In 1921 Adolf Hitler formed his own private army called Sturm Abteilung (Storm Section). The SA (also known as stormtroopers or brownshirts) were instructed to disrupt the meetings of political opponents and to protect Hitler from revenge attacks. Captain Ernst Roehm of the Bavarian Army played an important role in recruiting these men, and became the SA's first leader. Hitler's stormtroopers were often former members of the Freikorps (right-wing private armies who flourished during the period …showed first 75 words of 898 total…

…showed last 75 words of 898 total…German people, and thereby I become the supreme judge of the German people. I gave the order to shoot the ringleaders in this treason." Roehm was replaced by Victor Lutze as head of the SA. Lutze was a weak man and the SA gradually lost its power in Hitler's Germany. The Schutz Staffeinel (SS) under the leadership of Himmler grew rapidly during the next few years, replacing the SA as the dominant force in Germany.