The Coburg Badge

[Military]

+1 Screw Back

[ErichS]

By replacing the fragile pin attachments it shows how important this badge was to the recipients!

[der-hase-fee]

What is for sure the screw back and replaced pin indicate heavy wear ...

These badges may have been worn a lot, but neither shows heavy wear.

[ErichS]

These badges may have been worn a lot, but neither shows heavy wear.

It's just the fagile pin attachment didn't hold up well. Those who were awarded the badge like those awarded the GPB had to have custom attachments sometimes added. Congrats again on your fine example!

[der-hase-fee]

Remember the 1st type badge on Hermanns that went for 7500 Eur. earlier in the year?

Couldn't resist to look it up: Auction 60, item 3200.

High bid was 7.800 EUR / almost 10.000 EUR including fees. But then again, it was "attributed" to Ludwig Schmied.

[Jon Fish]

I wasn't sure if Sister Pia [Eleonore Baur]was awarded the Coburg badge? Don't recall having seen her wearing it -usually she just wears the blood order. Although I understood according to reports she was at Coburg.
This photo says differently ? .........

Oh by the way I own the blood order of the son of the guy with the beard in the background of this pic that I discovered online today His son is on my signiture photo, they both won the Blood order.

[ErichS]

A great photo of Sister Pia wearing her CB.! She is listed on the official roll as having received the badge.

[Thorsten B.]

Indeed a very interesting pic of Schwester Pia!

That girl was even allowed to move into the Kl Dachau whenever she wanted to - a very interesting figure within the SS-TV.

[Military]

Jon,

do you know who owns her BO?

Mil

[Br. James]

Hi Jon, and thanks for sharing the photo of Sister Pia with Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, perhaps taken at a gathering of Blood Order recipients in Munich?

And yes, Sister Pia was indeed awarded the Coburg Badge -- in addition to the BO and the GPB! -- and the confusion comes from her name at the time she was present at the Coburg rally. The Coburg Award list shows her as:

Sponseil, Pia, München, Schwester

In March of 2004 a contributor to the Axis History Forum provided the following biographical sketch of Sister Pia, and it corresponds to the Coburg Badge list:

Somebody asked once after the Schwester Pia (sister Pia). She was a bloodorder-holder.

I have read a book (Hitlers List, Ein Dokument persönlicher Beziehungen, from Anton Joachimsthaler). In this book is the cirrculum vitae. Here are some informations:

1. She was born as Elenore Mayer, 7.9.1885 in Kirchdorf bei Bad Aibling (Landkreis Rosenheim, Bayern)

2. First she married a man with the name Ludwig Baur (this name is written without "e"). The wedding was 1909. Divorced 1913. Then she married 21.3.1923 she married Georg Sponseil. 1935 she divorced from Georg Sponseil. She took back the name of her first husbund Baur.

3. 17.5.1905 she received a son, called Wilhelm Mayer, later he was adopted by Ludwig Baur. That is the reason that his name was Wilhelm Baur. Wilhelm Baur entered in the NSDAP 1925 and received the Number 51. Later he became member of the SS with the number 293'750. 1.6.1938 he became SS-Standartenführer in the Stab SS-Hauptamt. He died as S-Standartenführer in the Stab SS-Oberabschnitt Spree in January 1945.

4. Eleonere Baur entered January 1920 she entered in the DAP, first name of the NSDAP, with number 506, and not like many authors wrote with the number 511. She thought as blood order holder she have not to pay any fee for the NSDAP. But she was wrong, that is the reason that she entered only 1. may 1937 in the NSDAP with the Number 5'096034.

5. She saw Hitler not very much the first time End 1919. She saw also once Heinirch Himmler and he asked her if she would be civilian employee of the SS. So she became Beginning of 1934 "Fürsorgesschwester der SS". Her duty was to help injured SS-members. She earned 320 Reichsmark a month and had a car with chauffeur.

6. She was the only female receiving the blood order (number 61).

7. Nobody in the SS or in the NSDAP waas fan of her because she was not very intelligent, ugly and she ment that she was the best.

8. She wore the name Schwester Pia from 1914, because she said that she was an "wild nurse", that means she was not attached to a nurse organisation.

9. After the war she had some sentences She died 18. may 1981 in Munich in the age of 95.

While I have a couple of misgivings about some of the fine details in the above bio, I think you'll agree that it's an exciting piece of historical writing! And the son mentioned, Wilhelm Baur, indeed followed in his mother's footsteps: he also held the Coburg Badge, the BO and the GPB! We learn something new every day!

Br. James

[ErichS]

Thanks Br. james for the interesting Bio on Sister Pia. From what I understand, she never received the GPB for the reason you mentioned regarding her not paying dues. Do you have any info on her receiving the GPB or possibly the Honor version due to her Party number being over 100,000?

[Br. James]

Hi Erich, and thank you. I will freely admit that this is the first time I've had interest in Sister Pia enough to look into her life and times, and I have no further information on whether or not she actually received the GPB in either form. I will mention that she is listed as holding NSDAP number 511 in the book on GPB Trägers written by Jamie Cross and Gordon Williamson (1999), and I have checked through the Patzwall book on the honorary GPB awards and did not find her listed there -- under any of her three possible last names or either form of Sister Pia. It's certainly an interesting story, if true, that she apparently was able to remain active and even somewhat prominent in Party politics, claiming to hold #511 while that number had lapsed well over a decade earlier according to NSDAP records, and that she actually re-joined the Party in 1937 and received a new number of over 5 million -- again, if true! I have never seen a photo of her wearing either the GPB or the Coburg Badge -- assumedly it would have been in the mini form. Much fun to discuss such an interesting character!

Br. James

[ErichS]

Hi Erich, and thank you. I will freely admit that this is the first time I've had interest in Sister Pia enough to look into her life and times, and I have no further information on whether or not she actually received the GPB in either form. I will mention that she is listed as holding NSDAP number 511 in the book on GPB Trägers written by Jamie Cross and Gordon Williamson (1999), and I have checked through the Patzwall book on the honorary GPB awards and did not find her listed there -- under any of her three possible last names or either form of Sister Pia. It's certainly an interesting story, if true, that she apparently was able to remain active and even somewhat prominent in Party politics, claiming to hold #511 while that number had lapsed well over a decade earlier according to NSDAP records, and that she actually re-joined the Party in 1937 and received a new number of over 5 million -- again, if true! I have never seen a photo of her wearing either the GPB or the Coburg Badge -- assumedly it would have been in the mini form. Much fun to discuss such an interesting character!

Br. James

Party member 511 was her number before the Party was disbanded. As you know, the numbers started over in 1925 and at that point she did not reapply to the Party thinking that she didn't have to as stated in the bio. From everything that I have seen, she was not a holder of the GPB in any form. The photo Jon posted is the first one that I have ever seen of her wearing both the BO and CB.

[Thorsten B.]

Thanks for the infos - nonetheless it is not correct that people did not like her.

Indeed the members of the SS-TV held her in high regards!

[der-hase-fee]

Jon,

do you know who owns her BO?

Mil

Rumor has it she's still wearing it !