Hostname: page-component-6898cfcb55-th4rj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-11T22:36:36.467Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Autobiographies of Violence: The SA in its Own Words

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2013

Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell*
Affiliation:
College of William and Mary
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

What was the moral horizon of ordinary SA men? What did they think, what did they believe, and what were their ideals? These are hard questions to answer even when they concern people still alive and events still going on. To pose them some eighty years after the fact is to admit that no answer can be definitive. Yet a fresh look at some well-known contemporary sources can at least allow some tentative, suggestive answers. They demonstrate, above all, an emphasis on frenetic activism, combined with a sense of personal suffering and sacrifice. They stress key National Socialist values, such as antisemitism, criticism of the bourgeoisie, and a commitment to an idealized national community, or Volksgemeinschaft. And yet, they also reflect, to a certain extent, pre-Nazi middle-class values. Beyond this, they show men trying desperately to rewrite themselves as ideal SA men and Nazis.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , June 2013, pp. 217 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © Central European History Society of the American Historical Association 2013 

What was the moral horizon of ordinary SA men? What did they think, what did they believe, and what were their ideals? These are hard questions to answer even when they concern people still alive and events still going on. To pose them some eighty years after the fact is to admit that no answer can be definitive. Yet a fresh look at some well-known contemporary sources can at least allow some tentative, suggestive answers. They demonstrate, above all, an emphasis on frenetic activism, combined with a sense of personal suffering and sacrifice. They stress key National Socialist values, such as antisemitism, criticism of the bourgeoisie, and a commitment to an idealized national community, or Volksgemeinschaft. And yet, they also reflect, to a certain extent, pre-Nazi middle-class values. Beyond this, they show men trying desperately to rewrite themselves as ideal SA men and Nazis.

How can we get to know the moral world of the early 1930s and 1940s after all that has occurred since? After a lost war, the collapse of Nazi Germany, the revelation of the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes, and in the face of foreign occupation, no one could be expected to provide a clear and unmediated recounting of their values and thoughts in the 1930s and their reasons for supporting the Nazi movement after the fact. Even if widespread oral histories had been done after World War II—and they weren't, they would have had a very difficult time getting back to what was really felt and believed in the 1930s. The famous study by Theodore Abel is an exception, but even it was comparatively limited in scope and also flawed because the testimonies produced for it by Nazi party members were explicitly done for outside consumption.Footnote 1 But there are sources written at the time by ordinary Nazis and SA men that were written for routine, internal use, were autobiographical, and can give insight into the moral world of Nazi party and SA members. The source in question is the mundane curriculum vita or Lebenslauf.Footnote 2 In the course of the Nazi movement, even well before the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) came to power, millions of party members and fellow travelers were required to write a personal Lebenslauf, often multiple times. These are, after all, a form of autobiography, albeit a highly formalized one. When read carefully, they can provide new insights into the moral world of ordinary storm troopers. Moreover, this source has been largely overlooked for the study of Nazi attitudes.Footnote 3 These “autobiographies” have the advantage of immediacy and may be presumed to contain both what the individuals who wrote them actually thought and also what they thought they were supposed to think and be.

Of course, using these Lebensläufe as a source also has clear limitations, which must be acknowledged. But in this case, one of the limitations actually works to our advantage. We expect that an autobiography will provide a self-reflective and truthful account of the life of a single person who is identical with the writer or narrator. As a general proposition, an autobiography is supposed to provide certain kinds of information and therefore follow certain rules, so that we have to consider it to be a genre, and, since it tells a story, a literary genre. People writing in a genre will try to conform to the expectations of the genre. In other words, a person writing a Lebenslauf will consciously or unconsciously conform to these rules for a variety of reasons.Footnote 4 This is certainly true about the very particular form of autobiography used here. A German Lebenslauf is highly formulaic and is not supposed to demonstrate either originality or emotional depth. Conventionally, it is expected to limit itself to certain standard factual items, cast in the form of a prose narrative. The SA men who wrote a Lebenslauf were both aware of the conventions of the genre and specifically instructed about what they should include.Footnote 5 The Lebenslauf for official SA or Nazi Party purposes was expected to contain the following items: date and place of birth, citizenship, names and profession (class) of parents, affirmation that one was of “pure Aryan” ancestry, religion, details of schooling and other professional training, military service, work experience, political development and allegiances prior to joining the Nazi movement, date and place of joining the party and/or SA, party number, party and SA positions held, any notable sacrifices for the “movement,” marital status, and number of children. Most do so in roughly this order.

One might assume that the strict formula that was expected in a Lebenslauf would make it too dry to provide any insight into emotions, attitudes, and expectations. But in fact, it is precisely the common presence of details and statements that vary from the formula that makes these particular Lebensläufe useful.Footnote 6 Presumably, the inclusion of information that departs significantly from the norm or from the specific and well-defined requirements of the assignment indicates a strong desire or need to state it, illuminating either particularly strong or significant beliefs—or the expectation that such expression would reflect positively on the narrator. Thus, when the writer of a Lebenslauf departs from the formula, the reader can assume that there is a reason and must pay attention. In using these Lebensläufe, the goal is to determine what SA men themselves felt was important to say, in the assumption that this will shed light on the inner values of the organization and its members.

Why a Lebenslauf?

Perhaps one place to begin is to ask the simple question, “why was a Lebenslauf required at all by the SA?” One answer is quite mundane: as in any organization, there was naturally a need to determine the skills and experience of members, so that they could be used most efficiently. An applicant for the job of paymaster, for example, would need a background in accounting, and it would be silly to ask a doctor of medicine to take on the job of cook. More specific to the SA and other National Socialist paramilitary affiliates was the need to document the prior political history of a member or candidate for membership. On the one hand, the Nazis always harbored a fear of spies and saboteurs, and of course, for specifically National Socialist ideological reasons, they wanted to eliminate Freemasons, Jews, and other racial or political “undesirables.” The NSDAP and its ancillary organizations were built on a web of personal contacts, and requiring a Lebenslauf provided a means of checking on a person's background. Moreover, any organization needs to know the skills and experience that new members can contribute in order to use them most effectively. This was certainly important for the SA, since it was able to grow dramatically between 1928 and 1933 by absorbing members of competing nationalist paramilitary organizations and needed to know both what useful skills and potentially conflicting loyalties a new member brought with him.Footnote 7 Both the paranoia about spies and the ability to turn former rivals into productive members were extremely characteristic of the SA and other National Socialist paramilitary affiliates and justify, by themselves, the requirement of a Lebenslauf. Yet on the other hand, this material was also required elsewhere, on one of the various types of formal questionnaire that an SA member also had to fill out.Footnote 8 There must therefore be other reasons that a Lebenslauf would be an important document for every new SA man to produce.

One reason was the sheer ubiquity of the Lebenslauf. It was a quintessentially bourgeois practice in Germany. When one applied for a middle-class job or membership in a middle-class club or other organization in the German-speaking world, one submitted a Lebenslauf. There is thus an element of sheer routine to the Lebenslauf that should not be overlooked, for it colored the expectations of both writers and readers. One reason the Nazis required them was because that was just how things were done. Even a self-proclaimed “revolutionary movement” such as the NSDAP was not immune to sheer conventionality.

