Whats "brown shirts" mean?

[southernleftylady]

??? i see this all the time but do not know what it means

[meegbear]

1. The Nazi party during the 1920s ...

part of their uniform was a brown collared shirt. The Italian fascists wore black ones, hence Blackshirts meaning fascists.

[demnan]

2. Nazi Gestapo wore brown shirts

[rpannier]

3. Definition from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung

History
The term Sturmabteilung originally came from the specialized assault troops used by Germany in 1918 in World War I utilising Hutier tactics. Instead of a large mass assault, the Sturmabteilung were organized into small teams of a few soldiers each. First applied during the Battle of Cambrai the wider use in March 1918 allowed the Germans to push back British and French lines tens of kilometers.

Hitler himself founded the SA in 1921 in Munich. It originally functioned as a group of bodyguards to enforce order at Nazi gatherings. Under their popular leader, Ernst Röhm, the SA grew in importance within the Nazi power structure, eventually claiming thousands of members. The SA carried out numerous acts of violence against socialist groups throughout the 1920s, typically in minor street-fights. The SS eventually took over their original role.

After Hitler took power in 1933 the SA became increasingly anxious for power and saw themselves as the replacement for the German army. This angered the regular army (Reichswehr) who were already quite annoyed at the Nazi party. It also led to tension with other leaders within the party, who saw Röhm's increasingly powerful SA as a threat to their own personal ambitions.

In order to ally himself with conservative forces within the German Army and to strengthen his position within the Nazi Party, Hitler ordered the execution of the leadership of the SA which took place on 29–30 June, 1934 on what is known as the Night of the Long Knives. Victor Lutze became the new leader of the SA, and the organization was soon marginalized in the Nazi power structure

[amber dog democrat]

4. Brown Shitrs were the early Nazi Party's para military forces

before they came into power in 1933 and prior to the Night of The Long Knives in 1934, Brown Shrits were the ones known for street fightnig with communists and bullying tactics. If I remember, when this organization , the SA uniforms were surplus uniforms from colonial african forces. in order to get the Army to give alliegance to Hitler, the SA was marginalized and its leadership was killed during arrests.
They had served their purpose and the brutal and undisciplined aspects were in impediment to getting the support of the Whermacht. They became the fall guys.