After the defeat in the First World War, Germany was marred by considerable polarisation and by the presence and activities of para-military organisations. Economic chaos and extensive poverty together with street fights, political assassinations and coup-d’etat attempts characterised life in the Weimar Republic of 1918. Shortly after the foundation in 1920 of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) Hitler became leader. It was one of the political parties, which employed violence in its political struggle most determinedly. In the beginning, the NSDAP engaged various paramilitary organisations to protect their own meetings and harass those of other parties. However, gradually the party developed its own body of Nazi street bullies, the SA. Perhaps the most important sub-division of this organisation was the Stoßtrupp Adolf Hitler. At the same time, Hitler had a small number of men for his personal protection – the Stabswache (staff close protection team). The Stoßtrupp and the Stabswache would guard the party meetings and bully gate crashers, and the roots of the Schutzstaffel can be traced back to these units. Like the general SA and other Nazi organisations, these entities were dissolved in the wake of the Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923.

After Hitler's release from prison in the spring of 1925, his bodyguard was re-formed under Julius Schreck. This Munich-based team of merely eight men was soon to be re-designated the Schutzstaffel, and Schreck would become the first in a succession of SS leaders. Although, generally, the Nazis were very inspired by the inter-war paramilitary organisations, using the word Staffel was original. The word originated with the German army which used it to designate minor mounted, motorised or flying detachments. In September 1925, Hitler ordered Schreck to raise, and assume command of, a network of similar detachments all over Germany. Each Staffel should consist of ten men selected among the most trustworthy local party members. These were raised in a number of German cities, and in 1926 there were 26 such SS units in Germany.

Schreck was a devoted Nazi, but his organisational and political skills were mediocre and the newly formed SS units were weak. Thus, as early as 1926, Hitler dismissed him from his post. The new boss was the founder of Stoßtrupp Adolf Hitler, Joseph Berchtold, who soon replaced his title as Oberleiter (senior leader) der SS by Reichsführer-SS. Berchtold was considerably more activist than Schreck.