The first military SS units

The loyalty of the SS during the Blood Purge was soon rewarded by Hitler removing it from control of the SA. Himmler's SS became an independent organization. During the next two years, Himmler proved himself an archetypal Nazi baron, expanding his organization and personal power. Hitler made great efforts to keep his subordinates squabbling among themselves by setting up rival power structures that ensured they had to come to him to broker disputes. So, even though Himmler was nominally boss of the SS, it was in turn broken up into competing fiefdoms.

The first major reorganization of the SS occurred in March 1935 when Hitler formally announced the setting up of the first armed SS units, although the term Waffen-SS (Waffen means "armed") would not come into widespread usage until early 1940. The description of these units had to be carefully packaged, so as not to upset the army generals who a year earlier had been promised that the Wehrmacht would be Germany's "sole arms bearer" in return for their support during the Blood Purge against the SA. These armed SS units were to be used for "special internal tasks allotted by the Führer". The SS was described as "a militarized force ready for police action within the Reich boundaries when dissident forces are too strong for the normal security services".

The SS-Verfügungstruppe

The armed SS was initially termed the SS-Verfügungstruppe or SS-VT. These so-called Special Disposal Troops included all the old heavy police units that were now grouped into three regiments, or standarten. In Berlin an expanded Leibstandarte formed the core of one of these new regiments. While the units in Munich became the Deutschland Regiment in October 1933, those in Hamburg were formed into the Germania Regiment in August 1934. These were the three original regiments of the armed SS that would form the nucleus of the force's armoured divisions during the war years.

Himmler was keen to provide the new SS-VT with the best training and weapons, so he persuaded a number of ambitious army officers to transfer to the new force to provide a core of professional officers. The most famous of these was Paul Hausser, who was appointed the commander of the SS-VT. In 1936 he was given a headquarters staff, dubbed the SS-VT Inspectorate, to coordinate the growth of the military arm of the SS. Hausser was also in charge of the first SS officer cadet, or junker, school at Bad Tölz, which was set up in 1935 to train a new type of SS officer. Bad Tölz and a second Junkerschule at Braunschweig turned out a generation of aggressive officers that would rise to command the SS armoured divisions during World War II.

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