The Coburg Badge (''Das Coburger Abzeichen'') was the first badge recognised as a national award of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

(NSDAP).

History

On 14 October 1922

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

led 800 members of the SA from Munich and other Bavarian cities by train to

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

for a weekend rally. Once there, numerous pitched street battles with

KPD The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

communists occurred. In the end, the final victory belonged to the Nazis. Later, the day was known as the ''Deutscher Tag in Coburg'' (German Day in Coburg).

Award and status

Hitler ordered the Coburg Badge to be struck on 14 October 1932 to memorialise the event which took place ten years earlier, on Saturday, 14 October 1922, and to honour the participants. This was before Hitler came to power in January 1933. The badge was 40 mm wide and 54 mm high. It was made out of bronze and featured a sword placed tip downward across the face of a

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...

within an oval wreath. At the top of the wreath was Coburg Castle and village. The wreath contains the words, ''MIT HITLER IN COBURG 1922-1932'' (With Hitler in Coburg 1922–1932). In November 1936, Hitler gave new "orders" for the "Orders and Awards" of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The top NSDAP awards are listed in this order: 1. Coburg Badge; 2. Nuremberg (Nürnberg) Party Badge of 1929; 3. SA Treffen at Brunswick 1931; 4.

Golden Party Badge __NOTOC__ The Golden Party Badge (german: Goldenes Parteiabzeichen) was an award authorised by Adolf Hitler in a decree in October 1933. It was a special award given to all Nazi Party members who had, as of 9 November 1933, registered numbers fr ...

; 5. The

Blood Order The Blood Order (german: Blutorden), officially known as the "Decoration in Memory (of the Munich putsch) of 9 November 1923" (), was one of the most prestigious decorations in the Nazi Party (NSDAP). During March 1934, Hitler authorized the Bl ...

; followed by the Gau badges and the Golden HJ Badge. On 1 August 1939, '' Reichsfuhrer-SS''

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

decreed that any SS member (whether enlisted or officer) who wore the Coburg Badge was eligible to wear the ''Totenkopf'' ring. Since the Coburg Badge was not normally recorded in an NCO record dossier, the order required enlisted personnel to provide proof of their being awarded the Coburg Badge.Gottlieb, Craig, ''The SS TOTENKOPF RING: An Illustrated History from Munich to Nuremberg''.

Notes

References

* * * Gottlieb, Craig. ''The SS TOTENKOPF RING: An Illustrated History from Munich to Nuremberg''. {{ISBN, 978-0-7643-3094-0 Orders, decorations, and medals of Nazi Germany