A Nazi Lebenslauf differed little from a Lebenslauf written for any other purpose, save for explicit reference to race and a strong emphasis on past political activity and sacrifice, particularly for long-standing SA and Nazi Party members. These are, of course, significant differences. But there is another aspect of these Lebensläufe that takes on a specific National Socialist meaning. Remember that one job of any Lebenslauf was to give information about the character of an individual, and even though its information could be and usually was subject to verification, a Lebenslauf gave an individual a chance to define himself.Footnote 9 It is significant in this regard that a Lebenslauf was generally expected to be handwritten in the 1930s and 1940s, and this was a specific requirement for admission to SA or Nazi Party membership.Footnote 10 While one of the original reasons for this was to give proof that the author had clear and elegant handwriting, so necessary before the invention of the typewriter, the persistence of this practice was due to the fact that handwriting was commonly held to reveal character.Footnote 11 Thus, the German Lebenslauf is a tool or document quite characteristic of the middle class. Workers, on the other hand, relied instead on pay books, guild documents (Gesellen- or Meisterbriefe, etc.), or a Zeugnis (evaluation or letter of recommendation) from an employer; they did not define themselves, as in a Lebenslauf, but rather they were defined by their employers or work skills, that is, always by an other.Footnote 12 The writer of a Lebenslauf was not only given a chance to define himself, but he was also given an individualistic and class-specific genre to do it in. The National Socialist aspect stems from the fact that a written Lebenslauf gave the author a chance to define himself in specific National Socialist terms and within the scope of existing self-narratives of National Socialism.

A Lebenslauf was and is, therefore, a cultural practice, with its own codes and its own history. Furthermore, it was and is a literary genre. All of these things colored the use of the Lebenslauf, which was adapted by the SA and Nazi Party for their own uses. For most of the SA men who wrote the Lebensläufe used in this study, the main codes and rules of the genre would already have been known, and indeed, would have been routine. What is significant in these texts for the purpose of gaining insight into the values of the SA are the additions that go beyond the routine and the extent to which they conform to existing official narratives of the Nazi Party and SA.

Most Lebensläufe were Simply Banal

Given what has just been said, it will come as no surprise that most SA Lebensläufe adhered strictly to the formula of the genre and provided only the most mundane and factual sorts of information. This was all they were intended to do, and we shouldn't, after all, be surprised when men in a paramilitary organization simply followed orders, nor should we be surprised that most SA men were not always skilled writers. Many provided only the very barest of facts, and the authors were clearly not interested in any greater literary effort.Footnote 13 At the most, it demonstrates how easy it was for many very ordinary men to write themselves into the National Socialist narrative.

Reflections of a Tormented History

Most of the SA Lebensläufe, of course, do show clear traces of the most traumatic events of the recent German past, such as World War I, the inflation of the early 1920s, and the high unemployment of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Reference to unemployment and economic crisis are particularly frequent, not least because many authors hoped that SA and Nazi Party membership would increase their access to jobs.Footnote 14 There are also frequent references to World War I, and often to the German Revolution.Footnote 15 These are the common sorts of things that are analyzed in the biographies of National Socialist members, and these national and personal traumas are almost universally held to be major causes of the rise of National Socialism.Footnote 16 These elements should not be discounted, but precisely because they have been discussed so much, they will not be emphasized here.Footnote 17 What this article will focus on are, instead, more subtle indications of mentality and attitude that have previously been overlooked.

One Foot in the Future, One Foot in the Old Empire

One surprising element in many of the SA Lebensläufe is that they contain many attitudes of an earlier, more conventional era, one dominated by middle-class values. Most Lebensläufe show a pride in personal accomplishments, and many bear traces of an earlier class-consciousness or snobbery that the Nazis ostensibly sought to banish. For example, Franz Aich proudly listed in his Lebenslauf the schools (a Gymnasium in Regensburg and the “Müllerische Tochterschule”) his son and daughter attended.Footnote 18 As another example, Bruno Albers showed clear pride in overcoming his difficult childhood and achieving success and status as an adult.Footnote 19 Some writers worked hard to demonstrate their conformity to basic middle-class social expectations; they went out of their way to state they were happily married or had a happy family life with many children.Footnote 20 But other writers presented a more contradictory self-portrayal, demonstrating strong middle-class values on the one hand, but in an apologetic way. They were clearly moved instead to document themselves as being free of middle-class snobbery and prejudice, and therefore as good members of the (classless) Volksgemeinschaft. A good example is the Lebenslauf of Ludwig Wilhelm Riechelmann. Riechelmann, the son of a professor of chemistry who attended the university himself, was proud to be in an SA “Arbeitersturm,” yet he also announced that he worked hard to improve the Sturm to make the students who were in it have a better opinion of it and its working-class members. He wrote, “It was the most wonderful time of comradeship in Sturm 12/134,” and stressed the classless nature of the community within the SA.Footnote 21 Thus, we have both an expressed bond with the working class and a very bourgeois desire to improve his fellow students in the eyes of the workers.Footnote 22 In this and other cases, the effort hardly inspires confidence, yet does document the expectations of the organization, even if the individual protests of being beyond class snobbery often ring hollow. It is also a strong trace of the presence of an explicitly Nazi ideological element, a belief (or a wish to believe) in the Nazi concept of the classless racial community or Volksgemeinschaft—more on this below.

Specifically National Socialist Values

Constructing a Political Pedigree

One important facet of all of these Lebensläufe, including even the most formulaic, is the fact that they gave their authors a chance to write and, if necessary, reinvent themselves as good National Socialists, to insert themselves into an existing Nazi Party narrative of its own and German history. On the one hand, old party and SA members could demonstrate how closely their lives fit the ideal, and remind their superiors of their prior sacrifice and achievement, while recent members could show how they had always lived up to the ideals of the organization.Footnote 23

Walter Arthur Oscar Schmidt was one such model SA and NSDAP member. Claiming to have moved to Munich because he had heard the Führer's call, he joined the NSDAP and SA in 1923. He participated in the Hitler Putsch in Munich itself, as he was careful to point out, and proudly wore the so-called Blutorden: “On November 8/9, 1923—the so-called ‘Hitlerputsch’—I was granted the privilege of answering the call of the Führer right then and there, and so I was awarded the Blutorden.”Footnote 24 He served in the illegal SA and NSDAP in his home town in 1924 and rejoined the NSDAP immediately in 1925, proudly giving his NSDAP membership number 12520, a major badge of distinction within the Nazi Party. He continued to serve actively in both the party and SA, and both founded and led what he termed was the first motorized SA Sturm (later Sturmbann) in Saxony. Lest anyone doubt his activism, he wrote:

During the “time of struggle” I was able to take active [author's emphasis] part in many political brawls [Saalschlachten] in the industrial area in and around Chemnitz. Because of this, several political trials [. . .] were unavoidable. [. . .] I was also involved in several Red Front and Reichsbanner ambushes.Footnote 25

Though he was rapidly promoted within the SA, eventually reaching the rank of Brigadeführer by 1938, he became even more prominent as a politician. He was elected to the city council in Chemnitz in 1932 and was named mayor of the city in 1933.Footnote 26 This led to positions on the board of directors of several local companies. He also led the nazification (Gleichschaltung) of all sports clubs in Saxony in 1933. This was a proud and successful Nazi Party member, SA leader, and local politician, a man who had risked his life and limb for the party, had suffered for it, and who wore both the coveted Blutorden and Golden Nazi Party Pin ( goldenes Ehrenzeichen der NSDAP). He could look back on a nearly perfect Nazi career and was not shy about saying so.Footnote 27

On the other hand, latecomers to the SA and Nazi Party, or even old members whose record was spotty, could rewrite their lives in such a way that they could claim that they, too, had been a part of the larger “national revolution.” One such longtime SA member who had a slightly spotty record and who needed to emphasize the positive elements in his career as a result was Fritz Erkenbrecher. He wrote:

In the years 1920–1922, I was in the Young German Order, which was then under the leadership of the current Reichstag member party comrade Hans Dietrich. After the ignominious betrayal of the German cause by the Young German Order, I left in 1922. Until 1929 I wasn't active in any party, but I voted, as soon as I became eligible to vote, only for Hitler.

