How did Adolf Hitler, who had never risen higher in military service than the rank of lance-corporal, attain mastery over Germany and most of Europe? Many factors contributed to the emergence of the Third Reich, and prominent among these were the actions of Hitler's earliest paramilitary army, the Sturmabteilungen (SA, Storm Troops), and the men chosen by the Fuhrer to lead it. An unswervingly loyal, highly disciplined militant force is as essential to the establishment and maintenance of a dictatorship as the dictator himself. Although Hitler ultimately culled the SA of its most revolutionary elements, there remained in it and the other party-affiliated organizations a spirit of fanatical, sometimes mindless worship of its supreme leader. This first volume, based largely on official personnel files and other contemporary documentation, analyzes the lives and careers of the thirteen highest-ranking SA leaders-men who held the ranks of Oberster SA-Fuhrer and SA-Stabschef.
