Between Republic and Revenge: The Shadow Connection of SA and Black Reichswehr

The Weimar Republic was a political experiment under constant fire. While she tried to establish democratic structures, forces formed in the background to plan their destruction. Two of these forces – the Storm Department (SA) of the NSDAP and the Black Reichswehr – were in a complex relationship to each other, which has been insufficiently historically worked up to this day.Their personal, financial and structural interdependencies shed a bleak light on the role of the Reichswehr, elites-giving elites and the early Nazi movement.

The Black Reichswehr: Illegal State in the State

The Black Reichswehr was created in response to the drastic demands on disarmament of the Versailles Treaty. Officially, the Reichswehr was only allowed to comprise 100,000 men – but unofficially, a secret military substructure was created, consisting of so-called “work commandos”. These units were led by officers such as Bruno Buchrucker and Paul Schulz and were with weapons,Training and infrastructure equipped – all under the Allied radar and its own government. This organization was not only a military project, but also a political instrument. Its members were consistently anti-democratic, nationalistic and ready to violence. The Black Reichswehr was thus an incubator for later radicalizationright-wing socialist movements.

The SA: Road fighting troop with military aspiration

The SA was founded in 1921 as the paramilitary arm of the NSDAP. Her task was to fight political opponents, protect events and enforce the Nazi ideology on the street. But the SA was more than a thug – it was a military organization that was strongly based on military role models in terms of structure, demeanor and self-image. manyOf its early members, Freikorps had experience, were veterans of World War I or came directly from the Black Reichswehr. This personal continuity is a crucial indication of the ideological and structural proximity of both organizations.

Financial intertwining: money from dark channels

The financing of the SA in its early years has not yet been fully clarified. Officially, it was supported by donations from the NSDAP environment. But there are indirect assumptions that parts of the Black Reichswehr – and thus indirectly the Reichswehr itself – provided financial support. This did not necessarily happen in the form of direct cash payments, but viaBenefits in kind, arms deliveries, training opportunities and logistic help. Ernst Röhm, who later became the chief of the SA staff, was a link between the Reichswehr and the NSDAP. He used his contacts to open weapons stores, provide instructors and upgrade the SA militarily. This support was unofficial, but systematic – and it shows how deep the Reichswehr in theinfiltration of the republic was entangled.

Structural proximity: Two sides of the same medal

The SA and the Black Reichswehr were not identical, but they worked according to similar principles. Both organizations were hierarchically structured, military disciplined and ideologically geared towards the destruction of the republic. They shared not only staff, but also strategies, enemy images and goals. The Black Reichswehr served the SA as a model andresource. The SA took on not only military tactics, but also the idea of an “inner war” against the republic. The idea that democracy is an enemy that must be combated by force was central to both organizations.

Lack of reappraisal: The silence after 1945

After the Second World War, the Nazi era was comprehensively revised – at least in parts. The SA was condemned as part of the Nazi power structure, and its role in street fighting and in the seizure of power was documented. But the connections to the Black Reichswehr remained largely unexplored. One reason for this is the taboo on the history of the Reichswehr. The Bundeswehr and othersAuthorities did not want to burden themselves with the fact that their institutional predecessors were actively involved in the destruction of democracy. Many historians also focused on the NSDAP itself, not on its underground military supporters. This gap is problematic, because it conceals the complicity-representing elites who not onlytolerated, but actively promoted. The Black Reichswehr was not a fringe phenomenon, but a central player in the collapse of the Weimar Republic – and its connection to the SA is a key to understanding this development.

Did the republic have a chance?

The connection between the SA and the Black Reichswehr shows how deeply the anti-democratic forces were rooted in the Weimar elite. The republic was not only threatened from outside, but systematically undermined from the inside – by organizations that posed as guardians of the order, but in fact planned the destruction of democracy. The lack of historical reappraisal of thisConnection is a failure that still has an effect today. Anyone who wants to understand the history of the Weimar Republic must also deal with the dark alliances between the military, secret service, politics, authorities and street fighting – and with the question of how much of this mentality lived on in later institutions.