Nature and the Tasks of the New SA - 24 Jan 1936

By Viktor Lutze

INTRODUCTORY PRINCIPLES:

Before touching the real subject matter, I must tell you first in order to clear up any uncertainty about my own position, that I never speak primarily as a member of the SA but as a national socialist, since the SA cannot be independent of the national socialist movement, but can only exist as a part of it.

In the framework of the party, the SA is its protective troop, its fighting shock troop, to which belong the most active members of the movement, politically speaking.

The tasks of the SA are those of the party and vice-versa. They are therefore of an internally political nature.

In his sole function of political soldier of the Fuehrer, the SA man has paved the way for the new Germany. He has rid himself of all the political-philosophy rubbish of the past and made himself the supporting pillar of the state.

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SA

If I am to give you a brief account of the organization and the tasks of the SA in national socialist Germany, I must give you a short retrospective view in order to explain to you the reason for the creation of the SA of the NSDAP by the Fuehrer, and its past, present, and future tasks.

When, in 11/1918, the German empire of Bismarck was destroyed and people, who saw in the German people mainly the suitable source of more or less personal profits, came to power, the German people were deprived of their best forces, since a great part of them had bled to death on the fronts of the world war, and the remainder was still in the trenches. The homeland a disastrous effect of the words of William

"I know no more parties, I know only Germans" -- was exposed altogether to the will of elements who, by means of clever connivings, had been able to stay away from the front lines, who were identified as "indispensable to the homeland", and who made huge profits during the war from the economic chaos of Germany. These conscious criminals against the people were then joined by those whose heads were filled with the ideas of Marx and Engels, of international solidarity of classes and of liberalism, people of whom it can be admitted that they had an ounce of liberal feelings during the early days following the November revolutions, but who later also degenerated into political swindlers or had to resign.

The people of the front lines were at first disconcerted by the events in the homeland and then were powerless to remedy the situation when it was already too late to do so, when no unified will existed any longer, when no military leader recovered himself in order to quell the November revolutions. The military units were destroyed and dissolved and so, with the aid of the Treaty of Versailles, the greatest source of danger to the Weimar system was removed.

The very fact that the Treaty of Versailles was one of the main argumentative supports of the Weimar Republicans reveals some of the characteristics of those in power at that time. To sign a treaty which, if complied with, would have signified the very end of Germany's existence, only to insure themselves of their own position in power, is an act which could have been perpetrated only by degenerate Germans, some of whom have experienced a corresponding evaluation in foreign countries.

The chaos and wild confusion which then ensued, the rife corruption, the class struggle and the shady transactions of the spoils system I need not picture to you in detail. The period of the Weimar Republic is not a glorious page in the annals of German history. Internally, ruin always takes on proportions undreamed of, which, of course, is not likely to raise Germany's prestige abroad.

In those days, a man from the front lines made his appearance in German history: Adolf Hitler!

An unknown soldier became a political soldier!

You are familiar with the origin of the national socialist movement, when the Fuehrer, with only a few supporters, declared war on a tremendous turmoil of opinions and outlooks, on Marxism with all its shades, on liberalism, on political confessionalism and reaction. First sneered at and mocked, later hated and beaten down.

The propaganda measures taken by the new popular movement which naturally was opposed by the state, necessitated the creation of protective and propaganda troops. The order to this effect was given by the Fuehrer on 8/3/1941.

And so, in contrast with the military organizations rising everywhere at that time, the establishment of the SA created for the first time a type of soldier whose duties were of a purely world political-philosophical nature; the political soldier!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEARERS OF IDEAS AND BEARERS OF ARMS.

And today too, after the attainment and the subsequent stabilization and coordination of the power of the state, the political soldiery of Germany continues to exist. For now as before we distinguish fundamentally between the soldier as the bearer of National Socialist ideology, the ideology of the German people, and the soldier as the bearer of arms of the nation. This difference becomes especially obvious by the fact that every German male adult who is physically and mentally qualified, is required by law to undergo military training. Thus, military service has its foundation in a compulsory state measure disregarding the German's psychological attitude towards it and various other factors while the political soldier voluntarily serves national socialist ideology.

