se ST ETC a tee Automatic Pistols Pa Ce VC OeAn a ABC MNT aSis COT Se aed BEC OMAN Cree AES Volumes I ~ Ill fsSteen ae se eee eee eee ce ee i re ee ec ee cme ere eens sns, 26 and30 and the first production Perabellum, Swiss contract P1900 sn. 01The Borchardt & Luger Automatic Pistols A Technical History for Collectors from C93 to P.08 Joachim Gortz & Dr Geoffrey Sturgess ‘The Authors’ Original Manuscript, Revised and Expanded DEDICATION This book is dedicated to the memory of Joachim (Achim) Gértz, an archivist and researcher of extraordinary patience and ability, ‘without whom it could never have come to being. © 2010 & 2011 GL Sturgess &] Gértz Estate All rights reserved. No pact of this work may be reproduced in any foxm. ‘orby any means without written permission of the authors Published by Brad Simpson Publishing & G I Sturgess Galesburg IL USA & Egg, Switzerland ISBN: 978.0-9727815-8.9Georg Luger, well established in the Berlin middle classes at the age of 64, photographed in full evening dress on the occasion of his 40th wedding anniversary in February 1913. His orders are mostly of south-east European origin, awarded to him when he travelled the Balkan states to promote the sales of Mauser rifles and Maxim machine guns. This is a direct reproduction from the original print of this famous photograph, with provenance to the estate of Georg Luger's granddaughter Elisabeth Sandke-Luger (#5 July 1987), showing the full frame with the photographer's address. Luger's address atthe time was also in Berlin-Charlottenburg, at Wilmersdorferstrafie 102/103,‘THE BoRCHARDT-LUGER PIsTO! Conrenrs: VoLUt Contents Volume I Foreword Preface Introduction Chapter 1 Dramatis Personae - Hugo Borchardt - Georg Luger aaa Paul von Gontard & Gunther Quandt ~ Georg Franz Luger ————————- ‘Adolf Fischer = August Weiss = Chapter 2 The Rifle Proving Commission-. Replacement of the Revolver: 1891: Schlegelmilch’s Repeating Pistol ~ G.PK, Inspection Marks — ‘The 222% ~ 224xx serial range crown’ marked pistols Prototypes of G.P.K. Trials Pistols—————— Chapter 3 Development of the Parabellum Pistol Origins and Development of the Borchardt Pistol ~ The historical context ——— Loewe and Luger ~ ‘The Borchardt C93 Pistols Prototype and Pre-production Pistols ‘The First Prototype C93 (Series I: short barrel)~ ‘The Second Prototype C93 (Series I: long barrel). Pre-production C93 (Serie I) xe-—~ ‘Table 3/1: Characteristics of Borehardt C93 Pistols- ‘The C93 patents ~ Borchardt’ spring problem—— Loewe Production of the C93 ~ DWM Production ———————— Military Trials of the Borchardt PistolTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt ‘The transition from Borchardt to Parabellum ——— Swiss Sel-loading Pistol Trials 1893 — 97- ‘The inception of Luger's design and his "Transitional! Patents and Pistols ‘The Swiss Trial of 1898. ‘The Grand Trial of 1899 ~ ‘The Final 1899 Troop Trials: Swiss Adoption ~ 1900. ‘The 1899 Troop Trials Prototype Pistols ————- Further trials ofthe 1899 Prototype Patter. ‘The 1900 Dutch Trial ‘The 1901 British Trials anne ‘The 1900 British Trials pistols: the: Anglo-Swiss connection: 11899 Prototype Pattern fakes se Production and Distribution of the 1898 & 1899 Prototype Pistol ‘Table 3/1: Pattern and Provenance of pre-1900 Prototype Parabellum Pistols——- ‘Tho 1900 Old Mode Production