The Coburg Badge

[jeffhan373]

By the way, Franz Schwede seems to have lifted (with no credit given) most of the photos which appear in "Kampf um Coburg" from an earlier pictorial called "Coburg im ersten Jahr des Dritten Reichs". This is a nicely done pictorial, privately published by the author, Louis Walter, in Coburg in 1933, and it's well worth hunting down....

Hitler's sketch for the Coburg Badge doesn't appear in the Walter book, though; I've only seen that in "Kampf um Coburg"...

[jabnus]

Speaking of Coburg and Franz Schwede, don't think the original (and GREAT) cover was posted here before?

best regards,
Gaston

[jabnus]

oh my, im afraid this came out bigger as i intended to.

Im used to another forum where big pictures are resized automatically and can then be clicked to full size if one wants to view the bigger resolution. Ill leave this big one on as perhaps some may want the bigger resolution, if found annoying ill take it off and resize to a smaller one, sorry.

best regards,
Gaston

[ErichS]

Thanks for posting the cover jacket to the book and I never knew that there was one!

[jabnus]

Hi Erich, so did i, until i stumbled upon it somewhere online

[Erich B.]

Thanks for posting the book jacket--I've never seen one befoer.
Erich

[JoeW]

Does anyone have the text of the Party Order establishing the Coburg badge as a special Ehrenzeichen?

The descriptions in Doehle's book on badges is interesting. The right to wear the Coburg badge was specifically authorized by the Oberste SA Fuhrung. But Hitler or the Partei-Kanzlei could strip that authorization. Would it be correct to consider it primarily and SA award acknowledged by the Party as one of its Ehrenzeichen. The Braunschweig badge was similar in control. It could be authorized by any SA Fuhrer from Standartenfuhrer upwards.

[jabnus]

Does anyone have the text of the Party Order establishing the Coburg badge as a special Ehrenzeichen?

Not sure if this is what you seek, but in the NSDAP organisation book is a short list with awards that are considered as special ehrenzeichen. Im not at home so can't post a picture of it, but it says the Coburg badge, 1929 RPT badge and a few others (its a short list).

[JoeW]

Not sure if this is what you seek, but in the NSDAP organisation book is a short list with awards that are considered as special ehrenzeichen. Im not at home so can't post a picture of it, but it says the Coburg badge, 1929 RPT badge and a few others (its a short list).

No, the Organisationsbuchs describe the awards as Ehrenzeichen in only the most general terms. The Coburg Ehrenzeichen and the 1929 RPT were declared Ehrenzeichen by an order dated Nov.6, 1936. I wonder if anyone has the full text of that order.

[ErichS]

Joe, I have not seen a copy of the actual decree but in every reference book that I have it lists the first award mentioned by Hitler in the 36 decree as the CB. Huffman quotes in his book that Hitler considered the CB and 29 RPT as the top two badges that a Party member could wear on their shirts. He does not make a reference for that statement though. Possibly the CB started out as an SA award in 1932 so hence under SA authority for awarding. Just a guess on my part.

[JoeW]

Could someone (the moderator) resize the book dust jacket posted above to return this thread to a normal width. It is very uncomfortable handling it with reading and posting.

I struck out finding any 1936 Verordnungsblatt in my files. I have earlier and later issues, but not 1936. I thought I would look through the Organisationsbuchs for any additional info. At the back of each edition is a section dealing with laws and ordinances concerning party and state, like protection of party insignia, racial laws and badges and medals. And the Ehrenzeichen of the NSDAP is listed there. Very confusing in that the law if from 1935. So what was Doehle writing about in his last volume that I mentioned above?

Inasmuch as the participants in the Coburg march were from SA units of Munich and surrounding towns, it would seem that most if not all the recipients of the badge would have been SA members. Have you identified those recipients Erich? Are most SA, with some SS in there as they would have been part of the SA back then?

[ErichS]

Joe, from what I have read regarding the March, the SA was the only group mentioned having taken part. I have also read that a group of Hitler Jungstrum may have also taken part. As far as the SS, they were not a separate organization in 1922.

[jeffhan373]

The 10th Anniversary of the Deutscher Tag at Coburg was nicely covered by the ILLUSTRIERTER BEOBACHTER, particularly in Heft 44/1932. I'm posting a few images from this coverage which might be of interest.

First is an interesting unit flag; can anyone shed any light on its provenance?

[jeffhan373]

Second is the photo which was later used as the dust jacket for Franz Schwede's book - it's the 10th Anniversary gathering...

[jeffhan373]

Third is a nice group of individual portraits of some of the Coburg Kaempfer. Can anyone identify any of these guys beyond Jacob Grimminger? The Coburg Badge can only be seen on the portraits of Grimminger and the SA man at the left . The man at the right does not seem to be wearing it; impossible to tell with the other two...