‘Stoßtrupp Hitler’

The unit of battle-hardened party members established by Hitler in May 1923 for his protection and personal service played a key role during the Hitler putsch of November 8/9, 1923. Armed with machine guns, the Stoßtrupp surrounded the Bürgerbräukeller, destroyed the offices and printing press of the social democratic newspaper Münchener Post, and took hostages. After the failure of the attempted putsch, the Stoßtrupp was banned and 38 of its members imprisoned; 22 of them served their sentences with Hitler in Landsberg.

In 1925, Hitler created the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Nazi Party’s elite paramilitary organization, with members of the Stoßtrupp and other units. By 1933, the Stoßtrupp had been re-established as a veterans’ organization. During the Nazi Party rally at the Old City Hall in Munich on November 8, 1938, at which Joseph Goebbels called for attacks on Jewish institutions and apartments, there were 39 Stoßtrupp men sitting close to Hitler. The Stoßtrupp, which was in charge of the pogroms in Munich, then marched through the city and apparently set fire to the Ohel Jakob synagogue.