Did Sturmabteilung (SA) commit serious crimes before 1933?
Upvote:0
"street thugs"...a weird offshoot of the freikorps but far more serious and ably led. There was never not going to be a World War 2 after the "blood purge" which incorporated the SA into German Army (which was divided into the traditional Heer and then "new and improved" Wehrmacht with a "Waffen SS" special security detail dedicated to the defense of the Fuhrer personally.)
By 1940 Adolf Hitler personally was in charge of three entire Armies...and he used them.
The SA was borderline a threat when Ernst Rohm was called out of retirement to get the SA "under control." They quickly grew to ten times the size of the regular German Army and had their eye on replacing Hitler himself.
This did not happen with cataclysmic consequences for the Continent of Europe...in particular Eastern Europe.
Upvote:6
The Sturmabteilung (SA) played a key role in Hitler's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, which was an illegal act of treason.
Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for his role, but served only nine months.
After the "Putsch," the SA engaged in "street fights" with toughs from the left wing parties. Their activities grew more extensive after 1929 as Hitler surged in the polls from 1930-33. Finally, they got the upper hand on opponents such as Communists. As they and Hitler grew more powerful in a mutually reinforcing cycle, they turned to "targets" (not merely "opponents") such as Jews.
They also threatened certain members of the Establishment, especially the military, which is why Hitler had to quash them in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, even though they (mostly) did his will.
Upvote:10
Yes, of course.
The SA was used to terrorize political opponents; they originated from right-wing paramilitary groups that were abundant in Germany after the first world war. (The peace treaty limited the German army to a certain number (100000 soldiers); the German imperial army in the first world war was much larger and many units resented both the peace treaty and the new republic and simply refused to give up their arms.)
At first, the SA was used to protect Nazi-party events. (You are right, most political parties in Germany at the time had similar organizations for this purpose, the social democrats for instance had the Reichsbanner, the communists had the RFB etc.).
By 1923, as mentioned by @Tom Au the SA was used much more aggressively, however, forming the backbone of Hitlers first attempt to seize power. From the late 1920s, as the SA grew, there were more and more incidents of them openly terrorizing political opponents and thereby unlawfully influencing the political process; consider this murder of a German labor union activist as an example (unfortunately only in the German and Italian wikipedia).
Note that the SA was illegal during parts of the 1920s and the early 1930s - the German authorities realized, of course, that they were a threat. However, as substantial parts of the German burocracy, and substantian parts of the political and economic elites supported the right wing (and from a certain point on specifically Hitler), this did not last long. They played an important part in Hitler's consolidation of power in 1933. Many of them were briefly given official status as auxiliary police force; having already influenced the voting process in the elections in February 1933 (having been ordered to "monitor" them), they then prevented the seating of elected left-wing MPs in parliament.
More post
- 📝 How did the Chinese Self-Criticism work in practice?
- 📝 Why the Rzhev battle is not as famous as Stalingrad?
- 📝 Did any plantation/hacienda/fazenda owner free all his slaves?
- 📝 What was the fighting style and equipment of 13th century Eastern European Baltic and Slavic cavalry?
- 📝 UK Tories vs Whigs in the 19th century: broad political classification?
- 📝 Is Thomas Wedgwood's picture actually the first photograph?
- 📝 Why was 19th-century Japan able to modernize and not China?
- 📝 Addiction in history
- 📝 Have any nations returned to their ancient homelands?
- 📝 Does city-specific economic data for the pre-WW2 decades exist for Japan and Germany? How do I find out?
- 📝 Why didn't the discrepancy in the Kursk casualty ratio work against the Soviets?
- 📝 How many Mendeleyevs there were?
- 📝 What was the average height in Classical Greece?
- 📝 When were the lictors abolished?
- 📝 Was Hagia Sophia built over a pagan temple?
- 📝 Why was the Kashmir issue not completely solved at the end of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971?
- 📝 Has there ever been a successful "Anarchy"?
- 📝 What did people die of in 1665 London?
- 📝 Literacy in the classical world
- 📝 When did Sultan Saif ad-Din Qutuz escape from Mongol swords?
- 📝 When were confederate veterans barred from office and voting after the civil war?
- 📝 How common was it for Red Cross personnel to fight (in both World Wars)?
- 📝 How much did cannon cost in 1410?
- 📝 Is Rama Setu a historical proof of Ramayana?
- 📝 What differences led to Technicolor becoming the dominant color filming technology in Hollywood?
- 📝 Why was World War I ended on Nov 11 11:00, rather than immediately upon signing the armistice?
- 📝 Where is Hermodontus?
- 📝 German submarine force ceasefire on May 4 1945
- 📝 How long did it take arriving passengers to become indentured servants and where did they stay until then?
- 📝 Identify this sword!
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did Sturmabteilung (SA) commit serious crimes before 1933?
- 📝 Why did Native Americans die from European diseases while Europeans didn't catch serious diseases from the New World?
- 📝 How did people wash dishes before dish detergent?
- 📝 What did babies eat before the advent of modern blenders?
- 📝 Did Native Americans ever fight the indigenous people living in Mexico before Europeans arrived?
- 📝 What concessions did Hitler demand from the Poles before 1939?
- 📝 Did Muslim states hire Western European knights as mercenaries before the Crusades?
- 📝 Did any British working class men have the vote before 1918?
- 📝 When did countries begin making up a pretext before starting a war?
- 📝 How did people wake up on time before alarm clocks?
- 📝 How did archers judge distance before range finders?
- 📝 Before television sets became commonplace, did people generally watch movies only once?
- 📝 How did the British Navy pass orders to its fleet before radio?
- 📝 Did the aborigines of Australia and the Maoris in New Zealand know about each other's existence, before the Europeans came?
- 📝 How did people have access to ice in warm areas before the industrial revolution?
- 📝 What numerals did the people of Ireland use before Roman Numerals? (aka, did Ogham include numbers?)
- 📝 Why did Nero order many of the Pisonian conspirators to commit suicide instead of having them executed by the sword?
- 📝 Before European influence circa 1600, did any Chinese believe the Earth was spherical, and did they ever try to measure it?
- 📝 How did people say “I have to go to the bathroom” before the bathroom and pipes were common?
- 📝 Did airports have security checks before the 1970s?
- 📝 Before entering WW II, why was the US so against Japanese aggression in China but did nothing about Germany in Europe?
- 📝 Did Japan have any continental colonies before modern times?
- 📝 How did lecturers magnify their voice in the days before amplification?
- 📝 Before modern banking, how did government-issued coins get into everyone's hands?
- 📝 What oath did medical students take in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945?
- 📝 What did indigenous North Americans trade amongst themselves before Europeans arrived?
- 📝 Before 1961, what did they think would happen to people in weightlessness?
- 📝 Did people have better nutrition before agriculture?
- 📝 Did the Bar Kokhba revolt happen before or after Jerusalem's name was changed to Aelia?
- 📝 Did Mithraism and other Roman cults surpass the original Greco-Roman religion in popularity before the rise of Christianity?