From 1929 on I was active publically during the electoral campaigns by hanging up voting posters and distributing electoral tracts. I sold Opferringkarten [contribution certificates for the NSDAP] and was always among those in my party branch “Reuther” who sold the most. In March 1932, I applied for NSDAP party membership, and in October 1932 I joined the Motor SA. In the revolutionary year 1933 I was under the orders of the current Gauamtsleiter party comrade Arno Fischer in his capacity as special commissar during the various actions of the party.Footnote 28

Erkenbrecher just barely counted as a pre-1933 party member and was therefore determined to document that he had been active for the “German cause” and the Nazi Party for much longer. His SA service in 1933 also hints that he was actively engaged in the violence of that year, though he offered no specifics.

Others, of course, could not claim the same record as the model Nazi Walther Schmidt or even the relative latecomer Fritz Erkenbrecher. Instead, these men had to somehow claim that they, too, had really been active—or at least would have been, if circumstances had permitted. Johann Ackermann, a miner and former Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) member who only joined the SA in 1933, had to stress his long-standing nationalist credentials to justify his place in the new regime as a complete newcomer:

“When the Einwohnerwehr [a largely middle-class militia during the German Revolution] was founded, I joined the same with the purpose of defending my homeland from internal and external enemies. [. . .] In February 1929 I joined the Social Democratic Party, because I believed that it best represented the interests of the workers. [. . .] After bitter disappointment, which I experienced in my own flesh and blood because of a long period of unemployment, when no one helped me, I resigned in August 1930. [. . .] I had lost hope for a better future and a better Germany, and afterward couldn't make up my mind to join another party. It was only on March 9, 1933, that I joined the SA in order to serve my Führer, and on May 1, 1935, I joined the party.”Footnote 29

This kind of autobiographical reinvention can often seem self-serving and even frankly ludicrous. Julius Schmitt, for example, when applying to join the SA, stated, “In my heart, I was always a National Socialist and always worked for the party”—even though he was not a party member and only applied to join the SA in October 1933.Footnote 30 Ludwig Auhhammer, in another example, says that, while he was ostensibly unable to join the NSDAP because he was a civil servant, he “always voted for Hitler”—if he voted at all—and “fought” as a “lone wolf” (Einzelgänger) for the ideas of the Führer:

Only as a 14-year-old in 1930 [. . .], and after some political orientation in the confusion of the different parties, did I find my way to the idea of my, from then on, Führer, as a passive, yet, in the small circles of family, society, and work colleagues, fighting Hitler-adherent. I visited the party meetings and gave my vote—inasmuch as I voted at all—to the NSDAP. [. . .] I fought as a lone wolf for the Führer's idea. My father, a leading party supporter of the Bavarian People's Party, stood against me; my work colleagues had only derision and nasty little remarks, and at a meeting I got kicked in the back.

Sadly for this little lone wolf, as in the previous example, he only joined the SA in 1933 and was not yet a Nazi Party member when he wrote this in 1934.Footnote 31 Yet despite his weak record, his intention to write himself into the National Socialist narrative of struggle and sacrifice before 1933 is quite clear.

The imperative to reinvent or rewrite oneself as a model Nazi was thus very strong, and it is important to recognize this, because “shame” at being either a latecomer or having once backed the wrong side was often a powerful motivation for SA members to show extra zeal to demonstrate their commitment, not least with violence. Direct references to such violence are not common (except to document one's own suffering, which was quite common), but hints can be found. This seems to be the case with Fritz Erkenbrecher, for example, who was quoted above. After admitting that he was long politically inactive before 1932, he then stated that, as a Motor SA member, he participated in several “special missions” in 1933. This is a euphemism for violence against opponents during the Gleichschaltung.Footnote 32 It is speculation, but quite plausible that Erkenbrecher and the many other new recruits to the SA in 1932 and 1933 would feel the need to make up for their late conversion with extra zeal and toughness.

Antisemitism

Nearly all of the Lebensläufe reflected Nazi racial ideology, simply because they were intended to document that the author was a racially pure “Aryan.” Thus, statements, such as “My Aryan descent may be documented without a break as far back as the seventeenth century,” were common.Footnote 33 Explicit antisemitism was often present, but was certainly not a dominant theme. The comparative rarity of overt expressions of antisemitism might seem unusual at first glance, but is most likely due to the fact that it was such a given that it was omitted except in cases where it provoked extremely strong feelings in the author.Footnote 34 Certainly, when it occured, it rapidly took on an irrational, even pathological quality, as these examples show.

Wegen meiner politischen Tätigkeit gegen die Juden mußte ich die Hochschule verlassen und konnte daher mein Studium nicht beenden.Footnote 35

Mein Vater wollte sich in Hannover ein größeres Geschäft kaufen, verlor aber wegen die betrügereien [sic] eines Juden sein gesamtes Vermögen.Footnote 36

1924 wurde ich von der seinerzeit jüdisch geleiteten Bank in München zufolge meines aktiven Einsatzes am 9.11.1923 entlassen.Footnote 37

There are few traces of the sort of Judenkoller (extreme rage at the Jews) identified by Peter Merkl and Theodore Abel, but Jews were often blamed, irrationally, for personal misfortunes, as in the quotes above.Footnote 38

Anti-Marxism

Indications of anti-Marxism/antisocialism, on the other hand, were extremely frequent.Footnote 39 This was a strong core National Socialist value, though one that was shared with much broader elements of German society. One explanation for the prominence of this value over expressions of antisemitism may lie precisely in the widespread nature of anti-Marxism in German society, but is also certainly a reflection of the fact that prior to 1934, the sharpest conflicts in which SA men engaged were against rival socialist organizations.Footnote 40 Similar to National Socialist ideology in general, there is often a conflation of Marxism and Judaism in the SA Lebensläufe.Footnote 41 Less common than anti-Marxism, but still sometimes present, was a distain for the bourgeoisie, a theme characteristic of some of the more socially revolutionary early SA and NSDAP members. A Lebenslauf that displayed both attitudes is that of SA Truppenführer Heinrich Beisner. He wrote:

The revolt of 1918 found me on the side of the SPD. But the separation from the SPD already took place in June 1919. We boys had certainly committed ourselves for a socialist Germany, but we knew that the cowardly submission to the “Treaty of Shame” meant the sacrifice of socialism. We had recognized the cowardice of the bourgeois system (and I, myself, in particular, its corruption, since during the war I worked part-time in the Office for the Purchase of Gold), but we loved our folk and fatherland above anything and didn't want to see it betrayed. By the way, I saw frightfully many Jews among the Marxists, people who didn't work themselves or who did not recognize the moral value of labor, but instead practically denied it in word and deed. Thus I found my way to the Schutz und Trutzbund. Soon I was involved everywhere where one had to commit oneself fully. I was thus one of the first National Socialists in Hannover.

[. . .] When the party was refounded in 1925, I was immediately a part of it again. I was given membership number 10593. [. . .]

Through my political activity, I had many difficulties with my profession. In the meantime, I had become a civil servant and I was criticized, as a secretary in a so feudal office [emphasis in the original], for socializing with uneducated proletarians and for carrying out a political struggle in a way that the cowardly bourgeoisie was never capable of. [. . .]

