Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler’s Brownshirts, by Daniel Siemens

One would be hard-pressed to hear a scholar of German history argue that the Sturmabteilung (SA) has been understudied. Yet Daniel Siemens’s new monograph demonstrates how historiography’s concentration on the rise and alleged fall of the SA after the 1934 Night of Long Knives obscures critical aspects of the nature, importance and legacy of Hitler’s Stormtroopers. In this meticulously researched and important work, Siemens provides not only a new and compelling understanding of the ongoing political importance of the SA beyond 1934, but also a thorough analysis of past studies. The book is divided into four parts which cover the roots of the movement to its post-1945 legacy. Part I traces the growth and increasing appeal of the SA from its founding as one among several right-wing paramilitary organisations in Bavaria in 1921, to its position as a nationwide mass movement by 1931. Like other paramilitary groups of the time, the SA emerged in the context of the conflict and violence that characterised post-war German politics. Siemens aptly demonstrates that the SA was neither a working-class organisation nor solely an urban phenomenon. It was SA agitation in rural areas, Siemens argues, that was an important factor in the NSDAP’s electoral gains beginning in the late 1920s. Moreover, much of the SA came from the middle classes, with German universities becoming important centres of recruitment. The movement was particularly appealing to the generation too young to have fought in the First World War, who felt they were avenging Germany’s so-called stab in the back. Siemens describes the SA as a social movement, arguing that, although Nazi ideology was important, the key to its success was based more on emotion. The SA forged a feeling of community among its members and, as one former member later recalled: ‘For the first time in my life I felt fully accepted as a human being’. Yet these communities gave expression to a ‘cult of youth and violence’ and the articulation of emotions such as hatred and despair. Positioning itself as a lifestyle, the SA generated income by producing and selling merchandise to its members. This included uniforms and insignia, outdoor equipment and, most interestingly, an SA-brand of cigarettes called Sturm. In this way, SA merchandise such as the brown shirt not only brought in significant amounts of cash but also symbolised a member’s dedication.

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