SA Stormtrooper Walther Pistol Rig: 8 Gun Gem

Another Educational Video

Hey guys, and welcome to another educational video. And as promised, I want to show you a bunch of SA rigs. Now I use the word epic a lot. I just did the video, the epic video about 25 calibers and we had five 25 calibers and I told you how rare though those were. I just want to tell you what the market is like. I always tell you how hot it is, not outside, but how hot the market is. 

It's really hot

And we had five 25 calibers, all of them sold within the first day of posting the video. So that's how quickly things move around here. And people are putting their investment money into hard assets and for good reason. 

A Once in a lifetime Opportunity

But let's keep moving, because now I have an epic video of SA pistols. Basically pistols that were ordered and issued to the SA or storm troopers. I'd have to go back and count them, but I think there's 10 or 11, all in one place. Now, again, you will never see this again in your life. And part of me hates to sell them because it breaks up the set. People spend their entire life collecting these to get 10 or 12 of them, and we sell them off immediately. I'd like to just have them hang around for a little bit because if you went to the biggest auction company I think in the world for buying guns is Rock Island; and you may not see a SA rig on Rock Island for three or four auctions. And when they finally have one, you will see one. So maybe one, possibly two a year will even come up on auction. And that's how long it takes to put together 10 to 12 SA rigs. So this is a great opportunity, unique opportunity for you, and it's also educational, because I'm going to talk about the pistols but also what led to the development of the SA. 

Sorry, but you're gonna have to shut up & listen

Now, whenever I do something like this, there's those of you who love to see the guns and you say shut up about history, and show us the guns. It reminds me of when you go to a concert, and they want to talk politics and they say just shut up and sing. I'm going to show you some guns, but you're going to have to shut up and listen, because I'm going to tell you a little bit about what led to the rise of the SA or Stormtroopers, also known as brown shirts. 

A Brief History Lesson

Many of you know that in my former career I was a psychologist. And that just means that I am fascinated by the psychology behind the rise of Nazism, we say in Germany but actually it was in the United States and through all of Europe. We've talked about that before. So around the world there was a rise of communism, and a rise of Nazism, which led to a polarization. Just like today, we have right wing versus left wing and there's a there's a growing polarization in our culture throughout the world. And because history repeats itself, it's important to study what happened because we see it playing out today. People are being forced into two different extremes. 

The People were Frustrated

Now Germany during the Weimar period, so this is through the 20s and 30s, the Weimar period before Hitler came to power, the vast majority of the people were moderate, they were in the middle. And Von Hindenburg was the president of Germany during that period. It was a weak government, he was a weak leader. They couldn't pass any legislation, they couldn't help the economy, things were not changing in Germany, and people were generally frustrated. So more and more the people in the middle we're joining extreme, such as the Communist Party. Just like the Russian Revolution, they were looking for a revolution to turn the whole system upside down, meaning get rid of all the aristocrats, all the powerful people and give the power to the people.

And so just turn the whole system upside down. On the other extreme, you have the Nazi Party, which is very much for let's restore Germany to its former greatness, strong military, strong in law and order. And older people, of course, want to keep everything the same and not have their world turned upside down. So you see a lot of people splitting. And obviously it ended up with Von Hindenburg basically supporting Hitler and his gruppe to take over in 1933. They immediately of course, because when you give one gruppe a power, the Nazi Party then immediately began rounding up all of their enemies and what they would call criminal element and putting them in concentration camps.

Should we do a Podcast?

That's just over simplistic. I know you a lot of you would love to sit down and discuss this for hours with me. In fact, Randy, I think it'd be a good idea, don't you? A good idea that we do a podcast, thank you. So we'll work on a podcast where I can go into it a little bit more again, simply overview. 

The Volunteer Guardian Angels

So the SA, I always look for modern day comparisons. And really, it reminds me of the guardian angels. Some of you who might be as old as I am, back in the 80s, there was a rise of violence in cities throughout the United States, it's actually happening now. And therefore, I would predict that we'd see similar elements coming out soon. But the guardian angels was a group that started in New York City, they dressed up in military fatigues and also wore were a military style red beret. And as you're looking at these pictures, some of you are saying, oh yeah, I vaguely remember that.

I was taking some classes, some psychology courses down in Center City, Philadelphia and the first time I got on a subway, and a couple of these guys got on, I was a little scared. I'm thinking what is going on, they're dressed up in military uniform or fatigues. And I later saw on the news that the guardian angels were there to protect us. It was a volunteer group of people who banded together and it grew into 130 cities. Throughout the United States had guardian angels, and it spread also to many other countries. So from then on, when I got on, I actually felt a lot safer when I saw a guardian angel on the subway because they were stopping crime and muggings and robberies throughout the city. And again, you know, they kind of faded away, but it was volunteers who wanted to make me safe.