On one side, therefore, we have compulsory service, while on the other voluntary service.

In judging these two types of soldiers, it is necessary that we keep in mind the fact that soldier like qualities have from the very early Germanic times been an outstanding characteristic of the German people. Here again I do not refer to the soldier as a military man, but as a fighter.

THE ARMED FORCES: a state necessity.

The soldier as a military man is more or less a public necessity, a statement which can be justified by the fact that those states with a favorable political and geographical location risk less the endangering of their existence by doing without the maintenance of strong armed forces than states located politically and geographically less favorably.

THE POLITICAL SOLDIER: a national necessity.

The soldier as a fighting man, however, represents a national necessity, as proven by the history of our people and as recognized by the Fuehrer in its full significance. That means for us: every man who belongs by blood to the great community of the German people is primarily a soldier, a fighter for his people! Out of him and his soldierly qualities the state constructs the soldier, the man who is put into the purely technical position of answering for the needs of his people with the weapon in his hands.

The most recent Prussian and German history offers enough examples to prove that armed might, simply of an internally political nature, i.e., as seen from the national viewpoint, is but a conditional stable factor.

I refer primarily to the Prussia of Frederick the Great and Bismarck's Empire of the Hohenzollerns. Both had undoubtedly become great and powerful by soldierly-military strength. And that only because the leaders of these states were men who understood as an ideology the elementary military concepts of honesty, loyalty, willingness, readiness for action, the spirit of sacrifice and comradeship, and used them for a purpose which had the wholehearted support of the people. The moment, however, these figures had accomplished the fulfillment of their aims, or had disappeared from the political life of their people, a period of decay always set innaturally with a varying rate of speed. Their ideas were consciously or unconsciously destroyed.

That is the decisive factor; for these periods of ideological decay have always marked the beginning of the downfall of their national construction.

The same holds true for the year 1918, when the preponderant armed might was not on the side of those who had started or favored the revolution. The best comparison, however, can be made by taking as an example the national socialist revolution of 1933, which led to victory without the resort to arms.

MILITARY UNITS AND VETERANS' ASSOCIATIONS

A further example are the military units and veterans' associations. Although they had existed prior to 1918 as well as during the postwar period and in great numbers, and though they had practised formal and technical military training to a much greater extent than the much smaller SA, they were unable to prevent either the collapse of 118, or liquidate the Weimar Republic.

The military units and the veterans' associations in Germany proved particularly that the fostering and preservation of soldierly spirit is not everything.

These organizations suffered political shipwreck in spite of their good will, and provided us with further proof that soldierly spirit alone, without an ideological basis, is unable to carry out a political change.

I do not believe that a special reference to the guerilla units established after the war is necessary to prove once more the validity of this conception.

The best soldierly striving remain a technique without spirit if it lacks an ideological basis!

The political leaders of the German people cannot afford to disregard these historical facts. In them originates the national socialist conception.

The states of the past collapsed not essentially because of a lack in factors of political might, but because of a faulty ideological basis and its instrument.

An ideological instrument, which represents in the people the idea on which the state is formed, is in a positive disposition towards the state and on military foundation. They collapsed because they failed to understand that the primary factor was not the state and state

form -- whether a monarchy or republic, but the ideological fundamentals of this state.

The national and public necessity for the political soldier best demonstrated by the above examples.

NO RIVALRY BETWEEN THE BEARERS OF IDEAS AND BEARERS OF ARMS

But we also learn from them that no rivalry of any sort may exist between organizations of political soldiers and those of military soldiers. (In spite of the operation of a certain foreign press under such impossibilities!) The party and the armed forces are not the end, but the means to the end. Their field of operation may differ but their aim is the same: Germany!

The political soldier is judged and formed the same way as every other soldier: by the weapon which he bears.

His weapon is his ideology!

But ideologies do not commonly depend on bayonets and hand grenades, but on the spiritual strength and the unified political will which this spiritual strength determines!

