Uniform worn by members of the SA (Storm Troopers), the vicious street fighters of the Nazi party. This particular uniform was the type worn by a "troop leader" from Brandenburg near Berlin. The SA played an important role in Hitler's rise to power (1933), the boycott (1933), and the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom (1938) in Germany. They were known as "Brownshirts" because of the color of their uniforms. Members of the SS (Schutzstaffel, which became the elite guard of the Nazi state) typically wore black uniforms.