Pistol Production Development of the 1900 Old Model Parabellum — ‘Component changes during Old Model production ‘Magazine Follower Button and Magazine Well 14 Togale Logo 16 Applied Safety Lever 16 Grip Safety Lever & G.P.K. Trials safety lever 18 Trigger ~ 19 Side plate — 21 ‘Mainspring 221 Frame & Receiver length Receiver machining — Foresight ~ Development of the Parabellum Carbine Pistol-Carbines: Rearsights, Barrel lengths, Stock fittings Parabellum Carbine precurso¢s-———ewerm——— ‘The Chilean Model and the Dutch Trials —~ ‘The Chronology of Carbine development 4) The prototype Chilean trial model pistols. ~ b) The prototype carbines ©) 175 mm barrelled pistols with fixed rear sights. 4) Transitional carbines ©) Imperial presentation carbine ~ £) The presentation pre-production carbines. - Carbine precursors -the route to the Naval P.04— Production Carbines ‘New Model Prototype Carbines-—--————- ‘9mm Parabellum and New Model Pistol development ‘The Powell Indicator Official German Military interest and the impetus for New Model development ‘The Transition from Old to New Models ‘The French 1904 trials Transitional Parabellum — ‘The German Navy carrying trials Transitional Pistole 1904 ~ Finalisation of the G.P-K. trials ‘The IO range Prototype and GL monogrammed Parabellum — ‘The GL monogram ~ ‘Table 3/11: 10xxxB/C Parabellum Protatpe ‘Characteristics ————- ‘The 9 mm 100xxB prototypes: Short fame and New Model 1003063 prototypes Seven shot prototypes & late presentation pistols ‘The "Hollandsch Modet" 101xxB New Model prototypes Selbstladepistole Mod. 190}—--———~THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt ‘The New Model Beeesseeaceenensscees ‘German Naval adoption and initial commercial production ~ German Army adoption ~ the P.08 finalised Rstablished dates —- Chapter 4 The DWM contract ‘The DWM contract of 1908 ———— Contract 2 ‘Special Contract Conditions. Chapter 5 Instruction Manuals. Commercial Manuals ~ ‘Borchardt Pistol Manuals ————— ‘The Loewe Manual ~ ‘The DWM Manual nen ‘Commercial Old Model Parabellum Manuals ‘The “Swiss Regulation Pattern 1900" Manual ‘The Old Model Parabellum Manual of 190 Supplements to the Old Mode! Manuals ‘The Chilean Model 337 Parabellum Carbine ~ ‘Commercial New Model Manual DWM New Model Manual DWM Commercial Navy Manual ‘Tauscher’s New Model Manuals ‘Commercial Pistole 08 Manuals ~ Post WWI DWM Manuals ‘Mauser Commercial P.08 Manuals German Military Manuals: German Navy Manuals Pistole 1904 Manual ———— ‘The Manual of 1907 enn Issue of “Leitfaden betreffend die 9 mm Selbstladepistote (Luger)”- D VE. Nr. 255 “Pistole 08” of 1909. Se ‘Reorganisation of Manual Numbering from 1934 H.Dv.255/L.Dv.408 “Pistole 08” of 1935. ‘The lange Pistole 08 Manuals of 1914 — 17- 1D 123 “Anleitung zum SELL. fir Pistole 08” DSU/l “Kennblatter fremden Gerats” German Police P.08 Manuals-—————~ ‘Semi-official Military P,08 Manuals —- ‘Non-German Military Contract Manuals. Switzerland ee Holland — Indies Army M.11—— Dutch Navy Pistool No, 1— Bulgaria Guarda Nacional RepublicanaTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt Army M943— Russia Norway Austria Wall Charts Chapter 6 Acceptance of '08 Pistols up to 1918. ‘The Special Contract Conditions —— Examination & Pressure Proof- Test Firing, Final Examination — Serial Numbering, ‘The 1913 Inspection & Acceptance Instruction ‘The RC Stamp - Chapter 7 Instruction on Marking the Pistol 08. Inspection Steps and Markings————- Fistol as pieve parts ~ Pistol ready for pressure proof and test-firing Pistol after pressure proot————- Pistol after accuracy firing. Accessories = Gauges 2 1918 Imperial Eagle Property Marking. Chapter 8 Examination and Acceptance After 1918. Simson Mauser ‘Test Firing, Chapter 9 Proof and Inspection Marks— German Miltary Marks ~ ane Promulgation of Marking Regulations. Army - Inspection & Acceptance Marks ——— Imperial DWM & Erfurt Production 1902 ~ 18 Post WWI DWM/BKIW Production 1920 - ca. 1929. ‘Simson Production 1925 -34~ ‘Transitional BKIW - Mauser Production ca, 1928 ~34—— ‘Mauser Production 1934 — 42 neem ‘Army Repaired and Rebuilt Pistol Markings ‘The KI. 1933 chamber marking Amy ~Proof Marks ‘Army - Positioning of Marks. oe Erfurt pattern Royal Prussian Eagle proof marks on DWM P.08%. Post WWI marking location P.04 Inspection Stages ‘Navy P.08s -WWI & Interwar procurement ~ ‘Airforce Markings Krieghoff Procluction P.08 Inspection Marks-.THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt Luftwaffe Assembly/Rework Marks. German Police Marks ~ Landgendarmerie Pistol Trials, 1911 ~ Police inspection mats x_n Pre-WWI Military marked commercial P 08s: Army/Navy/Polic ost WWI Police inspection markings-—————————~ German Commercial Marks Proof Law of 1891 ~ Rules of Proof 1911/12 DWM Commercial Proofing 1912 ~ 16 Post WWIDWM proofing Subl Commercial Proofing. ‘Mauser Commercial Proofing — Proof Law of 1939 ~ Foreign Commercial Proo! Britain Switzerland . Foteign Military Contracts Switzerland Table 9/1: DWM Swiss Contract pistol serial numbers and markings Portugal es Bulgaria Holland Brazil Persia Siam DWM intemal factory marks, 1899— 1930 --————~ ‘Old Model marking ~ arly New Model mark —_———--—-———— POS & New Model marks 19091918 —— Post WWI markings- Summary of internal markings — ‘Table 9/11 DWM Internal inspection and serial number markings 1899— 1930 Volume I Chapter 10 Serial Numbers Commercial & Prototype Serial Numbers Borchardt C93 Serial numbers a ‘Table 10/1: Summary of Borchardt C93 serial numbers and characteristics -——~ Parabellum Serial Numbers ne a 1898 & 1899 Borchardt -Luger Prototypes. DWM Commercial Production numbering ‘The Old Model Table 10/11: Old Model Production — 1901 ‘The 10x "B" and "C" suifix Prototype & Presentation serial numbers ‘Old Model Production above sn. 10000 -——- ‘The 22x00 serial number block and the end of Old Model production ‘Table 10/11: Summary of Production Old Modelserial numbers and characteristics: New Model and DWM Commercial P.08 numbering: — ost WWI DWM serial numbering ‘Mauser Commercial/Contract Serial Numbers — Immediate Postwar Mauser Commercial Pistols Erfurt and Simson Commercial Pistols ————THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt Krieghof Commercial P.O8s. Post-war Krieghoft Commercial Pistols~ Export Contract Serial Numbers ~ DWM Contracts — ‘Mauser Contracts & the -v suffix. German Military Serial Numbers —— Amy Pistols ~ DWM production 1909 — 18. Erfurt production ~ Mauser Military P.08s- Naval Pistols Production Pistolen 1904 Up-sae Pistols~ Down-sale Pistols ‘Non Grip-safety Pistols The Dated Pistol Naval 08s 639 Luftwaffe Pistols ~ Swiss contract and Waffenfabrik