Allgemeine SS - Early Years

Early Years

The SS was created on April 4, 1925 and subordinated to the SA on November 1, 1926. It was thus a subunit of the SA and the NSDAP. It was considered to be an elite organization by both party members and the general population.

The main task of the SS was the personal protection of the Führer of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler. As early as the winter of 1925 the SS consisted of approximately 1,000 members, but of this number there were barely 200 active members. Heinrich Himmler tried to separate the SS from the SA, and SA leaders generally had no authority over SS personnel from 1927 onwards. Himmler began to systematically develop and expand the SS with stricter requirements for members as well as a general purge of SS members who were identified as drunkards, criminals, or otherwise undesirable for service in the SS.

By December 1929, the number of active SS members had grown to 1,000. As the SS grew even further, Himmler on 29 January 1930 announced to SA leader Ernst Röhm, that:

The Schutzstaffel is growing, and will probably number 2,000 by the end of this quarter. From that point on the SS would be considered, therefore, de facto independent. By December of that same year, the SS had a membership of 2,727.

Himmler now looked to another source for recruits to the SS: the SA. Many former members of Röhm's Frontbann joined the SS. In 1926 it had been specified that the SS had to subordinate itself absolutely to the SA, and with that every arbitrary action of the SS was prevented. With local recruitment, SS men were owed loyalty to the respective SA leader. However, by 1929, many SA Unterführers had already gone over to Himmler's SS. Hitler assisted Himmler in his first great victory over the SA, by decreeing on November 7, 1930: "The task of the SS is first the practice of the police service within the party. No SA leader is entitled to give instructions to the SS!"

This order split the two organizations from each other, and confirmed thereby the de jure independence of the SS from the SA.