It may be customary on one's Lebenslauf to list the wounds received in the party struggle. This is impossible for me, for I have never noticed when and where and at what time someone from the other side made fraternity clear to me in a palpable manner. But this is all unimportant when one can testify, and I believe that I can, that my life until now has been struggle for Germany, and that I have done nothing but my self-evident duty.Footnote 42

There are many important themes here, and it will be useful to remember parts of the above quote later in this essay. For now the strong negative emotions against both Marxists and the “cowardly bourgeoisie” are clear. Both (together with the equally clear antisemitism) echo common National Socialist ideas, at once claiming to represent a kind of socialism and revolt against the stodgy middle class, and at the same time excoriating Marxists and Jews.

“Service to the Movement” and the Ethic of Constant Activism

One central element in these SA Lebensläufe is the degree to which they document the author's “service” to the Nazi movement, particularly before they joined a National Socialist organization and before 1933. This was specifically required, and given that there was a hope or even expectation that this might bring concrete benefits and greater status to the author, it is no surprise that it occupies a central place in the narrative. Long “service” (active membership) in a Nazi organization was indeed a criterion of status and promotion within the SA, and also for obtaining a job through SA/Nazi Party influence, be it either in the state sector, the private sector, or in a party organization. It is also, of course, a sign of the very common (and stereotypically German) value of hard work and dedication, which extends far beyond the Nazi period into the past and future. Yet the degree to which this is emphasized in the SA Lebensläufe and the language in which it is cast go beyond the merely practical or traditional, and provides a major clue to the kind of attitudes we are seeking.

Much of this “service” pedigree was, of course, intended to show commitment, zeal, and bravery, qualities that might be attractive for any organization. Thus, Walter Zähle made a point of his bravery and dedication (and also his ability, as an SA leader, to work with party bureaucrats) when he wrote that in 1932 that he “resigned as Kreisleiter and took over the leadership of Sturm 3/93 in the reddest neighborhood” of his home district in Staßfurt.Footnote 43

Others emphasized their restless activism. Walter Arthur Oskar Schmidt, quoted extensively above, is one such example. Although too young to have served in World War I, his is otherwise a nearly perfect narrative of “service” to the “movement,” a solid record of activism, including early adherence, physical violence, and successful leadership within the Nazi Party administration, the SA, and civil government. It was also (except, perhaps, for being “Im Banne der Idee des Führers”) a businesslike and relative sober account, yet one that contains so much activity that it is hard to imagine doing it all in the roughly twenty years of adult life it described. To convey the same idea, another pre-1933 SA member simply stated laconically, “My free time was completely dedicated to SA service.”Footnote 44

Other Lebensläufe placed more emphasis on sacrifice and suffering. Many claimed that they suffered economically due to their belief in Nazism. Wilhelm Hertje stated succinctly, “After my [public] appearance in the NSDAP, my business collapsed.”Footnote 45 Adolf Illig and Oskar Illmann both tell similar stories.Footnote 46

Still others emphasized physical wounds, an important form of sacrifice, but also a key to the violence inherent in the organization: nearly all of the pre-1933 SA members had a story to tell of wounds received and legal troubles due to participation in violence.Footnote 47 For one example, Karl Friedrich (Fritz) Wilhelm Paschold appended nearly a full page of wounds and legal problems to his autobiography, which in all other respects was rather sober and to the point.Footnote 48 Even though many of these accounts of “service” and suffering were clearly either excessive self-praise or were designed to put a weak story in the best possible light, they also indicate the SA's success in transmitting its ideals to its members; any apology for failing to live up to them is both proof that the ideals were held and a constant reminder to SA men that the party required a heroic degree of activism and commitment. As we will see in a moment, this image of constant, frenetic activism has some very important implications.

Pathos and Kitsch

While it is understandable that these political autobiographies would contain considerable detail on the author's political acts, many of the SA Lebensläufe here went well beyond a sober account of the past or a simple recounting of wounds or punishments suffered in political battles. Many listed personal and family setbacks, and many contained various degrees of self-pity.Footnote 49 Indeed, it is striking that the accounts of “service” to the “movement” or suffering incurred in its name were often expressed with great pathos, a form of kitsch characteristic of the self-stylization of fascists across Europe.Footnote 50 Consider statements such as this one:

As an ordinary man I did my völkisch duty tenaciously in silence. [. . .] So shall it evermore remain. The Führer can rely on me as an unimportant individual until I completely exhaust myself.Footnote 51

Consider also this quote from Heinrich Beisner, whom we met above.

The years thereafter [losing his job and working full time for the NSDAP] were years of struggle and sacrifice, years of the most bitter need, but, if I should testify, they were the best years of my life.Footnote 52

Or this one:

On August 30, 1933, I signed up for the SA as a probationary member; [I] am with the SA with love and desire, am proud to be allowed to wear the uniform of honor, and am always prepared to risk my life for my homeland. With “German greetings,” Heil Hitler!Footnote 53

This kind of cloying pathos was a highly common element in the SA Lebensläufe. It was so common that we must take it quite seriously and seek the reasons. Some authors listed so many setbacks, reversals, and wounds that one begins to search the page for traces of the copious tears that must have flowed as the document was written.

Ernst Schmid is a good example. He began his litany of suffering and sacrifice before World War I, when, as he alleged, he was unable to follow his father's wishes to go to the university and become a lawyer or judge due to family financial difficulties.Footnote 54 He then described being wounded three times during the war, once so seriously that he took more than three years to recover. Characteristically, he made a point of saying that his company commander was going to recommend him for the Iron Cross, First Class, but was killed before the paperwork could be processed. Therefore, he only wore the Iron Cross, Second Class. Due to his wounds, he couldn't return to his prewar profession as a blacksmith and mechanic, and was retrained as a civil servant. Yet, he claimed, the job he was promised didn't materialize because of his political activism for the NSDAP. Later, he claimed that a job in the private sector was destroyed due to his “uncompromising political activism” for the NSDAP.

I drew the hate of the political enemy onto myself more and more by my open witness to the Führer and the uncompromising activity that I developed all over, so that over the years the basis of my economic life collapsed more and more, and the same was totally lost in 1931. From this time on, I placed my entire energy exclusively in the service of the movement. An invincible warrior spirit [Kampfgeist] grew within me. I was off day and night on propaganda campaigns and trips to mass meetings [Versammlungsfahrten].Footnote 55

Though a psychologist may well have more to say on this topic, it is clear that one reason for this pathos was simply to demonstrate the exceptional character and commitment of the author (and perhaps also to document a claim to being exceptionally worthy of material recompense for this sacrifice, such as a job).Footnote 56 Yet the emphasis on personal suffering was pronounced, and just like the pathos, occurred so frequently that there is clearly much more to it. Again, while the writers of Lebensläufe were specifically instructed to mention any suffering or punishment incurred for the Nazi Party [itself significant], many clearly took this as license to dwell on a strongly held sense of discrimination. The self-pity sometimes approached paranoia. Ernst Schmid referred four times to “my political enemies,” using the possessive pronoun, in his Lebenslauf.

My political enemies achieved the opposite of that which they sought to achieve; they may have made me jobless [brotlos], but they could not force me to my knees, which my political enemies wanted—although these were very difficult years for me, that my political enemies even managed to have my military disability pension reduced to thirty-percent disability” [current author's emphasis].Footnote 57

Surprisingly, Schmid continued to describe attacks by his personal enemies even after the Nazi seizure of power.

