Ulrich Graf
Shortly after the First World War, Graf became a member of the German Workers' Party (DAP). Later, the DAP was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party) and taken over by Adolf Hitler. Founded in 1920, the "Sturmabteilung" (SA) was the first of many paramilitary protection squads that worked to protect Nazi officials. These storm troopers, outfitted in brown uniforms, were initially charged with the duty of keeping order at Nazi Party meetings. They soon expanded their role to include disruption of rival political party's functions. Graf was an early member of the SA. In 1921, he became member number 2882 of the Nazi Party.
German nationalism in Austria
From the 1880s, the pan-Germanist movement was fragmented into several splinter parties and factions. The most radical was the German Workers' Party, formed in 1903, which later transformed into the Austrian wing of the Nazi Party. Other pan-Germanist parties that contested elections during the first decade of the 20th century include the German People's Party and the German Radical Party. A broad coalition of all ethnic German national and liberal political parties known as the "Deutscher Nationalverband" (lit. German National Association) was formed to contest the 1911 election to the Cisleithanian Imperial Council. It went on to gain the most seats in lower house of the Council, the House of Deputies (), replacing the previously dominant Christian Social Party. Despite this victory, the German National Association was always a very loose coalition with little unity amongst its ranks, and collapsed in 1917 at the height of First World War. It disintegrated into seventeen scattered German liberal and national parties. This disintegration, combined with dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, led to the total fragmentation of pan-Germanist movement.