This function, determining exclusively the character of the political soldier, excludes from the very first the evaluation of the SA as an armed and technical unit!

WHY TECHNICAL UNITS!

I could be asked: why then do such technical units of the SA, such as the Cavalry, Navy, Engineer, and Signal units exist ? Yes, why the need of such strongly emphasized military drill at all?

Yes, why. This question is easily answered.

The technical units are definitely useful and essential, if they are to maintain and strengthen the internally political initiative of the SA

One cannot fail to acknowledge the practical value of the SA units, if one is aware of how valuable the presence and employment of such units is in cases of accidents due to natural and other causes.

Let me remind you here of the mishap at Reinsdorf, the railroad accident on Christmas Eve in Thuringia, and last of all, of the catastrophes caused by storms and floods in the Rhineland.

In all these cases, the SA was always the first to be on the spot, and to show its old spirit of giving active and effective aid.

And concerning the so-called drill, I hardly believe it is necessary to give further reasons for the necessity of a strict discipline and an excellent physical condition.

For a political instrument, which is at any time to be at the supreme commander's disposal, and to carry out on the other hand propaganda missions, must never be a loose, but a compact, military organization, and simply cannot do without the strictest discipline and excellent condition of each and every one of its members!

The revolution of 1933in spite of all the damage that has been done to us -- would have never been so bloodless and outwardly harmless had it been carried on by undisciplined troops!

No, a revolutionary organization of volunteers, and not one of organized troops, is particularly in need of drill!

More so, when this organization is being formed at a time during which such conceptions as subordination, military bearing, etc., have the same effect as a red cloth, and it is necessary to make a selection of the best out of a mass of people. It is certainly unnecessary for me, ladies and gentlemen, to speak to you about the superiority a small but disciplined unit has over a huge but undisciplined one.

SA: Bearer of Military Will:

The SA takes it upon itself to be the bearer of the military will and military strength of the German people.

The emphasis on this quality may partly have misunderstanding abroad for foreign tongues are unable to express rightly the conception of "military will" or "military strength" and, lacking a suitable expression, translate it as "will to wage war" or "strength to wage war", while the real interpretation should be "the will to defend" or "strength to defend" because "self defense" is but a grammatical transformation of the word "defense."

In any case, the defender is the one who is being attacked!

And that is the reason why the imputation that our intentions are militaristically aggressive is sheer nonsense.

The political soldier represents the national living strength of the German people. This quality fulfills its purpose and meets its obligations. Living strength, however, is an ability and not an intention!

FAILURE OF CIVILIAN INSTITUTIONS IN GERMAN POLITICS.

I think I have sufficiently explained the essentials of the political soldier as embodied in the SA man. Perhaps it should be added that the necessity for the creation of a political type of soldier is justified by the historically verified failure of the majority of civilian institutions in German politics. A people which at its greatest and best, was and is always soldierly, cannot entrust its welfare to the leadership of men who lack any kind of soldiery whatsoever.

If the virtues of initiative, courage, and highest devotion are to be exploited within the framework of politics, and moreover are to be a basis for political action, then those men who are the administering agents of politics must themselves employ these virtues as a guiding example for their own activities. For, in the end it is the soldier who has to answer without compromise for the consequences, or better for the continuation of the state's policy by force.

And it is a fact that he has been deprived of the fruits of his labor always when the final decision was brought about by political weaklings, money mongering bankers and business men. More so, I maintain that: it has never been the soldier who has set the stage for a senseless application of force, but always those above-mentioned types who lack all the qualities of soldiery. For the soldier is constantly aware of the fact that any agitation for the use of violence will consequently result in the risking of his life.

It is my opinion, therefore, that peace and warfare are equally probable conditions resulting from political activities considerably influenced by soldierly policies.

THE POLITICAL SOLDIER: A GERMAN DOMESTIC FIGURE:

From this angle I want to bring up the response, caused by the work of the SA, in foreign countries, above all by the foreign press:

The national socialist political soldier is but a purely domestic figure in German affairs. No valid comparison can be drawn between him and any foreign association and organization which owe their form of existence just as inevitably to the National character of their respective people as the SA

At this point I should like to go on to say a little about the obligations of the SA starting from the acknowledged fact that it is not only important to have a people "armed to the teeth"; the equipment of the heart is what counts!

