Allgemeine-SS

General SS

Allgemeine SS
The General SS was the administrative and non-combat part of the SS.
Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler leads an Allgemeine-SS ceremony on the anniversary of the death of Heinrich I at Quedlinburg, July 1938
Agency overview
Formed	September, 1934
Preceding agencies	Sturmabteilung Schutzstaffel
Dissolved	May 8, 1945
Jurisdiction	Germany Occupied Europe
Headquarters	SS-Hauptamt, Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin 52°30′26″N 13°22′57″E / 52.50722°N 13.38250°E / 52.50722; 13.38250
Employees	100,000 c.1940
Minister responsible	Heinrich Himmler (1934–1945), Reichsführer-SS
Parent agency	Schutzstaffel
Child agencies	RSHA (Gestapo, Sicherheitspolizei, SD and Kriminalpolizei) SS Economic and Administrative Departments SS Courts Office SS Office of Race and Settlement SS Personalhauptamt SS Education Office Main Welfare Office for Ethnic Germans (under RKFDV)

The Allgemeine SS (General SS) was the most numerous branch of the Schutzstaffel (SS) paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany, and it was managed by the SS Main Office (SS-Hauptamt). The Allgemeine SS was officially established in the autumn of 1934 to distinguish its members from the SS-Verfügungstruppe (SS Dispositional Troops or SS-VT) which later became the Waffen-SS, and the SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS Death's Head Units or SS-TV) which managed the Nazi concentration camps.

Starting in 1939, foreign units of the Allgemeine SS were raised in occupied countries. From 1940 they were consolidated into the Directorate of the Germanic-SS (Leitstelle der germanischen SS). When the war first began, the vast majority of SS members belonged to the Allgemeine SS, but this proportion changed during the later years of the war after the Waffen-SS opened up membership to ethnic Germans and non-Germans.

Adolf Hitler in 1925 ordered Julius Schreck to organise the formation of a new bodyguard unit, the Schutzkommando ("Protection Command"). Hitler wanted a small group of tough ex-soldiers like Schreck, who would be loyal to him. The unit included old Stoßtrupp members like Emil Maurice and Erhard Heiden. The unit made its first public appearance on 4 April 1925. That same year, the Schutzkommando was expanded to a national level. It was also successively renamed the Sturmstaffel ("Storm Squadron") and then finally the Schutzstaffel ("Protection Squadron"; SS) on 9 November 1925. The SS was subordinated to the SA and thus a subunit of the SA and the NSDAP. It was considered to be an elite organization by both party members and the general population.