The Sturmabteilung, or Assault Division of the NSDAP, was the fighting force in the party in the early days. Men, who wouldn’t shy away from kicking a fellow countryman to death. Present at rallies, events and meetings, keeping the peace and, well, kicking people to death. By the time the NSDAP came to power in 1933, nearly 100 SA men had lost their lives in the streets. That’s almost a man a month so let’s not play this down.
The early SA man was nothing like the post-1925 SA man would become. He wore his old military uniform, or what was left of it, together with a gray wind coat, if he could afford one. What little was available back then was, in most cases, handmade by wifes and female party members. The street fighting, the wig-peeling that went on in the back alleys after meetings, all the kind of hands-on action that the post-1925 SA man would be denied, due to the party focusing more and more on its public image.…
