SS
corps of Nazi Party
Written By:
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Dec 3, 2018 See Article History
Alternative Titles: Blackshirt, Schutzstaffel
SS, abbreviation of Schutzstaffel (German: “Protective Echelonâ€), the black-uniformed elite corps and self-described “political soldiers†of the Nazi Party. Founded by Adolf Hitler in April 1925 as a small personal bodyguard, the SS grew with the success of the Nazi movement and, gathering immense police and military powers, became virtually a state within a state.
From 1929 until its dissolution in 1945, the SS was headed by Heinrich Himmler, who built up the SS from fewer than 300 members to more than 50,000 by the time the Nazis came to power in 1933. Himmler, a racist fanatic, screened applicants for their supposed physical perfection and racial purity but recruited members from all ranks of German society. With their sleek black uniforms and special insignia (lightninglike runic S’s, death’s head badges, and silver daggers), the men of the SS felt superior to the brawling brown-shirted Storm Troopers of the SA, to which initially they were nominally subordinate.
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