A Well-Traveled Luger
Germany
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6m 29s
This Luger has seen basically all of 20th century German history. It began as a 1917 production DWM pistol, used in World War One. After the war, it was one of the guns remarks for use by the police and military of the Weimar Republic, and at some point in this period had a special police safety installed, to prevent a careless officer from accidentally shooting himself with the disassembled slide assembly. That safety was later removed, and the pistol remained in German official service through World War Two. It was still there when the eastern half of Berlin was occupied by the Soviets, and was issued to the Volkspolizei of Soviet-controlled Weissensee. During this time, it was reissued new matching magazines made by Haenel in East Germany. When the Berlin Wall came down, it was liberated from a Stasi arms depot in Weissensee, and a few years later reproofed under the newly unified Germany to make it legal on the commercial market. Today it resides in the collection of a European arms collector, who found it for sale and recognized the tremendously long history shown in its markings.
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