Brownshirts

Sturmabteilung street thugs

Brownshirts were members of the Nazi paramilitary organization in Germany, officially the Sturmabteilung (SA), named for their brown uniform shirts.

They were instrumental in Hitler's rise to power through intimidation and street violence against political opponents.

The term now refers broadly to thuggish enforcers of authoritarian movements: The protesters called the riot police brownshirts.

historical

Nazi

German fascist party member

paramilitaryUnofficial armed organization
HitlerNazi Germany's totalitarian leader
WeimarThuringian city, cultural landmark

stormtroopers · thugs · street violence · intimidation · fascism · 1930s · Germany · uniforms · rallies · militia

figurative

thugs

Violent criminals

fascistsAuthoritarian nationalist adherents
authoritariansRulers demanding total compliance
extremistsThose with radical positions

paramilitaries · enforcers · goons · militants · agitators · hooligans · bullies · stormtroopers · jackboots · ultranationalists

Categories

German HistoryNazi, Prussia, Saxony, Reichstag, Napoleonic Wars
Nazi GermanyAdolf Hitler, Hitler, Nazi, Nazis, Nazi Party
WWII GermanyNazi Germany, Nazi Party, Nazi regime, Third Reich, Wehrmacht
German PoliticsBundesrat, CSU, Nazi Party, Greens, federal republic
factionsfactions, faction, splinter groups, splinter party, blocs
tyrantsHitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin

Opposites

political alignment

Brownshirtscommunists

Collective ownership advocates

nazi organizational hierarchy

BrownshirtsSchutzstaffel

Nazi paramilitary organization

Blackshirts · Wehrmacht · Gestapo

relationship to state power

Brownshirtsresistance fighters

Armed opponents of occupation

White Rose · anti-Nazi resistance · partisans · dissidents · Maquis

Family

brown, shirt, browns, browner, brownest, brownish, browning, browned, shirts

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Profile: Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Negative · Rated PG-13