School books would have you believe that Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party appeared at a Beer Hall in Munich out of nowhere and engaged in a street battle that would leave sixteen dead and propel Adolf Hitler to martyrdom paving the way for the rise of National Socialism.

Truth be told, the roots of the party and its activities gained definitive ground in October of 1922 with the battle of Coburg in what should be considered Adolf Hitlers earliest triumph against the leftists who had established control of the town, and succeeded in garnering the party a foothold on the national scene as a political party.

Hitler, invited to "German Day" along with a few friends took this opportunity to rent an entire train and load it with in excess of 800 storm troopers and a full 40 piece band for the trip to Coburg. At this time Hitlers organization was relatively poor and with his followers having to pay their own train fare made their way to Coburg to the shock of the towns people.

In defiance of a police ban to march, Hitler and his followers grabbed their party flags and accompanied by the band marched into town and fought a street battle with the communists and socialists who had foothold on the town, as the fight went on many townsfolk tired of the communist oppression joined in on the side of the troopers and handed the communists a defeat they would not forget.

The following day with victory in their grasp, Hitler and his followers were informed that the train ride back to Munich would not be allowed, Hitler emboldened by the event informed the town officials that he and his men would run the train back on their own, and only after they kidnapped every communist they could find and run them back to Munich with the train. 

Having soundly defeated the communists in the streets, and winning the support of the townsfolk, the officials capitulated and the train would run back to Munich, and Adolf Hitler and his party had won a significant battle and would not only have the right to survive but flourish as an even stronger and larger entity.

While the Beer Hall Putsch is most famous for giving way to Hitler and his party to take power and allows us such historically significant items as the Blood Order, Blood Flag, and the memorial of the fallen at Felderrnhalle, if not for Coburg the Beer Hall Putsch may never have happened.

The Coburg Badge with approximately 436 recipients is one of the rarest and most prominent awards for both the recipient of his time, and to the Third Reich collector. The order for the badge came in 1932 to be presented to all original participants of this battle and to memorialize the event that took place ten years earlier. And in 1939 a decree from Heinrich Himmler that any SS member of any rank authorized to where the Coburg badge was entitled to receive the honor of wearing the SS Totenkopf ring, considered a most prestigious SS award.