Nobody, no official office cared about me anymore, and so I was once again, as someone who was once again unemployed, in my needy financial situation, exposed for months to the sneers and derision—and even physical attacks—of my political enemies. They certainly thought that their time had come again after June 30 [the Röhm Purge of the SA]; these months were very bitter for me, and simultaneously the greatest disappointment [author's emphasis].Footnote 58

In many of these autobiographies, it is not hard to discern a link between extremely high levels of activism, personal suffering (sometimes predating the activism, sometimes because of it), and a later feeling of entitlement. Ernst Schmid, cited above, cried bitter tears about losing his paid position as an SA special commissar (Sonderkommissar), and his life only really got back on track after he was given a full-time position by the SA as the commander of an SA Sturmbann.Footnote 59 He clearly felt he had earned full-time employment by his earlier activism and sacrifice, and was lost when that expectation seemed to have been taken away.

Similarly, there seems to be a link between the pathos of these autobiographies, the sense of suffering they contain, and the violence exercised by their authors. Psychologists tell us that a sense of having suffered oneself is one of the easiest ways to justify doing harm to others.Footnote 60 The emphasis on personal suffering may also indicate a sado-masochistic desire for subordination and dominance, though to go this far is nothing more than informed speculation. It certainly shows a clear tendency for self-sacrifice, perhaps even a desire for it, and sacrifice was certainly an important National Socialist ideal. Above all, it documents a strong emphasis on activity, action, and movement. At the very least, this material demonstrates that SA men and the SA itself seemed to value and seek constant action. A good SA man (like a good Nazi) was someone who threw himself into the “movement,” who worked to the point of exhaustion in complete disregard for his person. Even where this was not exaggerated, one sees signs of a strong ethic of hard work and a strong emphasis on personal bravery. While the emphasis on hard work may be common to all Lebensläufe and is indicative of a much broader ethic of hard work, the emphasis on personal bravery was, of course, particularly characteristic of the SA and other National Socialist organizations that engaged in violent conflict in the past (and might yet again).Footnote 61 But at the same time, self-sacrifice, hard work, and commitment were values much more widely held in the broader German society. They were also a common language shared with other extreme activist organizations, such as the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD).Footnote 62 What is important here is specific National Socialist spin on much more common values and associations. But when we remember the many authors who looked back fondly to the “time of struggle” or cited it as the “best time of their life,” one has to wonder if action did not tend to become an end in itself. Activism was not only a core value in the SA, but it was also a way for many traumatized and confused young men to avoid reflection, escape frustration and humiliation, and leave behind all of the many problems that weighed upon their previous lives. Given the lack of a rational core of beliefs in National Socialism, it is likely that one reason for the stress not only on action over reflection, but also on total, all-encompassing, frenetic activism was a kind of moral or ideological compensation. Certainly, one of the attractions of the “time of struggle” for many SA men was precisely its lack of ambiguity: constant activity, stress, and violence produced a kind of tunnel vision, shutting out petty (or major!) annoyances, ambiguity, and self-reflection. This, combined with the male camaraderie and ideological certitude offered by SA membership during the “time of struggle,” is perhaps closer to a real definition of National Socialism (or fascism) than any party program.Footnote 63 Again, the ability, in a Lebenslauf, to rewrite and redefine one's life was quite important and characteristic for SA (and NSDAP) autobiographies. This connects to the notion of a Lebenslauf as a form of self-definition and derives from the fascist claim to totality. A Lebenslauf, after all, was and is a recitation of the salient steps in its author's life, a Lebens-Lauf. While conventionally limited to practical information (education, marital status, work experience, etc.), it was always intended, as I have suggested above, to provide a view of the whole man. For a (potential) National Socialist, one goal of writing a Lebenslauf was precisely to cast one's life in such a way that made a person look as if he had always been in the process of becoming the new fascist (Nazi) man he wanted to become or whom he thought the SA wanted him to be. In this way, simply writing a Lebenslauf was a pedagogical exercise in which the writer educated himself as to the values of the organization and began to imagine his own life in precisely the form desired and projected by the SA and NSDAP. Writers of Lebensläufe for National Socialist organizations wrote themselves into the story that the Nazi Party and SA dictated.Footnote 64

Conclusion

To sum up, these are hardly revolutionary autobiographies or evidence of “the new fascist man.” Instead, they show a confusing and often contradictory mix of values and attitudes, some of which were conventional, some of which were specifically Nazi, and most of which were some combination of the two. These results are also broadly similar to Peter Merkl's interpretation of the Abel materials, even though some differences exist. It will certainly shock no one that these autobiographies reflect the wartime and postwar trauma of Germany in the 1930s, nor can it be surprising that the theme of unemployment and economic suffering looms large in them, given that the SA was capable of and willing to find employment for its members.

Yet there are also several specifically National Socialist themes, such as a limited yet present antisemitism, a strong anti-Marxism or antisocialism, and several ways of conveying what is basically the theme of the Volksgemeinschaft. One key to SA values (or to values common within the SA) may actually not be unemployment, but the shame it caused.Footnote 65 This, and also the shame caused by a perceived lack of enough activity—or past activity on the wrong side.Footnote 66 This sort of shame, combined with a feeling of self-pity, entitlement, and grievance, was certainly one root of the extreme violence of the SA. In some cases, it was quite clearly combined with what today would be called posttraumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).Footnote 67 If there is a statement of specifically SA ideology here, it is in the emphasis on constant activity and engagement combined with self-sacrifice, “bis zur Selbstauflösung,” as one SA man said bombastically and full of pathos. What the SA believed certainly cannot be reduced to this, and we must always remember that these values were expressed within a context that valued and sought violence and that was fundamentally antisemitic and xenophobic. The frenetic activity of the “time of struggle” is a key National Socialist habitus and value. The popularity of it in the SA Lebensläufe certainly reflects a certain reality of the constant political struggle of the early 1930s in Germany. It could certainly also lead to burnout, exhaustion, the abandonment of conventional norms of behavior, alcoholism, and violence. But it also needs to be seen in the larger context of shame at national “disgrace” due to the loss of World War I, individual shame of unemployment, and other lasting trauma. It might well have become such a powerful trope in National Socialist autobiographies precisely because constant activity allowed mundane problems to be avoided and traumas to be compensated. It was a political drug, and the activists within the SA and NSDAP were constant self-medicators. Yet what remains most surprising, and perhaps comes through most strongly in these rather odd “autobiographies” are more bourgeois themes or ones that are not specifically Nazi, but rather existed more generally in the culture: individualism, capacity for hard work, self-sacrifice, and personal initiative. These concepts or values were clearly instrumentalized in a National Socialist sense, and were not generally considered National Socialist as such. Yet if, as I contend here, the departures from the standard Lebenslauf form really do show particularly strongly felt concepts and beliefs, then these are among the most common and most strongly expressed. It would seem that the SA and Nazi Party were clearly able to connect with more diffuse or endemic values within the larger culture, and make them a central part of its murderous dynamic.

Footnotes

1 Abel, Theodore, Why Hitler Came into Power (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 1938, 1966, 1986); two more modern studies later reworked the Abel material: Peter Merkl, H., Political Violence Under the Swastika: 581 Early Nazis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975); and Merkl, Peter H., The Making of a Stormtrooper (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980). For a discussion of the limitations of the Abel data, see Merkl, Political Violence, 5–25.

2 Though the German word is usually translated into English as “resume” or “curriculum vita,” the form is quite different. A German Lebenslauf (particularly from the 1930s or 1940s) is a compact autobiographical prose narrative. This article will use the German term, for the sake of clarity.

