Schutzstaffel

The Schutzstaffel (Abbreviated as SS) is a German state organisation and paramilitary force that holds significant influence in the Reich and its colonies. Originally led in Germania by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, his title of SS Leader has been "technically" removed after his attempted coup against the Reich's government and Hitler. Currently, the title of Reichsführer-SS is split between the leader of the Burgundian-SS, Heinrich Himmler, and the leader of the Deutsche-SS, Reinhard Heydrich. However, this "power struggle" is but a facade, as most of the SS troops and personnel is compliant with Himmler

With over 1.000.000 active personnel and their own Army branch, the Waffen-SS, the Schutzstaffel is a Major force to be reckoned with politically and militarily.

Their current headquarters are situated on the Prinz-Albrecht-Straße (Prince Albert Strasse) in Germania.

Origins

The SS originally started as a bodyguard unit, to provide security to Adolf Hitler in party functions and meetings. Marking it's foundation on 9th November 1925 (The 2nd Anniversary of Munich Beer Hall Putsch), this organisation would grow over the interwar years, protecting important leaders of the NSDAP.

Originally considered a part of the Strumabteilung (SA), it would see itself lose against its parent organisation until Heinrich Himmler assumed his role initially as deputy of the SS, in September 1927. It was around this time the SS would pick up steam, seeing itself established in a number of provinces across Germany.

By 1929, Himmler became head of the SS, with Hitler's blessing. With his ultimate aim of turning the SS into the most powerful organisation in Germany and the most influential branch of the party, he would expand membership to 3000 members in his first year as head of the organisation.

Himmler considered the SS an elite, ideologically driven National Socialist organisation and under his leadership the SS expanded and gained a larger foothold in the NSDAP.

The Organisation's Role in the Nazis Consolidation of Power

After Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power on 30 January 1933, the SS was considered a state organisation and a branch of the government. Law enforcement gradually became the purview of the SS, and many SS organisations became de facto government agencies.

The SS established a police state within Nazi Germany, using the secret state police and security forces under Himmler's control to suppress resistance to Hitler. In his role as Minister President of Prussia, Hermann Göring had created a Prussian secret police force, the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo, and appointed Rudolf Diels as its head.

Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the SA, Göring handed over its control to Himmler on 20 April 1934. On the same day, diverting from long-standing German practice that law enforcement was a state and local matter, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia. Himmler named his deputy and protégé Reinhard Heydrich chief of the Gestapo on 22 April 1934. Heydrich also continued as head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD).

The Gestapo's transfer to Himmler was a prelude to the Night of the Long Knives, in which most of the SA leadership were arrested and subsequently murdered, of which the SS and Gestapo was responsible.

On 20 July 1934, Hitler detached the SS from the SA, which was no longer an influential force after the purge. The SS became an elite corps of the Nazi Party, answerable only to Hitler. As Himmler's position and authority grew, so in effect did his rank. Himmler's title of Reichsführer-SS now became his actual rank – and the highest rank in the SS, equivalent to the rank of field marshal in the army (his previous rank was Obergruppenführer , equivalent to a 3-star general).

On 17 June 1936, all police forces throughout Germany were united under the purview of Himmler and the SS. Himmler and Heydrich thus became two of the most powerful men in the Reich's administration. Police and intelligence forces brought under their administrative control included the SD, Gestapo, Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; criminal investigative police), and Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; regular uniformed police).

In his capacity as police chief, Himmler was nominally subordinate to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick. In practice, the SS answered only to Hitler, as the de facto merger of the SS and the police made the police independent of Frick's control. In September 1939, the security and police agencies, including the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; security police) and the SD, were consolidated into the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), headed by Heydrich. This further increased the collective authority of the SS.

During the Kristallnacht in 1938. SS security services clandestinely coordinated violence against Jews whilst the other SS branches did what they could to ensure that while Jewish synagogues and community centres were destroyed, Jewish-owned businesses and housing remained intact so that they could later be seized. In the end, thousands of Jewish businesses, homes, and graveyards were vandalised and looted, particularly by members of the SA. Some 500 to 1,000 synagogues were destroyed, mostly by arson. On 11 November, Heydrich reported a death toll of 36 people, but later assessments put the number of deaths at up to two thousand. On Hitler's orders, around 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps by 16 November. As many as 2,500 of these people died in the following months. It was at this point that the SS state began in earnest its campaign of terror against political and religious opponents, who they imprisoned without trial or judicial oversight for the sake of "security, re-education, or prevention".

In September 1939, the authority of the SS expanded further when the senior SS officer in each military district also became its chief of police. Most of these SS and police leaders held the rank of SS-Gruppenführer or above and answered directly to Himmler in all SS matters within their district. Their role was to police the population and oversee the activities of the SS men within their district. By declaring an emergency, they could bypass the district administrative offices for the SS, SD, SiPo, SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV; concentration camp guards), and Orpo, thereby gaining direct operational control of these groups.

Ideology

The Ideology of the SS was to be the elite guard of the NSDAP, In keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, all SS officer candidates had to provide proof of Aryan ancestry back to 1750 and for other ranks to 1800 in the founding days of the organisation. Once the Second World War started and it became more difficult to confirm ancestry, the regulation was amended to proving only the candidate's grandparents were Aryan, as spelled out in the Nuremberg Laws.

Other requirements were complete obedience to the Führer and a commitment to the German people and nation. Himmler also tried to institute physical criteria based on appearance and height, but these requirements were only loosely enforced, and over half the SS men did not meet the criteria.

Inducements such as higher salaries and larger homes were provided to members of the SS since they were expected to produce more children than the average German family as part of their commitment to Nazi Party doctrine.

The SS ideology also included the application of brutality and terror as a solution to military and political issues. The SS stressed total loyalty and obedience to orders unto death. Hitler used this brutal ideology in the SS as a powerful tool to further his aims and those of the Nazi Party, hence the SS was entrusted with the commission of war crimes such as the murder of Jewish civilians.

Their official motto was "Meine Ehre heißt Treue" (My Honour is Loyalty).