After World War I Germany was humiliated by the Allies in the Treaty of Versailles. They were forced to demilitarize, pay reparations, and surrender large areas of territory. This and the economic disarray that followed led to resentment and anger on the part of the German people, paving the way for the nationalist sentiments that Hitler rode to power. Hyperinflation and then the Great Depression left Germany in dire economic straits and ripe for a dynamic, angry new leader. The SA (Stormabteilung), also known as Storm Troopers or Brownshirts, was a violent paramilitary group founded by Adolf Hitler in Munich, Germany in 1921. Identifiable by their brown uniforms and serving austensibly as a security force for Nazi rallies, they used violence and intimidation to influence voters in local and national elections. In the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 Hitler led 600 Brownshirts in a failed coup attempt against the democratic Weimar government. They instigated violent street clashes, targeting Jews and leftists. Anti-capitalist Ernst Rohm became involved and grew the SA to 2 million or more members by 1933.
