quite convincingly contradicted by the historian James M. Diehl,who states that "unlike the military associations, (the Sturmabteilung) had never been involved in the (Bavarian) Civil Guard or Free Corps movements, but instead had originated as a small, specialized force with a political party.
Certainly former Freikorpskampfer, namely Hauptmann Hermann Ehrhardt of the Brigade Ehrhardt, did become involved in the organization of the early SA, but it is imperative to point out that the Sturmabteilung was the result of the chaotic environment of the early 1920s; itwas created for a specific purpose, that being to serve the political furtherance of the struggling NSDAP. In view of the rivalries that the Party had to contend with in these early years it could be said that theSA was largely responsible for the survival of the Nazi Party. Until Hitler became the head of the German Workers Party, the DAP was perhaps the weakest, most impoverished and and insignificant of the parties of both the left and right wings. When he attended his first meeting, held in a dingy back room of the Sterneckerbrau in Munich, he said to himself, "Furtcherlich, furtcherlich! Das war ja eine Vereinsmeierei Allerangster Art und Weise! (How dreadful! This is a wretched little group of the feeblest sort!" He opened the door to the room where the meeting was being conducted and beheld the entire membership of the DAP'S committee - four men. But soon Hitler became the chairman of the Party and in 1920, he christened it with a more influential-sounding name - The National Socialist German Workers Party.
As Hitler began to enjoy some popularity, a strong-arm squad was necessary to guard him when he spoke in public, for he spared no one with his criticisms and vicious verbal attacks. The next stage in the evolution of the SA came in February 1920 in the form of a group of volunteers (Zeitfreiwillingen), who were reputedly members of a mortar unit of the Munich Reichswehr. Their responsibility was to guard theentrances to the meeting place and the podium against attacks. These Zeitfreiwillingen, clad in the field grey of the Reichsrwehr, were illegally armed with blackjacks and pistols which had been procured for them by Hauptmann Ernst Rohm. While Rohm had not entirely cast his lot with Hitler, he did become the unofficial ordnance specialist in waffenschiebungen, or the illegal procuration of arms. In the 1920s Rohm was the chief of staff to the military commandant of Munich, General Franz Ritter von Epp, and he had also served as a general staff officer in the Schutzbrigade Epp of the 7th Bavarian Division. Both he and von Epp supported the Black Reichswehr, the government troops who were illegally armed, according to the specifications of the Treaty of Versailles. After the attempt by Wolfgang Kapp to overthrow the government in March 1920, the field grey uniform was forbidden within the NSDAP. Now that the closely watched, Rohm and von Epp were forced to curtail their support of covert para-military nationalistic societies.
Hitler worked aroung the uniform ban by clothing his guards in civilian dress, with the Party brassard as the only outward indication of their affiliation with the NSDAP. The Zeitfreiwillingen were also givena new name; they were now designated as Ordenertruppe, Whose purpose was, in Hitler's own words, (to maker) it possible to hold meetings, which without (then Ordnertruppen) would have been simply prevented by the enemy." The Ordentruppe were soon disbanded as the government began cracking down on antagonistic societies. However, they reemerged under the Intentionally misleading name of "Gymnastic and Sport Detachment" in the summer of 1920. The term Turn-und Sportabteilung was a paper-thin disguise for a group of men - a small party army which was used not only as guards at meetings, but also to harass and fight the opponents of the NSDAP. In November 1920 the Turn-und-Sportabteilung was better organized and placed under the command of the twenty-three year old Emil Maurice, an ex-convict and former watchmaker. Therefore Maurice was technically the first leader, though by no means the first Stabschef ( a term which had not yetcome into use) of the Turn-und Sportabteilung. The title of Gymnastic and Sport Detachment perhaps fooled no one, but it pacified the government, which feared more civil war between rival para-military groups. But this "SA" continued to carry out its function, in spite of what its new name implied. Kurt G.W. Ludecke described them as they appeared at a gathering of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arteiter-Partei at the Zirkus Krone in Munich on August 11, 1922.