3 The basis of this article are Lebensläufe written by SA men between 1932 and 1944 for official SA purposes, usually as one part of their personnel records or produced in the course of disciplinary proceedings. These Lebensläufe were drawn from the microfilm collection of biographically related National Socialist records in the United States National Archives (hereafter NARA), which were formerly a part of the Berlin Document Center (hereafter BDC), and whose original documents are currently in the German Federal Archives (hereafter Bundesarchiv) in Berlin-Lichterfelde. A very few of the Lebensläufe consulted here were first seen in the original either in the BDC or in the Bundesarchiv. On the former BDC and its collections, see Browder, George C., “Problems and Potentials of the Berlin Document Center,” Central European History 5 (1972): 362–380. The Lebensläufe used here were all found in the course of other research, usually by examining an entire roll of microfilm; their selection is therefore essentially random. They are certainly not a representative sample, and this article must be viewed as a kind of pilot study that demonstrates the importance of these sources.

4 For the notion that writers of autobiography, as a genre, follow certain rules derived from a particular social context, see Jameson, Frederic, The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act (London: Methuen, 1981), 106–107. See also Anderson, Linda, Autobiography (The New Critical Idiom) (London and New York: Routledge, 2011), 1–17.

5 A highly bureaucratic organization by the mid-1930s, the SA provided formal rules for what needed to be in a Lebenslauf. See “Bestimmungen (Entwurf) über SA-Personalakten der SA-Führer, SA-Sanitätsführer, SA-Verwaltungsführer (Nur für den Dienstgebrauch!),” in U.S. National Archives, RG 242 Foreign Records Seized Collection, Berlin Document Center Library Microfilm, A3345-B-120, frames 0112–0126, 14–15, which specifically describe how to write a Lebenslauf. For a more modern account of how a Lebenslauf ought to be written, see Mackensen, Lutz, Gutes Deutsch in Schrift und Rede (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1968).

6 Only roughly one in ten of the Lebensläufe found in the SA documents departed significantly enough from the expected format to be included here.

7 Campbell, Bruce, The SA Generals and the Rise of Nazism (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1998).

8 Several different kinds were produced by the SA and Nazi Party and were used for different purposes and for different ranks and types of job. Many are described in Office of Military Government for Germany (U.S.), 7771 Document Center, Who Was A Nazi? Facts About the Membership Procedure of the Nazi Party (Berlin: Office of Military Government for Germany [U.S.], 1947).

9 Note the use of the male pronoun here, first, because the SA was an exclusively male organization, and second, because during the time period covered in this article, Lebensläufe were overwhelmingly written by men, not women, in all parts of German society.

10 See note 5, above.

11 Even today, it is still the norm in France that a résumé be handwritten, and employers often use graphologists to analyze a person's moral character based on their handwriting.

12 Nobles, of course, traditionally defined themselves by their lineage.

13 One example is the Lebenslauf of Walter Inbescheid (born March 1, 1908), in NARA, Microfilmed Records Received from the Berlin Document Center, SA Personnel Files, Microfilm Publication A3341, Series SA-Kartei, Roll 063A (hereafter cited as “SA-Kartei”).

14 See, for example, the Lebenslauf of Ernst Riel (born August 16, 1843), in NARA, Microfilmed Documents from the Berlin Document Center, SA Personnel & Process Akten, Microfilm Publication A3341, Series SA, Roll D222 (hereafter cited as “SA-P Akten”); or Heinrich Imming (born November 20, 1903), in “SA-Kartei,” Roll A063. Imming blamed the Versailles Treaty several times in his Lebenslauf for his periodic unemployment.

15 For just one example of a reference to World War I, see the Lebenslauf of Adolf Alex (born August 6, 1897, in Hagendorf /Oberpf.), in “SA-P Akten,” Roll 002. For an example of a reference to the German Revolution, see the Lebenslauf of Johann Ackermann (born November 25, 1899, in Hagendorf /Oberpf.), in “SA-P Akten,” Roll D001.

16 Such elements played a major role in the earlier analyses of Peter Merkl and Theodore Abel.

17 A good example of what this sort of analysis can bring may be found in the foundational works by Theodore Abel and Peter Merkl, cited above in note 1. For a slightly different approach to biographical data, see Campbell, The SA Generals.

18 Lebenslauf of Franz Aich (born October 26, 1896, in Wörth a. Donau), in “SA-P Akten,” Roll 001.

19 Lebenslauf of Bruno Albers (born March 5, 1879), written on Feb. 10, 1934, in “SA-P Akten,” Roll 002.

20 Adolf Alex (born August 6, 1897, in Steinach) stressed his stability with a wife and daughter in his Lebenslauf, and stated simply, “Ich bin Hausbesitzer”; in “SA-P Akten,” Roll 002.

21 “Es war die schönste Zeit der Kameradschaft im Sturm 12/134,” in ibid. An SA-Sturm was a unit that roughly corresponded to a company in the regular army (in function, if not always in size).

22 “Ich wollte den wenig guten Eindruck, den mein Arbeitersturm von der Mehrzahl seiner Studenten ab 1933 haben müßte, nach Kräften verbessern. Langsam, aber ununterbrochen arbeitete ich mich zum Führer meines Trupps und Stellenleiter des Sturmführers empor”; in Lebenslauf of Ludwig Wilhelm Riechelmann (born January 15, 1904, in Plauen), in “SA-P Akten,” Roll 222.

23 See the Lebensläufe of Heinrich Beisner (born April 15, 1909, in Hameln/Weser), in “SA-Kartei,” Roll 35; and Standartenführer Ernst Schmid (born April 8, 1894, in Steinberg), written on Sept. 25, 1944, in BDC, now Bundesarchiv; which are quoted at greater length below, for examples of long-standing SA men who felt the need to remind their superiors of their earlier sacrifice and service.

24 “Am 8./9. November 1923—sog. Hitlerputsch—war es mir vergönnt, dem Rufe des Führers an Ort und Stelle Folge zu leisten, mithin bin ich Träger des Blutordens.” Lebenslauf (no date) of Walter Oskar Arthur Schmidt (born June 18, 1903, in Waldkirchen i.E.), in “SA-Kartei,” Roll B195. The Blutorden (literally “Order of Blood”) was awarded to National Socialists (and some few non-party members) who participated in the Hitler Putsch. It was later extended to those who had made extreme sacrifices for the Nazi Party. It was the most prestigious of all the National Socialist decorations. See Patzewall, Klaus D., Der Blutorden der NSDAP (Hamburg: Verlag Militaria-Archiv Klaus D. Patzewall, 1985).

25 Lebenslauf of Walter Oskar Arthur Schmidt. “Während der Kampfzeit konnte ich im Industriegebiet Chemnitz an vielen Saalschlachten mit aktiv teilnehmen. [Emphasis by author.] So waren einige politische Prozesse [. . .] unvermeidlich. [. . .] Auch wurde ich in verschiedene Rotfront- und Reichsbannerüberfälle verwickelt.”

