SS | corps of Nazi Party | Britannica.com
corps of Nazi Party
Josef Dietrich
SS, abbreviation of Schutzstaffel (German: “Protective Echelon”),  the black-uniformed elite corps and self-described “political soldiers” of the Nazi Party . Founded by Adolf Hitler in April 1925 as a small personal bodyguard, the SS grew with the success of the Nazi movement and, gathering immense police and military powers, became virtually a state within a state.
Adolf Hitler (centre) and the Leibstandarte-SS at Klagenfurt, Ger, April 1938.
German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv), Bild 183-H04436, photographer: o.Ang
From 1929 until its dissolution in 1945, the SS was headed by Heinrich Himmler , who built up the SS from fewer than 300 members to more than 50,000 by the time the Nazis came to power in 1933. Himmler, a racist fanatic, screened applicants for their supposed physical perfection and racial purity but recruited members from all ranks of German society. With their sleek black uniforms and special insignia (lightninglike runic S’s, death’s head badges, and silver daggers), the men of the SS felt superior to the brawling brown-shirted Storm Troopers of the SA , to which initially they were nominally subordinate.
Overview of the SS, headed by Heinrich Himmler.
Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz
When Hitler, with SS help, purged the SA in 1934 and reduced it to political impotence, the SS became an independent group responsible, via Himmler, to Hitler alone. Between 1934 and 1936 Himmler and his chief adjutant, Reinhard Heydrich , consolidated SS strength by gaining control of all of Germany’s police forces and expanding their organization’s responsibilities and activities. At the same time, special military SS units were trained and equipped along the lines of the regular army. By 1939 the SS, now numbering about 250,000 men, had become a massive and labyrinthian bureaucracy , divided mainly into two groups: the Allgemeine-SS (General SS) and the Waffen-SS (Armed SS).
Heinrich Himmler.