Stormtrooper Families – Homosexuality and Community in the Early Nazi Movement

Andrew Wackerfuss is a historian with the United States Air Force and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Detailed, well informed, and highly readable-an important and most welcome contribution to the still relatively small number of SA histories, and Wackerfuss has undertaken a huge amount of research into local primary sources. -- Daniel Siemens, University College London A fascinating picture of the private lives of the SA, both as individuals and in their close-knit groups. Many studies concentrate on the SA leadership and its trials and tribulations, but Wackerfuss shines a light on individual units, which were by no means a united front but sometimes fraught with infighting. Beyond that, he peers into the life and minds of individual SA men to see what motivated them to join this violent organization and how it became instrumental in winning support for Adolf Hitler. -- Geoffrey Giles, University of Florida Stormtrooper Families is a much needed addition to the vast collection of books on the Third Reich and its history. Books by Meri Stormtrooper Families offers a much-needed historical reckoning... bringing lucid scholarship to a neglected area in the history of the Nazi regime. -- Karl Wolff New York Journal of Books It is a rare achievement indeed to tell us something new about Nazism. Through its in-depth exploration of 'everyday' life within Hamburg's Sturmabteiling (SA), the Nazi Party's paramilitary group, Andrew Wackerfuss' rich and readable book does just that. -- Victoria Harris Times Higher Education A fascinating study of a history that many textbooks have ignored. -- Darrell Scheidegger Jr. Outword A fascinating, well-researched and well-written book, this one is a keeper. -- Angel Curtis OutSmart A very readable history of the Sturmabteilung (SA), or stormtroopers, one of the earliest wings of Nazism... Highly recommended. Choice Wackerfuss brings a very perceptive eye to his subject... Academic readers will find his contribution to our knowledge of the SA, and especially his perceptive analysis of the psychology of some of its members, immensely useful, while more casual readers will surely find his account, quite simply, very enjoyable to read. -- Alex Burkhardt H-German Wackerfuss provides a welcome addition to our understanding of the early SA movement, and a thoughtful commentary on postwar notions of Nazi sexuality and homoeroticism. -- Tiia Sahrakorpi German History Stormtrooper Families reveals intimate details about the lives of the men who served in the famously cliquish, violent, and chaotic German military unit known as Sturmabteilung (a.k.a. "SA" or "Stormtroopers"). -- Jacob Anderson-Minshall The Advocate A very readable book that offers a window on daily life in the SA as well as a provocative argument about homosexuality and Nazism. -- Laurie Marhoefer American Historical Review

• Introduction 1. Fathers and Forefathers 2. Shattered Sons 3. Stormtroopers Confront The Criminal 4. The Battle of Sternschanze 5. Community and Violence 6. Bloody Sundays 7. The SA Takes Power 8. Long Knives Epilogue. From Sodom to Gomorrah: Hamburg in Ruins Acknowledgments Glossary Index