SA Political March Photos

**drmessimer** · 12-30-2012, 05:52 PM

These three photos were taken in 1932, so they aren't really Third Reich vintage, but they are close. My father-in-law, Franz Eichberger took these with his Leica I 35mm camera. He was an amateur photographer who spent his days off taking photos of whatever was around him and did his own darkroom work.

This first photo was taken in Wedding, the Berlin district where he and his family lived, in June 1932. SA marches like those shown in these three photos were a regular feature throughout Germany as the 31 July national election approached. I have always gotten a particular enjoyment from this photo because of the bar (pub) in the background with the name Sturm-Local. I wonder if that is where this parade was organized.

This photo was taken on Wilhelm-Strasse in the government quarter. My father-in-law was the Oberküchenmeister at the Adlon Hotel, which was just up the street at Parisier-Platz, He took this photo during a break.

This photo is also in what is known as Stadtmitte (city middle) on Friedrich-Strasse. A point that I find interesting is that in the first photo there are no policemen walking with the march, but in both the Stadtmitte photos, they are there. Their purpose was to insure that the march did not become a brawl. They weren't there to keep the SA in line, they were there to watch for agitators in the crowd. I would have expected a fairly strong police presence in Wedding, which was a Communist stronghold in Berlin, but there are none in the first photo. Dwight