26 A Brigadeführer was the equivalent of a Generalmajor (brigadier general) in the army.

27 See the Lebenslauf of Walter Oscar Arthur Schmidt.

28 “Ich war im Jahre 1920–1922 im Jungdeutschen Orden, der damals unter der Leitung des heutigen Reichstagmitglieds Pg. Hans Dietrich stand. Nach dem schmäligen [sic—schmählichen] Verrat der deutschen Sache durch dem Jungdeutschen Orden, trat ich aus, und zwar 1922. Ich betätigte mich dann bis 1929 bei keiner Partei, jedoch wählte ich, nachdem ich wahlberechtigt geworden war, nur Hitler. Vom Jahr [sic] 1929 ab betätigte ich mich öffentlich bei den Wahlkämpfen durch Aufhängen von Wahlplakaten u. Verteilung von Wahlschriften, verkaufte Opferringkarten wobei ich, bei meiner Ortsgruppe Reuther, immer einer von denen war, der mit am meisten verkaufte. Im März 1932 meldete ich mich als Parteimitglied an und trat im Oktober 1932 in die Motor SA ein. Im Revolutionsjahr 1933 war ich unter dem Befehl des jetzigen Gauamtsleiters Pg. Arno Fischer in seiner Eigenschaft als Sonderkommissar bei den Einzelaktionen tätig.” In Lebenslauf of Fritz Erkenbrecher (born September 2, 1905, in Chreidlitz bei Coburg). Quote in “SA-Kartei,” Roll 130.

29 Lebenslauf of Johann Ackermann. “Bei Gründung der Einwohnerwehr trat ich in diesselbe ein mit dem Zweck, meine Heimat vor inneren sowie äußeren Feinden zu schützen und diente in derselben als Schütze bis zur Auflösung. [. . .] In Februar 1929 trat ich der Sozialdemokr. Partei bei, weil ich glaubte, daß in dieser die Interessen der Arbeiter am besten vertreten werden. [. . .] Nach bitterer Entäuschung, die ich durch öftere und längere Arbeitslosigkeit wo mir niemand half, am eigenen Leib erfuhr, trat ich im August 1930 wieder aus. Ich hatte die Hoffnung auf eine bessere Zeit und ein besseres Deutschland verloren und konnte mich in der Folgezeit nicht mehr entschließen einer Partei beizutreten. Erst am 9.3.33. trat ich in die SA ein, um meinem Führer zu dienen, am 1. Mai 1935 in die Partei.”

30 “Im Herzen war ich von jeher stets Nationalsozialist, und setzte mich immer für die Partei ein.” Lebenslauf of Julius Schmitt (born May 18, 1908, in Bamberg), in “SA-Kartei,” Roll B192.

31 “Erst als ich im Jahre 1930-Juli 14-Jährig [. . .] nach einigem politischen Orientieren im Wirrwar der Parteien fand ich als passiver, jedoch im kleinen Kreise (Familie, Gesellschaft u. Berufskollegen) kämpfender Hitler-Anhänger zur Idee meines nunmehrigen Führers. Ich besuchte die Versammlungen der Partei und gab—solange ich überhaupt wählte—meine Stimme der N.S.D.A.P. [. . .] Ich habe als Einzelgänger für des Führers Idee gekämpft. Mein Vater, ein maßgebender Parteimann der Bayer. Volkspartei stand gegen mich, meine Berufskollegen fanden Spott und kleine Gehässlichkeiten u. bei einer Kundgebung hier erhielt ich einen Tritt ins Kreuz.” Lebenslauf of Ludwig Auhhammer (born June 19, 1906, in Freising), written in July 1934, in “SA-Kartei,” Roll 001.

32 See the Lebenslauf of Fritz Erkenbrecher in “SA-Kartei,” Roll 130.

33 “Meine arische Abstammung ist lückenlos bis in das 17. Jahrhundert nachweisbar.” Lebenslauf of Ludwig Wilhelm Riechelmann.

34 There has been some controversy about the precise role of antisemitism within the Nazi movement, though there is little disagreement that it was a major element. See, for example, Burleigh, Michael and Wippermann, Wolfgang, The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

35 Lebenslauf of Stefan (Istvan) Ablakos (born July 21, 1909, in Scarszentmihaly, Hungary), in “SA-Kartei,” Roll 001.

36 Lebenslauf of Heinrich Beisner.

37 Lebenslauf of Walter Oscar Arthur Schmidt.

38 See Merkl, Political Violence, 498–527.

39 See, for example, the Lebenslauf of Ludwig Auhhammer of July 1934, in which he recounted how “reds” took away a black-red-white flag when he was a child. Similarly, see the Lebenslauf of Georg Riedel (born February 4, 1896, in Pöschwitz), written on August 21, 1934, in “SA-P Akten,” Roll D222. “Gleich 1919, kaum dort [illegible] eingezogen, stieß ich mit dem Marxismus zusammen, und wurde so bald ein eifriger Bekämpfer und Feind der SPD und KPD.”

40 The author recognizes the contradiction here: I explain the lack of much overt antisemitism in these Lebensläufe by its very ubiquity, yet the very strong presence of anti-Marxism is explained in the same way. Clearly there is room for more analysis, for even in internal documents, antisemitism seems to be implied rather than mentioned directly, while anti-Marxism is always expressed in explicit terms. A recent study on National Socialist values from a slightly different perspective from the one I use here, yet which grapples with some of the same issues, is Koonz, Claudia, The Nazi Conscience (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).

41 For an example of the conflation of Marxism and Judaism, see the Lebenslauf of Heinrich Beisner.

42 “Die Revolte des Jahres 1918 fand mich auf der Seite der SPD. Im Juni 1919 aber bereits fand die Trennung von der SPD statt. Wir Jungen hatten wohl für ein sozialistisches Deutschland uns eingesetzt, doch wussten wir, daß die feige Unterwerfung unter den Schandvertrag den Verzicht auf den Sozialismus bedeutete. Wir hatten die Feigheit des bürgerlichen Systems kennen gelernt [sic] (und ich besonders die Korruption, da ich während des Krieges in der Goldankaufstelle nebenamtlich tätig gewesen war) aber unser Volk und Vaterland liebten wir über alles und wollten diese nicht verraten sehen. Bei den Marxisten hatte ich übrigen [sic] entsetzlich viele Juden gesehen, Menschen, die doch selber nicht arbeiteten oder doch den sittlichen Wert der Arbeit nicht anerkannten, sondern diesen durch Wort und Tat geradezu leugneten. So fand ich den Weg zum Schutz und Trutzbund. Bald war ich überall dabei wo es galt sich restlos einzusetzen. Ich war damit einer der ersten Nationalsozialisten in Hannover.” “Als dann 1925 die Partei neu gegründet wurde, war ich wieder sofort dabei. Ich erhielt die Mitgliedsnummer 10593. [. . .] Durch meine politische Betätigung sind mir manche Schwierigkeiten im Beruf entstanden. Ich war mittlerweile Beamter geworden und man machte mir zum Vorwurf das ich als Sekretär einer solch feudalen Behörde [emphasis in original] mit ungebildeten Proleten verkehrte und einen politischen Kampf in einer Art und Weise führte, wie ihn das feige Bürgertum nie zu führen in der Lage war.” “Es ist vielleicht üblich in seinen Lebneslauf [sic] die im Parteikampf erlittenen Verwundungen aufzuzählen. Dieses ist mir unmöglich, da ich mir nicht gemerkt habe wann und wo und um welche Zeit man mir von der anderen Seite die Brüderlichkeit handgreiflich klargemacht hat. Es ist das auch wohl unwesentlich, wenn man bekennen kann, und das glaube ich zu dürfen, daß mein Leben bisher Kampf für Deutschland gewesen ist und ich eben dabei nichts als meine selbstverständliche Pflicht getan habe.” In Lebenslauf of Heinrich Beisner.

