Original Item. Only One Available. This is a very nice German WWII Era SA Sailing Competition Award, looking to be made from silvered alloy and measuring approximately 1 3/4" in diameter. The SA held numerous competitions and other events throughout Germany to foster a sense of unity and further indoctrinate them into the NSDAP.

The obverse features a central multi-masted sail boat, with the SA emblem super-imposed over the bottom. The top of the award is marked with Gruppenwettkämpfe (Group Competitions) over 1938, and the bottom is marked SA-Gruppe Hansa. This was an SA district in the north of Germany, along the Sea Coast, with Hamburg as the principal city. The rear of the badge is marked with 1. Sieger, or "1st Prize", though we are not sure exactly what type of sailing event it was.

A great SA award in very good condition overall. Comes ready for further research and display.

The S.A.-
The Sturmabteilung, literally Storm Detachment, was the NSDAP Party's original paramilitary. It played a significant role in Adolf AH's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for NSDAP rallies and assemblies, disrupting the meetings of opposing parties, fighting against the paramilitary units of the opposing parties, especially the Red Front Fighters League (Rotfrontkämpferbund) of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), and intimidating Romani, trade unionists, and, especially, Jews – for instance, during the NSDAP boycott of Jewish businesses.

The SA were also called the "Brownshirts" (Braunhemden) from the color of their uniform shirts, similar to Benito Mussolini's blackshirts. The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, with ranks that were later adopted by several other NSDAP Party groups, chief amongst them the Schutzstaffel (SS), which originated as a branch of the SA before being separated. Brown-colored shirts were chosen as the SA uniform because a large number of them were cheaply available after World War I, having originally been ordered during the war for colonial troops posted to Germany's former African colonies.

The SA became disempowered after Adolf AH ordered the "blood purge" of 1934. This event became known as the Night of the Long Knives (die Nacht der langen Messer). The SA continued to exist, but was effectively superseded by the SS, although it was not formally dissolved until after NSDAP Germany's final capitulation to the Allies in 1945.