A Well-Traveled Luger
Luger Variants
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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.
Up Next in Luger Variants
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Portuguese Navy Luger
The Portuguese Army purchased 5,000 7.65mm Luger pistols in 1908, and the Navy followed suit the next year - but the Navy opted for 9mm ones, with 100mm barrels. A contract for 350 was placed in November 1909, with the guns delivered in 1910. These were in a standalone serial number range startin...
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Portuguese Army Lugers: From Manuel I...
Portugal first tested the Luger pistol in 1901, and its commission on self-loading pistols recommended the design for adoption in 1904. No money was available at the time, but a second commission again recommended the Luger in 1907, and it was formally adopted and purchased in 1908. The initial b...
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Lugers for the Dutch East Indies Army
Note: When I say the double magazine pouch is unique for this model, I was not thinking about those issued with LP-08 Artillery Lugers.
While the Dutch Army dithered over new pistol adoption, the Dutch East Indies Army (KNIL) took more decisive action and adopted the Luger as the M11 in 1911 a...