Ber serial numbering Pistole 1900, ‘Table 10/1V: Parts numbering of Swiss Military Contract P”00 pistols ‘Table 10/V: Correlation of E prefix to A prefix Serial Numbers Pistole 1900/06 numbering rere Table 10/VT: Summary of P*0006 deliveries and serial numbering. ‘Waffenfabrik Ber P'06 W+F numbering a 06/29 serial numbering Vickers serial numbers ~ Matching Numbers - Chapter 11 Manufacturers & Their Contracts - Ludwig Loewe and DWMBKIW, Berlin- DWM Export Contracts: — arly Trials = ‘Austria France Norway Spain Sweden Switzerland USM1900 Cavalry trial and 9 mm Powell Cartridge Counter —- Chile = Russia - Old and New Models —— Mexico - Pre-P.08 New Model German Army — 9 mm Selbstladepistole (Luger) ~ Portugal creer ‘Army M908 ‘Navy M910 Bulgaria Brazil Holland ~ ‘The Vickers involvement Viekers Manufacturing —-THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt ‘The Duteh return to BKIW ‘Dutch Indies M11 Dutch Navy Automatisch Pistool Nr. Bolivia pene Finland ‘ DWM Parabellum Total Production—~ The period up to 1919 ‘Table 11/1: German Army procurement of P.08 and IP.08 pistols 1906~ 191 ‘The period after 1919. ——— _—_—$—. Undated Blank Toggle Prussian Police P.08s ‘The Royal Rifle Factory, Erfurt Differences between DWM and Erfurt production The IMKK en Article 168 of the Versailles Peace Treaty ‘Simson && Co., Suh in Thiringen Simson P.08 Production -—————- ‘Berlin-Suhler Waffen- und Fahracugwerke. Simson & Co, 1914 — 1932— ‘The Simson & Co, Contracts ‘The 1923 Contract. ‘The 1925 Contract List A of IMKK Specifications — ‘Waffenfabrik Mauser, Oberndorf / Neckar~ ‘The Transfer of Production from DWM-—————- Seoret German Manufacturer's Codes. ‘Mauser Annual Production (Rounded Figures) ~ German Military P.08s en Commercial & Contract Mauser Parabellums "The Mauser Trade Mth em— ane rn em ‘Transitional Production - Mauser sales of DWM made pistols. US representation and the Stoeger marked pistols- Hermann Boker & Co Hans Tauscher ~ 80 J. Pam 2 at Retailers - Pacific Arms Corporation, Abercrombie & Fitch, von Lengerke & Detmold ete. 755 AF Stoeger Ine. ~ Stoeger Two-line address. The "LUGER” Trade Mark —— Stoeger Three-line address — Mauser assembly of DWM parts ‘Mauser commercial production Police Procurements ———————~ Mauser Military Export Contracts. ‘The Netherlands ets (Iran) Army 783 AirForce 785THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt ‘Table 11/11: Mauser pistol production for the French fram 20 April 1945 - Watfenfabrik Heinrich Krieghoff, Suhl in Thatingen. Krieghoff Marks & Serial Numbers Krieghoff Deliveries Krieghoff Characteristics Krieghoff Commercial & Presentation Pistols Krieahoff Post-WWI P.08s-— Krieghoff Trademark Krieghoff Production Estimates — Waffenfabrik Bem ~ Pistol development & manufaeture— ‘WII and the inter-war year ‘Table 11/10: Principal Characteristics of W+F “V" prefix seri Post WWI tgs enn ‘Vickers Lid Borcharck & Parabellum Export Trials and Military Contract Pistol Chapter 12 German Military Procurement & Deployment—. ‘The Imperial Era: Prior to 1918 1908 : First military units to carry the P.08 1909 : Extension of issue of pistols 1911 © Another DWM contract 1914:onto War ~ ‘The Reichswehr Eta : 1920-1935 — ‘50,000 pistols authorized by the IM.K.K, ~ Bagle/ArAd & eagle Wad pistols ‘The "1920" marking, Procurement ‘The Wehmacht