They were an SS paramilitary group, a powerful branch of the SS division, who were organized during the Third Reich by Josef Dietrich.
"After 1929 the SS began to expand rapidly, and standards in personnel unsurprisingly began to lower. The political changes also led Hitler to call for the creation of a dedicated guard formation from the ranks of the SS, and instructed one of his oldest colleagues, First World War veteran Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, to set the wheels in motion. Dietrich quickly set about selecting a group of men applying rigorous standards, and by the spring of 1933 had established the SS-Stabswache Berlin, consisting of 117 men. The primary role of this new Stabswache was the guarding of the Reich Chancellery, and as a result they were quickly given the nickname "asphalt soldiers". Of course, none of the unit's detractors would have known that of these initial 117 men, over sixty were to become company commanders or above, with three becoming divisional commanders.
http://en.specwar.info/special_forces/Waffen-SS/history.php