What good are cannons and machine guns, squadrons of aircraft and tanks, if the will to operate these weapons in case of an emergency is lacking?

That is why the SA man, the political soldier of the new Germany, sees in pacifism only an enemy. Life in itself signifies struggle, whether seen from an individual point of view or from one of a national community. Only that which is strong is able to survive, while that which is weak is ruined by its own lack of strength. That is the law of nature, which can be changed by neither human thinking nor knowledge.

Thus, pacifism, the absolute denial of struggle, of initiative, of heroic thinking, can only be the ideal of uprooted visionaries and weaklings. In Germany, political soldiery has done away with that negative form of ideology, and thus removed a cause for international conflict which sooner or later -- depending on the rights of the strong over the weak -- would have proved fatal to the German people. Further consideration of pacifist aims shows that it is of little consequence whether they are being nurtured in a state which technically possesses the arms of all times or in one which is in a state of complete demobilization as was the case with Germany barely three years ago.

For its primary effect is not a state of technical disarmament, but one of spiritual defenselessness and helplessness.

The political soldier of the new Germany will see to it that in case of attack, Germany will no longer stay behind us an easily contaminated body, but be the powerful backbone of the front, immune against all kinds of political plagues.

For, it is beyond doubt that, had Germany possessed a political soldiery during the prewar period, the outcome of the war would have been decided at the front and not in the homeland!

Let me only mention casually that the SA man himself, should the opportunity ever arise for him to perform his duty at the front lines with utmost devotion, will do so in accordance with his qualifications, selection, and upbringing.

THE RACIAL QUESTION:

The fact that pacifism and its tributary forces -- Marxism, liberalism, and political confessionalism -- ever has taken root in a people like the German, is due to reasons that go beyond the limits of a national problem: i.e. in the systematic depreciation and dissolution of the racial qualities of a community of people!

And if one takes the pain to inquire about the reason, to search for those holding an interest in the creation of such a condition, then the answer can be found: Jewry, which said by the mouth of Disraeli: "The racial question is the key to world history!"

The SA man has been branded so often by the foreign presses as the "bearer of a barbaric and uncivilized race struggle", that I consider it my duty to say especially to this audience a few words on this subject.

One must not judge our struggle for the racial purification of the German people in a false light:

Our chief concern is not combatting other races but the preservation of our own!

This fact can best be demonstrated by our striving according to our powers to not only eliminate foreign blood from the body of our people, but also -- and here I point out the sterilization laws -- prevent degenerate and decadent people of our own race from propagating!

Our racial consciousness is the basis of our national consciousness, and is fundamentally in no way related to race hatred!

The awkward position into which Jewry -- by way of touching briefly this subject too -- has brought itself in Germany, the country of its adoption, is its own fault. The German has always been known for his hospitality, and there are few other countries in this world where the foreigner enjoys so much personal liberty and friendship. And only because of this have the countless crimes committed by the Jews against the German people remained unpunished for such a long period of time. Now that our patience has been exhausted beyond the point of endurance, we cannot very well be blamed for keeping away burdensome guests.

I need not tell you anything, gentlemen, about the value of news reports which can be read in certain foreign newspapers mostly under the headline "Persecutions of Jews by Bands of SA Men," as you yourselves, being leaders and members of the diplomatic representation of your respective countries and representatives of the foreign press in Germany have the opportunity to observe daily -- with your own eyes -- the national socialist movement and the German people.

I have just said: our racial consciousness has nothing to do with racial hatred.

A person who loves and respects his own people, also never denies recognition of the rights of people of different races.

THE FALSE PICTURE OF THE SA

And there is another point into which I must go: Contemporary world opinion of the SA is still being partly formulated along the lines of the former systematic press of the Weimar Republic. It pictures the SA man only in connection with barricades, slayings and rowdies. Yet, I can understand why such a picture could have been drawn, apart from the arbitrary touch given to it. I mentioned previously that the SA man marked the coming into existence of a new type of soldier, the political soldier. To that I should like to add here that this very novelty sufficed to arouse the opposition of public opinion. For it is a commonly accepted fact that the masses judge everything subjectively by the present state of things, and criticize all that is new and in the process of growing in a negative way.