43 Lebenslauf of SA-Brigadeführer Walter Zähle (born April 6, 1905, in Zerbst), (no date, but at least 1938), in “SA-P Akten,” Roll B340. “1932 gab er die Kreisleitung ab und Übernahm im rotesten Viertel des Heimatgaues in Staßfurt die Führung des Sturmes 3/93.” Because Zähle was a high-ranking SA officer, the fact that his Lebenslauf was written in the third person may mean that it was drafted by a subordinate on his staff. A Kreisleiter headed the county or local chapter of the NSDAP (a Nazi Party position, distinct from the SA). A Sturm was the basic SA unit, roughly equivalent to a company in the army.

44 Lebenslauf of Ludwig Wilhelm Riechelmann.

45 Lebenslauf of Wilhelm Hertje (born Sept. 16, 1892, in Moringen), written on Oct. 14, 1934, in “SA-Kartei,” Roll 211. “Nach meinem Auftreten in der NSDAP ist mein Geschäft zu Grunde gegangen.”

46 Lebenslauf of Adolf Illig (born March 12, 1914), written on February 27, 1935, in “SA-Kartei,” Roll A063. Illig trained as a shoemaker apprentice, but found work only as an agricultural laborer. He stated that his boss didn't like his SA membership, so he lost his job. The SA later found him a factory job. Lebenslauf of Oskar Illmann (born March 2, 1998, in Thorn), in “SA-Kartei,” Roll A063. He claimed he should have become a teacher, but because of his politics (even before joining the NSDAP), he was forced to change professions, and he eventually became a police detective after he passed through a series of paramilitary organizations.

47 Examples already cited in this article include Heinrich Beisner, Walter Oscar Arthur Schmidt, and Julius Schmitt.

48 Lebenslauf of Karl Friedrich (Fritz) Wilhelm Paschold (born March 23, 1888, in Sommerda), written on April 3, 1942, in “SA-Kartei,” Roll B92.

49 Lebenslauf of Franz Hartl (born September 19, 1904, in Regensburg), in “SA-Kartei,” Roll 211.

50 Pathos was a common fascist idiom and needs greater study. But see Baird, Jay, To Die for Germany: Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1990). In a similar vein, the association of kitsch and fascism was often made. See, variously, Susan Sontag, “Fascinating Fascism,” in Sontag, Susan, Under the Sign of Saturn (New York: Anchor Books, 1980), 305–325; or Friedländer, Saul, Reflections of Nazism: An Essay on Kitsch and Death (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1984).

51 “Als kleiner Mann habe ich im Stillen und Geharrlichkeit [sic] meine völkische Pflicht erfüllt. [. . .] So soll es weiter bleiben. Der Führer kann sich auf mich als unbedeutenden Einzelnen bis zur Selbstauflösung verlassen.” Lebenslauf of Carl Dietrich Adam (born April 20, 1883, in Wesel a. R.), in “SA-P Akten,” Roll 001.

52 “Die Jahre danach waren Jahre des Kampfes und des Opfers, Jahre der bittersten Not, und, wenn ich bekennen soll, sie waren die schönsten Jahre meines Lebnes [sic].” Lebenslauf of Heinrich Beisner.

53 Lebenslauf of Franz Hartl.

54 Heinrich Beisner, cited above, also began his life story with an account of his family misfortune.

55 Lebenslauf of Standartenführer Ernst Schmid. “Durch mein offenes Bekenntnis zum Führer und der überall ohne Rücksicht entfalltenen Aktivität, zog ich den Haß der pol. Gegner immer mehr auf mich, so dass im Laufe der Jahre die Grundlagen meiner Existenz immer mehr Zusammenbrachen, und 1931 zum totalen Verlust dasselben führte. Von diesem Zeitpunkt an stellte ich meine ganze Kraft nur mehr ausschließlich in den Dienst der Bewegung. In mir wuchs eine unbesiegbare Kampfgeist, Tag und Nacht war ich auf Propaganda und Versammlungsfahrten.”

56 Note that the SA and NSDAP sought to reward wounds or punishments suffered for the “movement,” so that there was ample practical reason to mention them in a Lebenslauf.

57 Lebenslauf of Standartenführer Ernst Schmid. “Meine pol. Gegner haben das Gegenteil von dem erreicht, was sie erreichen wollten, sie haben mich zwar brotlos gemacht, aber auf die Knie gezwungen, was meine Gegner wollten, konnten sie mich nicht—obwohl dies sehr schwere Jahre für mich waren, das es meine Feinde sogar fertig brachten, dass mir auch noch meine Kriegsversehrtenrente auf dreißig Prozent verringert wurde.”

58 “Kein Mensch, keine Dienststelle kümmerte sich mehr um mich und so war ich wiederum als arbeitslos Gewordener zu meiner finanziellen Notlage f. Monate dem Hohn und Spott—sowie tätlichen Angriffen meiner pol. Gegner ausgesetzt. Glaubten doch diese nach dem 30. Juni ihre Zeit wieder für gekommen. Diese Monate waren für mich bitter und zugleich die größte Entäuschung.” See also a second Lebenslauf written on October 12, 1936, and a “Dienstleistungs-Zeugnis” from Ortsgruppe Greifenhausen der NSDAP of September 23, 1936, signed by Ortsgruppenleiter X [illegible] and Ortsgruppenamtsleiter and Bürgermeister X [illegible]. Schmid had received a serious head wound in World War I, which took more than three years to heal and left him prone to sudden rage. Lebenslauf of Standartenführer Ernst Schmid.

59 A Sturmbann was an SA unit of between 250 and 600 men and functioned much like a battalion in the army.

60 On the link between trauma and violence, see Arbuckle, Gerald A., Violence, Society, and the Church: A Cultural Approach (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004); Farrell, Kirby, Post-traumatic Culture: Injury and Interpretation in the Nineties (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998); Fink, George, Stress of War, Conflict, and Disaster (San Diego: Academic Press, 2010); Linsky, Arnold S., Bachman, Ronet, and Straus, Murray, Stress, Culture, and Aggression (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004); Hickey, Eric, Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2003); World Bank, Violence in Colombia: Building Sustainable Peace and Social Capital (Washington, D.C.: World Bank Publications, 2000); Widom, Cathy Spatz, Trauma, Psychopathology, and Violence: Causes, Correlates, or Consequences? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

61 See Campbell, Bruce, “The SA after the Röhm Purge and the Institutionalized State of Emergency in the Third Reich,” Journal of Contemporary History 28, no. 4 (October 1993): 659–674.

62 In this context, see the important recent work by Brown, Timothy S., Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between Authenticity and Performance (New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009.)

63 For a groundbreaking study of the “habitus” of both the SA and Squadristi, see Reichardt, Sven, Faschistische Kampfbünde. Gewalt und Gemeinschaft im italienischen Squadrismus und in der deutschen SA (Cologne, Weimar, and Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2002).

64 This notion of writing oneself into the Nazi narrative, while not put in quite these terms, is implied in a recent analysis of the diaries of Horst Wessel. See Gailus, Manfred and Siemens, Daniel, eds., “Hass und Begeisterung bilden Spalier.” Die politische Autobiographie von Horst Wessel (Berlin: be.bra Verlag, 2011.)

65 Fritz Erkenbrecher, cited at length above, is one example of this.

66 Heinrich Beisner, quoted at length above, is a good example.

67 Ernst Schmid is one good example. On posttraumatic stress syndrome, see American Psychiatric Association (APA), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, rev. 4th ed. (Washington, D.C.: APA, 2000); Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Diagnosis and Assessment (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2006); Roberts, Cheryl A., Coping with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Guide for Families (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011). The role of wartime trauma and PTSD in the rise of National Socialism merits a separate article.