Era (1935 ~ 1945)-——- HWaA Production Statistics 1939 - 1942 ‘Table 12/1: Heeres-Waffenamt accepted P.08s for Army, Air Force, and Navy- Chapter 13 The Naval Parabellum — Purpose of Naval Small Arms-———— ‘The course ofevents — ~ Carrying tests - ‘The trials Pistole 1904 in Arica ~ First Procurements - pre WWI Design and nomenclature Delays = Pistols in demand — More procurements ~ ‘Naval Arithmetic = 20,000in 19122 = ‘The Commercial P.04THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt Naval Technicalities ‘Common Characteristics Differences = Trials Pistols ~ Production Pistolen 1904 — P04 Marking, = Proof & Inspectors’ Marks —~ Serial number positioning on Pistolen 1904 ~- Unit marks Accessories Stocks : Holsters i First Patten ~ Second Patter ~ Magazine Pouch ~ ‘Magazines zi Cleaning Rods ~ Muzzle Protector ~ Sub-Calibre Insert Training Barrel The post-1918era Reichsmarine & Kriegsmarine Markings ——- ‘The 1964 pistol cartridge and its packaging Chapter 14 The lange Pistole 08 Initial Trials _ Aatilleristische Rundschau. ‘The long P.08 and the Prussian aviators Demonstration of an immature model ‘Rear sight problems ~ Adoptiondelayed — Adoption for Army use —- Planning - Bavaria : ‘Amberg Rifle Factory ——— More delays. : Tables of Dimensions. 1914: The long wait The IB.O8 at War ener Plans vs. Reality ~ serial number analysis —~ Helplessness vere ‘The infantry anti-assault weapon ‘The Air Force and the Selective Fire IP.08 Post-war issue and usage~- ‘Technical Characterstios ‘The Troop Trials Prototype IP.08. Production IP.085| ————————- Accessories of the LP.08 —- Shoulder stock ~ Holsters 7THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt Magazine pouch Cleaning rod Sight adjustment key —---——— Serew driver/magazine filler ——- Luminous sights ~ ‘The Drum Magazine and its Accessories Origins of the TM. ~ Friedrich Blum’s German magazine patents-— ProductionTM.~ ‘Table 14/1: Trommetmagazine variation by serial number "The Dust Covet ener Carrying Pouches, Magazine Loaders. —————— ‘The P.Kasten Magazine Carriet— ‘The TM and the M.P.18, 1~ Conclusion —a reciprocal relationship ‘The Persian and Siamese IP.08 contracts Chapter 15 Cost Accounting. Pre-WWI Prices - Erfurt Pricing — Post-War Inflation ~ Inter-War P.08 Replacement Proposal Dreyse and Simson Blow-back proposals Walther Interest —ve— Replacement Postponed 1930's Commercial Pricing Coss finally force change — the P.38 —- Spare part costs = Chapter 16 Manufacture and Maintenance. Materials - 1054 Table of Materials & Processing Instructions 1055 Parts common to short and long Pistols 08 at 1055 Parts peculiar tothe long Pistole 08 1087 DIN 1661, June 1929 - Manufacturing Field Maintenance ~ ‘The Luftwalle Armourer’s Instruction Sheet ——- Price List for Repair of Weapons for Royal Artillery Depots: Blveing - Chapter 17 Technical Alterations to the P.08——— Chamber : Hold-open Latches — Mainspring Well modifications Rear Frame wall reinforcement and MainspringTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt ‘The P.08 Stock Lug ‘The New-Pattem Sear Bar (Abeugsstange n/A) Fluted Firing Pin : Frame and Rear Connecting Pin Frame unlocking eam recess machining Supplementary Safeties ~ Immersion Blusing Reinforced Side-plates Grips x Rear Receiver Rail Termination ~ Chrome-plated Bores —- Chapter 18 Unit