Stabschef was an office and paramilitary rank in the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary stormtroopers associated with the Nazi Party. It was a rank and position held by the operating chief of the SA. The rank was equivalent to the rank of Generaloberst in the German Army and to General in the U.S. Army.
Stabschef
Image: The Liberation of Rhodes, 1945 E30943 (cropped)
Image: Bundesarchiv Bild 102 15282A, Ernst Röhm
Image: Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild F051632 0523, Viktor Lutze
The Sturmabteilung was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and early 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Roter Frontkämpferbund of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and intimidating Romani, trade unionists, and especially Jews.
Hitler and Hermann Göring with SA stormtroopers in front of Frauenkirche, Nuremberg in 1928
The SA unit in Nuremberg, 1929
Marketing for the SA's Sturm Cigarette Company also promoted military service.
The SA unit in Berlin in 1932
