Hitler Joined The Schutzstaffel (NSDAP)

When Adolf Hitler joined the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or NSDAP, or simply the Nazis, in 1919, he could not have imagined that in just a few short years he would have his own personal army. This army would be comprised of veterans from the Great War, and would have little respect for anyone or anything except Hitler himself. He could not have imagined he would be purging them a few years after that, either. This personal army of his was called the “Sturmabteilung,” or SA, which translates into Storm Detachment. They were nicknamed the “Brownshirts” because of their uniforms. The SA was instrumental to Hitler’s rise to power, but they also were his greatest threat. The Schutzstaffel, or SS, was a sub-unit within the SA

When Hitler joined the DAP in 1919, he became its leader. After becoming the leader of the party, he added ‘National Socialist’ to the name, making the party now officially the NSDAP. In 1921, former Kriegsmarine Lieutenant Hans Ulrick Klintzsh took over Nazi party’s ‘Defense and Propaganda Troop’ that was later called the SA. In it’s new form, the SA was specifically Hitler’s personal army. Led by Ernst Roehm, Hermann Goering, and Franz Felix Pfeffer von Salomon, more commonly known as Franz von Pfeffer, the SA helped to make Hitler’s presence known throughout Germany. Without the SA, Hitler might never have been able to seize the reins of power. In the beginning, the SA was confined to Munich, but made its first journey outside of the city “...on 14/15 October 1922, [when] it took part in a ‘German Day’ at Coburg…” However, even with the SA getting Hitler’s name known throughout Germany, that alone was not enough to get Hitler into power just yet. Hitler tried to seize power by force in Munich on the 9th of November, 1923, in what has come to be known as the “Beer Hall Putsch.” Unfortunately, this attack did not go as planned. With 16 dead, and many more wounded, the Putsch ended in defeat along with Hitler’s arrest. The SA was banned from