"...I found the Zirkus so jammed that there was scarcely room for a pin to drop. Around the platform was grouped a guard of SA men..., husky fellows who looked ready to cope with any situation. I could see the need for them, for it was apparent that the Nazis, more than any other in those days, were daring to assail the Jews, the Communists, the bourgeois round-heads, denouncing what they believed evil. More (SA men) encircled the raena and flanked the aisle weading to the tribune. All of them wore red armbands, bearing the now famous symbol - a black swastika in a white circle."
As Hitler gained political and psychological ground during the 1920s, his opponents were watchful for an opportunity to crush his Party publicly and damage his growing influence. And due to this expanding prominence Hitler realized that he would be threatened as never before, therefore in addition to this Tern-und-Sportabteilung, he established a Saalschutz (hallguard) to further insure strength in any situation. The men of the Saalschutz were hand chosen by Hltler, and he instructed them to fight showing absolutely no mercy. He expected no less from them than a bloodbath; and each man knew that if he did not perform accordingly that it would mean serious consequences from him - he was even threatened with punishment by death. Hitler vowed to personally tear the Party Kampfbinde from the sleeve of any of his men who showed cowardice or pity.
In the summer of 1921 Maurice left the Turn-und-Sportabteilung and was replaced by an ex-naval junior officer and former member of the Brigade Ehrhardt, Leutnant Hans Ulrich Klintzsch. By early August the SA was still officially referred to as the Gymnastic and Sport Detachment, and the first serious attempt to increase enrollment was made when an advertisement was placed in the Volkischer Beobachter that year. Unlike recruitment campaigns conducted by the Army, the SA directed its pitch to those German youths who were too young to have been veterans of the Great War, roughly the ages of seventeen through twenty-three. Since the SA was to be political and not military, it did not necessarily seek veterans to serve in its ranks, but it was placed under the supervision of the Munich Reichswehr for a time. At 'Hitler's request Hauptmann Ehrhardt loaned several of his officers to aid in the reorganization of the SA; Ehrhardt also gave the SA money to buy supplies.
What the SA lacked in finances, it compensated for in a sort of twisted patriotic fervor. According to both Nazi legend and respected historians, the SA proved itself to be a valuable asset to Hitler in a decisive Saalschlacht on November 4, 1921 at the Hofbrauhaus am Platzl, when about seven hundred opponents of the Party, both Communists and Socialists, attempted to break up the meeting. The Festsaal of the Hofbrauhaus had been chosen because, as Hitler explained, ". . . we considered (it to be) most unsuitable for a Sprengund (disruption). We had feared it in larger halls, especially in the Zirkus." Ludecke claims that only fifty Party members were there, but the Munich SA had reported only a month earlier that it had listed on its rolls more than three hundred members. While there is a major discrepancy in estimates of the number of SA men at the meeting, the Nazis were definitely greatly outnumbered. Quite remarkably, a lively account of the evening's fight was recorded by an elderly woman, a shopkeeper by the name of Frau Schweyer, whose modest establishment had been frequented by Hitler in the early years (he often bought turnips and radishes there). The meeting was scheduled to begin at eight o'clock that evening, and a large crowd of men and women had turned out to hear Hitler speak. Guards were posted at the entrances and around the speaker's platform.
Parteigenosser Hermann Esser opened the meeting with a few remarks and then introduced Hitler. The many Communists in the crowd heckled him for a moment, and then settled back and allowed him to speak for more than an hour. Frau Schweyer noticed that "whenever more beer was called for, instead of giving up the empty mugs, fresh ones were brought, and the old ones placed under tables." Indeed trouble was in the making. Suddenly a voice in the crowd shouted, "Freiheit!" and a mug crashed against the floor. "A real battle it was!" I shan't forget it as long as I live. If I hadn't kept my head low over the table, like all the rest of us women were told to do, sure as fate it should have been clean knocked off my shoulders. The beer mugs were flying around that night something alarming." During the hail of beer steins Hitler made no attempt to take cover, nor was he injured. Whether by accident, or as he claimed, in order to protect Hitler, Rudolf Hess was hit in the head by a mug that had been thrown at the speaker.