The exact reason behind the SA

Now that feeling of these guys are here to help me is exactly why the SA rose. Now obviously, I'm not going to say the SA was just like the guardian angels. There was racism thrown into that, plus guys out shooting guns and beating people up. Yes, that all happened. But the mainstream German person who was very -- they didn't like the rise of chaos in the cities, the rise of crime, the unemployment, the homelessness, I can't find a job they were upset about these things.

And here comes these guys, in these uniforms - the brown shirts, these uniforms that were designed by Hugo Boss, they were sharp looking young men always well dressed, their hair was cut short, and they're there to protect me, what the heck would I be against? And so I certainly would say, hey, this is a great thing. Not only were they volunteering, but they paid dues to be in the SA. They had to buy their own uniform, they had to buy their own guns, and they had to pay dues to the organization in order to be a member. 

Then everything got out of control

So what started out as probably a reasonable idea or a reasonable group of guys getting together, once they took power, we know that it got out of control. And that's the lesson we need to learn. Once Hitler took power and took over everything, and by the way, the SS then cut off the head of the SA. The night of the long knives, they basically did a takeover of the SA and everybody swore allegiance to Hitler. Once they had ultimate power, then it gets out of hand because now not only do we round up the criminal element, but we're also rounding up Jews and people who we just don't want as our neighbors anymore. So we round them up, and we put them in camps. So for those people who maybe arrogantly say the German people, how stupid can you be? Putting myself in their shoes back then it probably is very logical why a lot of people signed up early on, and then later on realized this is not what I thought it was. 

End of the History Lesson

Okay, now that's enough preaching, I just wanted you to hear the background of it a little bit. Let's take a look at some of these guns. 

An SA Gruppes

Now first and foremost, I have this plaque, which is a SA shooter prize. Now again, throughout every region, they had an SA Gruppe. There were at least 38 regions and other in those regions, I have found 18 different gruppes that were issued guns. So not every region, and we'll go over those guns, but not every region ordered guns, although people probably bought their own guns, these are inscribed to the region. So like SA Gruppe Mitte was a particular region. Now within that they also had sub-gruppes all the way down to the Standaarte Gruppe, which was every city in Germany and even within the conquered areas, the occupied areas, they would always form their own gruppe. And in that way it was like Boy Scout troops in that everybody in their local gruppe, they would come together on weekends and they would compete. They got to keep the guys busy. They did military exercises, bivouacs or what we would say, you go out and you have military games and you sleep in the woods overnight, but they also really stressed shooting competitions. 

The SA Shooting Plaque

This plaque, I'm going to come up closer. But this plaque was a shooting prize plaque that started -- Well, let's take a look. So let's just take a quicker look. This is the typical SA uniform and this talks about the shooter prize competitions. And again throughout Germany, throughout every region, every district, they would have shooting competitions. And then they would have -- In fact in Nuremberg, they had a huge gathering of all the SA and later SS. So these gruppes or troops, gruppes, they competed. We see here that started in '36 and went all the way I saw a '42, here's '42. I can see the same guy - Sherman, he won in '36, he won in '37, then somebody else won. And again, I see him here, I think that's the same guy in '41. Each standaarte gruppe has a regimen and a gruppe number, and you would compete for your gruppe and your territory and your region. This is a plaque that I picked up at the gun show and I will be offering it to somebody who might find this of interest. We will be offering this on the website. 

The Gruppes were strategically created

Now as a sidebar, this is not an SA gruppe but this is another gruppe the NSKK, and I probably should mention, not only did these gruppes or clubs or SA Gruppes rise because of controlling crime and helping to promote the party, but also they were paramilitary meaning all of the exercises and all the training they did, because of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was limited to only 100,000 soldiers and I think they only had about 50,000 policemen, which wasn't enough. So the police needed help. And in the back of everybody's mind for the politicians, they thought we're not allowed to have more than 100,000 soldiers. But if we have these clubs, and organizations that are trained, in case of emergency, we can easily recruit them and pull them into the military which is exactly what happened with the NSKK, the NSFK, the SS and the SA. Now the NSFK the Luftwaffe was forbidden.

They were not allowed to have an Air Force, so they developed flying clubs. Basically training people on how to fly in aerial combat. So NSFK were flight clubs. That was just a standard PP with no special marking, but there was a holster for the NSFK. The flight clubs later became part of the Luftwaffe.  The NSKK, I have one of those pistols, the NSKK, a very cool pistol that I'm about to show you. It was a motor club. And so on the weekends, they would have motorcycle races and race car races, but they basically taught them how to drive and they would be couriers of messages, they became part of the motor corps mechanized divisions and as mundane as traffic cops. But again, these were clubs, young men joined, they learned all kinds of things on the weekends that later served greater Germany in World War II.

