Mit Hitler in Coburg - A First Hand Account

We were 700 men that left from Munich in an special party train. I was jobless and I did not have any money. But I scratched my own missery suffering a week of hunger and many other privations to pay for my ticket and be present, together with the rest of my Kameraden in the "German Day" that was going to be celebrated in Coburg on the 14th and 15th of October of 1922.

Our presence at the train platforms and stations was a surprise to the other passengers. The flag with the "Hakenkreuz" was, in those days, compleately unknown to the greater public. We party men and the SA arrived to Coburg along with our own music band. The police spoke with the Fuhrer. The marxist and bolchevik trade unions want to prevent that we march in formation, with our flags deploy at the beat of our music band.

However the Fuhrer gives the order to the SA to deploy in parade formation and that our musical instruments start playing. Like that ,we passed through a mob of reds, speachless watching us march. Then they reacted, with insults and trheats. The police redirect our group inside a house, but our Fuhrer gives the order to face the red mob. Only at the beat of the drum! And in this manner we left the Hofbrauhauskeller recieving a rain of rocks. Our only weapons were our fist and our valor, with them we cleared the streets of thousands of communists. Later the Fuhrer spoke. Awakening the interest of all of us presents at the rally. The same way that he was in command at the fight outside the Hofbrauhauskeller, he also commanded all the night fighting against the red front. And like us he sleep on the hay when the fighting was over.

The next day Coburg is gleaming and its inhabitants , can after all this years feel free. "The reds had been wipe out by Hitler and his men!" "Finally we can live in peace with out their nasty attitude and tiranny!" Statements like these are being shouted by young and old, women, men, workers, merchants, and civil servants. All of then join us in our march with delirious enthusiasm. Imperial flags again are hanging on the windows and terraces . Germany awakes! 

We arrived at the town square were the comune is trying to congregate 10,000 "proletarians", but they are less than 100 and they look afraid and broken. In a pathetic attent , the marxist threaten the railroad workers so that our train will not be able to leave Coburg. The Fuhrer makes an announcement. If our train does not leave at the schedule hour, the SA will go and seek all the red leaders. In ten minutes our train was rolling. We returned to Munich , full of bruises, sleepy and tired but victorious. With our lost voices we sang our songs with our hands on the shoulder of the Kamerad next to us and under the attent eyes of the fuhrer.

10 years later I was awarded. like the rest of our Kameraden present on that day, the Medal of Coburg. In peace and in war, over brown and feldgrau, proudly was displayed on my chest.

Today, May 1945, I am at a prisioner camp along with tens of thounsand of other Kameraden. Like many, I am suffering of dyssentery and we are crowded behind the barbed wire. We do not have any personnal space not even to go to the restroom. This morning a Yank soldier, noticed my Medal of Coburg. The jailer is curious about the rare medal. He has offer me a loaf of bread, a whole weeks ration, and a preferential space to use the letrines in exchange for my medal for his collection. I have refused.... I will die with my Medal of Coburg. From an extract of a book on the Battle of Coburg, courtesy of Erich S.