Righteous violence: gender and the Stormtroopers, 1923-1933

Emily Allison Oller

The First World War had both immediate and long-lasting impacts throughout Germany. Approximately two million soldiers perished, while the physical and psychologically wounded far exceed seven million. This had catastrophic effects on the German family. While motivations to join the Nazi Stormtroopers (SA) or SA auxiliary units vary, the disruption in conservative households through the loss of fathers or older brothers was pivotal in encouraging young men and women to join paramilitary organizations or SA auxiliary groups. To these conservative individuals, who were vulnerable by the disruption in the family, the SA's violence represented a hyper-masculinized political maneuver which promised the return of a distorted fantasy of traditional patriarchal structures in both the political and familial spaces. With both disillusioned groups in mind, the Nazis designed a propaganda campaign that featured righteous violence in gender-specific ways in order to increase active involvement in its paramilitary organization, which in turn allowed the Nazis successfully to rise to power in 1933. While significant scholarship has been dedicated to the SA, the combination of absent father figures and the Nazi promise of a return to idealized gender norms through politicized, ritualized violence has not been thoroughly articulated as an important aspect of the SA's appeal. The Stormtroopers were central to the National Socialists' ability to rise to power in 1933. The majority of the leadership within the SA had military experience through the First World War or other paramilitary organizations, such as the Freikorps, and exuded violent masculinity. These men became pseudo-father figures to the young men who were raised in households lacking a strong authoritarian figure. The SA created a strict patriarchal hierarchy which matched the Nazis' gender and political ideology. For some conservative, protestant women, the masculine authoritarian structure of the SA reflected their notion of a family structure. These women became fervent followers of the Nazi party and were crucial to spreading Nazi ideology. By 1933, these early Nazi followers would become the leaders of the Nazi state.

Righteous violence: gender and the Stormtroopers, 1923-1933

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