By sheer force, and with the aid of broken chair and table legs the SA bodily threw their blutuberstromtig opponents out the doors and windows of the Hofbrauhaus and onto the street. Hitler watched as the Communists and Socialists were beaten and then Esser got to the platform and announced that : "die versammlung geht weiter...." Hitler concluded his speech and the meeting ended upon the arrival of the police, who informed the Nazis that they would have to pay for the damages to the Hofbrauhaus. Hitler was so impressed by the performance of the SA and the Saalsthatz that he officially proclaimed that November 4, 1921 was the founding day of the SA,' now called the Sturmabteilung der NSDAP, Emil Maurice, recently retired from the SA, and Rudlof Hess apparently proved themselves to be quite good fighters. An SA publication distributed around 1934 asked, rather smugly, "What does a number mean? An experience of battle, a fight in the barroom, in injury of (one's) own body, a burning scar, and the sight of a marching brown column mean much more than numbers." The battle of November 4, 1921, which lasted less than a half-hour, perhaps won more converts to the Movement than did Hitler's speech. The towns people were amazed, for they had suffered so greatly under the Communists proclaimed Soviet Republic in Munich, and under Kurt Eisner's Socialists. Until this night no one had really stood up to them and accepted their challenge to fight - and won.
Hitler later commented on the significance of the Saalschlacht of November 4: "For the first time the opponents of our movement succeeded in interfering in one of our meetings in an extremely disruptive manner. With this gathering the need for the founding of our SA had for the first time become clear to even the simplest minds. The opponent must know that every attempt to disrupt gatherings will meet with ruthless resistance. . . ."
Hitler began working to fashion the SA into a political force that would be the carrier of National Socialist propaganda and intimidation, but Rohm, who still belonged to the Reichswehr and had not yet joined the NSDAP, completely disagreed. He thought that the SA should be trained like an army and, what's more, he wanted the command of the Sturmabteilung from Klintzsch. Without consulting Hitler, Rohm assembled some one hundred men from the 19th Minenwerferkompanie, led by a Hauptmann Streck, to begin this training. The youthful Klintzsch would have been no problem for a strong willed person like Rohm, but Hitler put a stop to Rohm's plans. Hitler had clearly expressed his idea of of the SA's purpose in a speech in Munich on November 30, 1921. Referring to the SA as his Sturmtrupp, he told a gathering of SA men that it was their responsibility to harass and disrupt their opponents' meetings. SA men stationed throughout the hall were to heckle the speaker until he made his position on the Jewish question known. The SA as an Army was out of the question. As the SA adequately performed its tasks, it quickly gained a reputation for being a group of ruthless and vicious thugs, to which Hitler remarked: "This makes me uncommonly happy, for I expect that my efforts and my Party will become feared and at the same time known." He went on to explain that the SA was ". . . trained to attack (its opponents) blindly. But not because it - as it was babbled in stupid German national circles - idolized the rubber truncheon, but because it realized that (even) the greatest spirit can be eliminated if its carrier is beaten to death by a rubber truncheon. . . .''
Jill Halcomb, "The SA - A Historical Perspective", Crown/Agincourt, 1985
The official date of the SA's founding was August 3, 1921, and due to a government ban on paramilitary organizations, it was called a "Turnund Sportabteilungs" a gymnastic and sport detachment. It was also known as the "Schutz-und Propaganda truppe der NSDAP," a protection and propaganda unit. This early SA was led by a retired navy lieutenant, Hans Ulrich Klintzsch, until March 1923. He had been placed at Hitler's disposal by Ehrhardt of the free corps "Marine Brigade Ehrhardt'' which had been created in 1919. Klintzsch had to organize the SA, but left this unit in May 1923.