NSKK Pennant

Let me show you, this is a pendant. No! It's a pennant. I keep getting the name wrong, but it is pennant. And you would obviously put that on your car, very cool. And there is a stamp on it, an NSKK stamp right here and on the other side but that would be on your car and they would actually have drivers that would go pick up Nazi leaders and dignitaries and bring them to meetings.

The NSKK Holster

And here's the gun which this is even more rare than the SA guns. Actually the holster is more rare. This is the NSKK holster, that is the logo of course, rarely seen. It does say Walther here and only the Walther PP was used for the NSKK. This was altered. What happened here is it had a strap so that it would go around their shoulder, probably for a motorcycle driver instead of having it on your waist because it would interfere when you sat on your motorcycle or actually as a driver. That would go around your shoulder and so it would be a shoulder holster. 

The NSKK Gun

Let's take a look at the gun. That is the NSKK logo that you can see on the gun and a beautiful fire blue. This is from about 1938. You can see a beautiful front strap and this is the reverse side. You can see its crown N proofed and a beautiful high polish finish. So this gun is probably about as rare as an SA gun. But the holster is even more rare. The holsters actually sell for more than the gun. It's hard to imagine but the holsters are extremely rare. So to find this together as a rig is a really special find. I will be offering this one for sale because I already have one in the safe. 

7 Complete Rigs - A Close-Up of the SA Logo

I just lined these up on my desk but I have seven complete rigs. You can see all of the holsters. And again, this is a lifetime of collecting to get these all together. The logo here is probably most pronounced in this one, you can see the logo much better. But that is the S, looks like a lightning rod kind of like the SS ruin. But that is S - A. So this is SA in a circle. And again, the designers did the logo on these and just incredibly beautiful. 

Akah made Holsters

Notice this one, see how this is squared off here. You notice that this one is a little different. Every one of these are made by Akah, because they were hired by the party to make party holsters, party leader holsters, and the SA, NSFK, the NSKK, all of them were made by Akah. 

An SA Sauer and Holster

This one you see is slightly different and that's because it's for a Sauer. And this is the only SA Sauer in the collection. The SA rigs I'm going to show you almost all of them are from 1938. This is the only one that is on a Sauer and it's much later, notice the dull finish. This is actually from 1944. These all come in a late serial number and have a very crude marking for SA Gruppe Alpenland. Now I don't think that was done in the factory because of how crude it was. But I think this SA Gruppe ordered some guns, they had that put on it. These are documented in a book and I have sold a couple of them, and I've also seen a couple of fakes. Because of the way that's engraved on there, you want to see a little bit of age in the engraving and it has to be in a late serial range. But this is the only SA gun that I have that is a Sauer and it comes with an SA holster, also made for a Sauer. And again notice it's just a little bit different on the cut. 

A little bit on the guns ordered by gruppes

Let's go through each one of these. As I mentioned before, there was actually 37 gruppes within Germany. At least from the reading that I did, I saw 37. I've only seen 18 gruppes that ordered gun. So again, not every gruppe ordered a gun and most of them are 7.65 but there are some in 22. And they ordered 22 for the shooting competitions. They basically practice with 22 because it was cheaper. And they have a lot of guys practicing every weekend but they use 22. And then as a side carry piece they would use the 32.

Gruppe Niedersachsen

This gruppe is Niedersachsen, it's an uncommon gruppe. So none of these are common, but the most common gruppes I'll show you are going to be Mitte and Franken and Niederrhein, this is Niedersashen. They always come with one finger extension magazine, and then one flat magazine as a spare in in the holster. So this is the Niedersachsen. 

Gruppe Alpenland, Gruppe Mitte

We already saw Alpenland. So this is marked Walther PP. And same thing. I'll wipe it down a little bit. Similar condition and this one is more common gruppe, Gruppe Mitte. which I believe is middle, I think it's right in the middle of Germany. So Gruppe Mitte. This is a lot like a box of chocolates. I never know what I'm going to get. So let's see what this one is. A nice holster. And this one is PP marked and not sure what that is, post office box. Not sure. Oh, I haven't shown but there's the Akah marking DRGM. 

A very Rare Gruppe

And this is probably, I recognize this. This is probably the nicest looking one in the gruppe. And this is actually a rarer 1938, this is a rarer gruppe. It's kind of counterintuitive because Thüringen, again, this is Gruppe Thüringen which is where the factory was. So the Walther factory was in Thüringen, it's probably pronounced Thüringen. The logo on all the guns you see ZellaMehlis and then you see that Thur, which is not Thursday but that is Thüringen. So the factory is in Thüringen and they didn't order very many, even though they're right down the street. So this one is a rarer gruppe. So you see the SA marking. 

 

We can give our opinion, so send us pics

Obviously people do fake these. And so you want to really check the font carefully. And of course, if you're contemplating buying one, send us pictures and we can actually weigh in. I can't guarantee you if I don't have it in hand, but I can certainly tell you if I think it looks good or not. But investment on something like this, the holsters alone can sell for $2500 up to $4500, depending on condition. And the guns I have seen in the $3500 - $4500 range, the 22 calibers are a little bit more because they're a lot more rare. 

