I have been reading the "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer. Obviously the SA played a huge role in the political ascent of the NSDAP. However, I don't quite understand the legality of these different paramilitary organizations attached to political parties, not only limited to the NSDAP (e.g. the Roter Frontkämpferbund). Why did the state police tolerate these ruffians throughout the Reich? Is it because the time was generally tumultuous and political violence was deemed more acceptable in the young democracy?
My understanding of the SA is that the NSDAP and allied organization were very much tolerated by the Bavarian state and later other federal states at the time since the entire republic (with the army guaranteeing its' continued survival) was rather blind on the 'right eye'.
Thank you!
Hey there, I wrote an answer which goes into more detail about the paramilitary organisations which you can find here.
In terms of legality, the organisations were broadly tolerated until they stepped over the line. Smaller groups such as Organisation Consul or the killers of Rosa Luxemburg who carried out political assassinations were pursued by the police, although the right wing bias of the judiciary meant that the trials themselves were often not conducted to the highest standard. Similarly, the SA were banned in Bavaria after the Beer Hall Putsch.
The prevalence of the paramilitary groups would have made it difficult to fully outlaw them. Anywhere up to six million Germans were members by 1933 so the scale of outlawing and enforcing the ban would have been huge. Since these paramilitary groups were linked to political parties (the SPD, KPD and NSDAP had the largest) there was no political appetite to ban them.