How the German Brownshirts Got Started

I could probably make this into a 20-page essay but I'll try to limit this to 40 lines.

Most historians like to give the start-up point of the Brownshirts to the 1919/1920 era, when Hitler joined up with the Nationalist Socialist Party in Munich.....however, this is NOT the start-up point.

The start-up term used as "Sturmabteilung" which basically means special assault members of the German Army.  After six months of the war had gone by with no real end in sight...this idea got passed around to create 'storm-troops'.

This would be smaller of special troops organized in the early spring of 1915 (March time-period).  They would get the experimental weapons and be there to test tactics.  Over the next year, the German Army grew on this idea of storm-troops. There are some isolated cases, where their participation in some battles (Riga) made a difference.

The war ended with storm-troops being sent home.  Around 1919, with Hitler as part of the Nazi Party system.....he brought back in the concept.  His Brownshirts were there to handle hecklers and to bloody-up anyone who challenged the party membership.

Roughly a year goes back after their introduction, and Hitler now makes the group an official part of the Party....giving them the title of "Gymnastic and Sports Division".  Yes, you can laugh over the title, but that was their official name.  I listened to one German PhD history guy a few years ago....go over this original group, and how most all of the 'insiders' were fitness nuts. 

One part to the original core group out of Munich, which might fascinate people....they absolutely believed in the socialist idea of taking property and land from the nobility-class, and parcel it out to the former vets of the war (WW I).  In some odd ways, it's very much like several African nations of the past twenty years who went through the same path. 

For the Brownshirt basic member....the party represented a path to greater glory, personal enrichment, wealth re-distribution, and a better life.  Being a 'thug' for the party, would eventually pay off.