And as to the emigrant press, the organs of those elements whose exile cannot be ascribed to any action on our part but who took refuge in other countries only through consciousness on their part of the guilty side of their sojourn in Germany, we can hardly expect the fantastic products of its astral body to receive any considerable amount of response.

I must further assert that it is true that we, SA men, had to resort to destroy with our fists the red terror in Germany, sanctioned by the State, and we are proud of it.

It is also an established fact that the SA has not reconquered the German road for the German people by means of philosophical considerations from the desk.

But never believe that the national socialist revolution would have been such a bloodless affair had the SA man been that sort of blood-thirsty terrorist as which he has been branded even after the coup d'etat.

And I ask: is it possible that a people, a nation, which brands others as terrorists, is completely free of all terrorism itself?

The best proof that the SA did not desire terror, but its removal, is the new Germany, which ardently favors peace at home as well as abroad!

Thirdly, therefore, it is essential to point out that the SA man has waged war against his own brothers with a natural unwillingness and that he has only remained so persistent and determined in this fight because he knew that in the end it was not enmity that compelled him to fight but the welfare of his own people.

The restoration of national peace is the result of his labor performed by dint of heavy sacrifices, and the preservation of this peace one of his future tasks!

And if the SA's opponent on the streets and the intellectual controlling power behind him is known, then another fact is revealed which extends beyond the limits of German domestic problems.

We meant to fight not so much the politically indifferent bourgeoisie class but the great danger: COMMUNISM! And it is the meritorious accomplishment of the SA man to have removed this menace at the price of innumerable casualties.

GERMANY, HOWEVER, IS THE NUCLEUS OF EUROPE!

And only because Germany has become the impenetrable barrier against bolshevism has its penetration into Europe and perchance the entire world been brought to a halt.

That alone is an asset in our fight and victory to make up for thousands of shortcomings.

Today, Germany is immune against bolshevism, not only because we hold the power in the state, but mainly because the teachings of the Jew Karl Marx have been extricated from the heart and the mind of the German people by the dynamic strength of the Fuehrer's ideals.

Communism would have long ago been the cemetery of European nations and culture had not the SA in Germany struck it in the eye in time.

And that is why we SA men sometimes cannot understand the patronizing attitude of foreign countries towards bolshevism itself and its national constitution, although nothing would stop its world revolutionary aims. On the other side, however, there is no end to incitements and boycotting of national socialist Germany, which has but the one desire to live in peace with its neighbors and the rest of the world!

POLITICAL CONFESSIONALISM:

While in the last two decades in Soviet Russia one blood bath succeeded another, while more clergymen died on the scaffold than officiated in Germany during that time, while in the face of these occurrences all the world's public opinion kept quiet, the entire weight of world public opinion, authoritative or otherwise, is now aroused because of the condemnation of several clerical foreign exchange profiteers in Germany.

However, it did not affect the SA as much perhaps as was expected, to be designated as executioners and sacrilegious by this so dexterously constructed world opinion.

When I said in the beginning that the obligations of the SA are those of the party and vice-versa, I could only mean, that the SA considers the party's program its own as well.

I tell you nothing new when I point to the clause which says: the party represents the standpoint of a positive christianity!

There must be no misinterpretation of these policies in the mind of the SA, either in word or in deed!

The SA man is neither a religious founder nor reformer, and he does not feel himself as such. That is why the existence of any kind of religious disputes is unknown to him.

The SA man is the bearer and harbinger of a new German ideology, given to him by the Fuehrer, and to which he has pledged his body and soul!

The party is the state today. The SA man has paved the way for the state, and is therefore also responsible for it.

The period of the Weimar Republic and also the prewar and war years have sufficiently demonstrated the disastrous activities of political confessionalism. The liquidation of confessionalism in Germany has its reason in the unconcealed total claim of national socialist ideology to totalitarian powers.

