Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Hitler and the SA
- SA, abbreviation of Sturmabteilung (German:
“Assault Division”), were a paramilitary
organization whose methods of violent
intimidation played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s
rise to power.
- Many of the original members of the
SA came from the Freikorps,
post-World War One nationalists who
had opposed the Versailles Treaty,
fought the brief Bavarian Soviet and
opposed the general weakness of the
Weimar government.
- Because speaking in public was
potentially a dangerous matter
when politics was concerned, the
original task of the SA was to
protect Hitler as such events usually
attracted the Communists and
frequently ended in violence and
disorder.
- Hitler then claimed that the Weimar
regime lacked leadership and power
while he was the person who could
restore Germany to law and order.
- After Hitler took power in 1933, the SA became
increasingly eager for power and saw
themselves as a replacement for the German
Army, then limited by law to no more than
100,000 men.
- This angered the regular army
(Reichswehr) and led to tension with other
leaders within the party, who saw Röhm's
increasingly powerful SA as a threat to the
current party leadership