 

Gruppe Niederrhein

This one is the next one. And I can tell from the box mag, I think this is a 22. Let's find out. Yep. This one is a 22 caliber, so a lot more rare. So it does have the box mag on it, which again does not extend the mag capacity. But there's the early seven hole magazine and 22 caliber. Now let's see what gruppe it is. And this one is Niederrhein. So we saw Niedersaschen and this one is Niederrhein. 

 

Common one - Gruppe Franken

Again, I've seen 18 different gruppes. Let's go to the next one. This holster has cracking in it or grazing and that's just from being overly dry. From not using any kind of leather treatment to keep this moist, it kind of cracked a little bit that does affect the price. But again, it's Walther marked, the DRGM is upside down on that one. Shows you that that factory also makes mistakes. Let's see what this is, 7.65 and this gruppe is Franken, that's one of the more common ones - Gruppe Franken. 

Gruppe Kurpfalz - One of the Rarest

Here's the last one of the rigs anyway, I do have some other pistols to show you. But that's the SA rig and it does say Walther PP inside. Let's take a look at the gun. Beautiful gun 7.65. So we only had one in 22 caliber. Look at the backstrap, this is just a gorgeous gun 1938. This one, and I'm pronouncing it Gruppe Kurpfalz, is actually one of the rarest one. I believe there's only two or three of these known. So they probably only ordered very few, like maybe 20 guns, and not many survived the war. By the way, most of the SA gruppes were later in the height of the war, so in the middle of a war. Say by '43-'44 most of the S Gruppes were just absorbed into the army. Now you were allowed to stay with your gruppe, they would bring you in as a gruppe and you would form your own unit. But most of the gruppes went into the army from 1943 until the very end. 

 

I lied... again, Gruppe Shiesien

Okay, once again, I lied I had seven lined up on my desk and I just found another one. That's what happens when you have too many SA rigs laying around. This one is a little darker, I don't think it was dyed, but it seems a little bit darker. And box mag, so this is a 22 caliber. And you can see here 22 caliber, and it's a new gruppe because it is SA Gruppe Shiesien. Germans will correct me but Shiesien, that's a new gruppe. And this one is also pretty rare, has a 22 caliber. Now there's two 22 calibers out of the eight and then six that were 7.65. 

 

The two rarest Gruppes - Gruppe Berlin-Brandenburg

Okay, I'm going to end with the two rarest ones that I have. This one we've already talked about but we'll do it again. Let me start with this one. Look how beautiful this one is. I believe there's only two known. So this is one of two. Now we talked about them coming from different areas. This gruppe you can see very clearly his Gruppe Berlin-Brandenburg. Now you've all heard of the Brandenburg Gate. But this was a standaarte gruppe. So even within Berlin, the city was so big, they had sub-gruppes. And this sub-gruppe again, only two known so they probably only ordered about 10 guns. This gruppe is Berlin-Brandenburg, and it's a known gun, meaning it's been documented and became part of my collection about five years ago. So I didn't pick this up at the show, but it's one I picked up about five years ago, and will stay in my collection. 

 

The Beer Hall Putsch at Feldherrnhalle

Now this one last one I'm going to show you, this one I've shown you before and talk about the history of the SA, it goes back all the way to 1923. So 1923 the Nazis were growing in popularity, and they met in a Beer Hall which was Feldherrnhalle and that's where the putsch from 1923 where they had a rebellion in the streets. Hitler was involved, Goring was wounded, a couple of people were killed. And that was when Hitler was imprisoned and wrote Mein Kampf. So all the way back in 1923. Now this gun however, and this is the only PPK, only SA Gruppe I know that came with a PPK. But this was done in memory of those who were fallen, they were always considered heroes of the Third Reich. And they started their own club to honor their memory. And they actually had Waffen units that fought in World War II to commemorate Standaarte Feldherrnhalle. What the Germans like to do, take three words and put them all together and make it difficult for me to pronounce. So this is very rare gun. This is documented again and I believe once again, there's only two known. The condition of this gun is not nearly as nice as the others, but it has a lot of history. Very rare. 

 

That was a mouth-full, hope you're not Overwhelmed

Hey, guys, that was a lot to absorb. We have a lot of young collectors out there and you're probably overwhelmed. You'll never be able to collect them all. These all will be out to the public soon, meaning this whole set will be broken up. So don't be discouraged, you're not going to be able to grab them all. But watching and subscribing to this channel, you get to see some stuff that you'll never even see in a museum. So thanks for watching, and I have one more video from the Show of Shows and it's just some odds and ends guns that I never got to. So I'll do one more video probably tomorrow.