The cooperation of the SA in this task as the Fuehrer wills it is only in accordance with their legitimation as the Storm Troopers [Sturmabteilung] of the movement!

SA: THE PLACE OF BIRTH OF THE GERMAN COMMUNITY OF PEOPLES.

We do not only oppose political confessionalism because it is necessarily contrary to the national socialist principle of the community of peoples.

A true community of peoples necessitates one ideology. A second must render this entity illusory.

The SA, however, is the birthplace of the German community of people; and it stands to reason that it is vigilant over it.

The new German social order, which rests on the denial of the capitalistic system and on the recognition of an ideology of a people unified by the same blood, finds its most visible precipitate in the SA!

In contrast to Marxism, German socialism does know an aristocratic class system. The criticism that the entire Party is uniformed and therefore approaches communistic equalization by removing all social differences is only justified if seen in the light of ideologies which in Germany are already antiquated.

Aristocracy in the national socialist sense is independent of origin, name, property and occupation. Interpretation of these conceptions of difference as being aristocratic in nature results in the creation of a class system and consequently in class hatred and pride of place.

The SA man has set himself free from them! It is the right and desired thing that, by being uniformed, the party removes all external differences.

The aristocracy as such, however, comes into its own!

We do not ask: what are you? but how are you? not where do you come from? but what are your contributions to society? and accordingly, evaluate the individual.

That is the aristocracy of German socialism as exemplified by the SA, for it is not a question of acquiring known facts and perhaps erecting a monument in literature for them. It is much more important to have the courage to put a fact to advantage, to put it into practice. Only thus can history be made!

By way of summary, I should like to emphasize once more:

NO DONATORS OF MONEY BUT THE WILL TO SACRIFICE!

The SA consists exclusively of voluntary and altruistic idealists who have to make materialistic and idealistic sacrifices now as before, of men who have never received high compensation and do not claim one. The SA has never had great industrialists and other financial supporters, as they were always so beautifully called, even though a portion of the estimated world opinion still cannot understand that there exist voluntary soldiers who have

I bought and still buy out of their own often scant means, their uniform and entire accouterment.

The SA man is an example of sacrifice and hardness against himself.

Only that is the reason why it has been possible for him over a period of 10 years to contend with all animosities, to go his way without swaying and weakening, at a time when everything was against him.

When the SA man decided to fight against everything first in 1921 and secondly in 1925, he was thought to be a megalomaniac and insane. And when the Fuehrer declared in those days that the flag [Sturmfahne] of the SA would one day be the flag of Germany, there were enough contemporaries who smiled compassionately.

And we have conquered! The flag [Sturmfahne] of the SA is today the flag of Germany! And the SA man himself is the never tiring defender of his ideology, one of the strongest pillars of the state.

He has always been the unselfishly sacrificing and devoted warrior, even in those days and weeks when irresponsible leaders were often misled. His motto is still: Be more than you appear to be! That is what counts!

Even if the SA was once, for a brief span of time, misled in a manner contrary to its character and aims, today it is as it once was: the compact, living guarantor, full of willpower and strength, for the unimpeachability of national socialist ideology in Germany, and invincible fortification against communism.

THE SA: THE BARRIER AGAINST ALL ENEMIES OF ITS IDEALS!

That was, is, and shall always be its obligation! We have erected a barrier anchored in faith, sacrifice and in readiness to defend national socialist ideals.

We shall extend and raise this barrier to protect Germany against all enemies of the state, and thus comply with our high obligations, not only towards Germany but for the benefit of the entire world, against all-destructive, all-domineering communism.

And if it has to be, we shall cover this barrier with our bodies and harden it to granite with our blood! For we know that on this barrier stands Germany's first SA man: our Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler!

Taken from "Document 2471-PS: Here Speaks the New Germany: Pamphlet 12: The Nature and the Tasks of the New SA: Speech Of The Chief Of Staff To The Diplomatic Corps And The Deputies Of The Foreign Press On 1/24/1936