The official post card commemorating the SA National Competitions.
The designs of both the card and the imprinted stamp were by SA Stiirmhanptfuhrer Werner von Axster-Heudtlass of Berlin. The stamp depicts an SA Mann. The cachet shows the SA Sports Badge against a map of Greater Germany.
The card was issued on 12 July 1938 and remained valid until 31 December 1939.
The former leader of the SA, Ernst Rohm, instituted the SA National Competitions, in November 1933. On 15 February 1935, Hitler gave the badge official status. Another decree, on 19 January 1939, changed the name of the badge to SA Military Sports or Military Defense Badge. It became the obligation of all German males over seventeen to compete for this award.
Proficiency was required in the following: physical training (hundred meter sprint, long jump, weight putting, grenade throwing, three thousand meter run), defense sports (twenty-five kilometer march in full kit, small bore shooting, grenade throwing, obstacle course in gas mask, swimming or cycling, and first aid), and field craft (orientation, observation, topography, distance observation, camouflage, observing, and reporting).