Markings- German Army Markings - The Imperial Era = Reichswebr Bra - Provisional rules Printed Army Instruction H Dy. 464 of 1923/1924 General Notes “ ‘Markings on Police P.08s Prussia 192000 — Bavaria 19200 Prussia 1922 Prussia 1932 Saxony = Suspension of police markings. Chapter 19 Accessories ——— Holsters and Magazine Pouches Prototype and early Old Model Holsters German New Model and P.08 Commercial Holstrs- ‘Non-German Commercial Holsters Non-German Contract Holsters Swiss Pistole 1900, 1900/06 and P 06/29 Holsters ———— Portuguese Military Holsters ‘Naval m/908 and m/910 Holster Amy m/908 Holsters-— Guarda Nacional Republicana Holsters Amy m/943 Holster Dutch Holsters ——-———- Dutch Army 1905 Trials Holsters Dutch Indies Patterns M11 Holsters. ‘Early Pattern Late Pattern —-THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt M11 Holster, Officer's Model —--—_____-__— ‘M11 Holster and Magazine Pouches, for Sam Browne Belt ‘MII Magazine Pouches: Dutch Naval Patterns Bulgarian Military Holsters M1503 Old Model & M1908 New Model Parabellum Holsters —-——— ‘Model 1911 Pattern (P.08) Holsters Turkey 1217 Amy 1217 AirForce 1218, Security Police — Persia = Britain German Amy POS Holsters —— Altered revolver holsters Carriage ofthe Pistol The Production P.08 Holster ‘The First Pattern Holster and its improvement ‘The Second Pattern P.08 Holster Provision for Cleaning Rods Miscellaneous P.08 Holsters — Colour German Military Holster Marks ~ ‘Navy Holster Markings-—~ ‘Army Holster Marks - Imperial period —— ‘WWI Leather Rationing Allocation Marks ‘The Parabellum magazine———— Prototype Parabellum Magazines Production Magazines Contract magazines 281 ‘Swiss magazines-~ Dutch magazines: Bulgarian P.08 magazines ‘Mauser Contract & Commercial magazines German Service Magazines. ‘Naval Pistole 1904 & P.08 magazines: Army P.08 magazines ~ Post-WWL Magazines and Markings———- Magazine body finish. Aluminium bases~ Police magazines ~ Luftwaffe magazines Heenel-Schmeisser magazines.THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt First Pattem (coil spring) H-S Magazines-—— ‘Second Patter (zig-zag spring) H-S Magazines Post-1945 magazines ease Sorewdriver/Loading Tools ~ Cleaning rods i ‘Borchardt Pistol Cleaning Equipment Parabellum Cleaning Equipment Prototype Cleaning Rods- Swiss Cleaning Kits———— Commercial & Contract Rods~ Dutch Cleaning Rods German Military Cleaning Rods ‘Naval Pistole 04 Cleaning Rods —— P.08 Cleaning Rods 1P.08 Cleaning Rods: Police Cleaning Rods: Reinigingsgerat 34 & R.G.34 far Kal 5 ‘Mauser Contract Cleaning Rods Pin Punch Z ‘Wooden Dummies and Holster Fillers Pistol Lanyard - Muzzle Protector ‘Sub-calibre Devices Lienhard-Systeme. Koller Insert Barrel ~ ‘The 4 mm-Ubungspatrone- RWS 4 mm M20 - Geco 4 mm CRIRF German Sub-calibre Devices, ‘Weiss!RWS Patent DRP 365264 German Service Pattems- Polte Patent, DRP 450713 —- ‘Weiss/RWS, Patent DRP 432028- Gomann, Patent DRP 451610 Commercial Patterns aoa Bolte & Anschutz, Registered Design DRGM 1364272. Emma Single Shot Devices ~ Lothar Walther Insert Devices — Self-loading Insert Barrel Devices Hellfritzch DRGM, 1921-- ‘The Kulisch Patent Erma SEL. fur P.08. Military and Police issue S.E.L.£P.08, Commercial Erma Modell 31 devices ost War Erma 8 B.L. sets—— Stocks Swiss Prototype Stocks ‘The Benke-Thiemann Folding Stock- ‘The Gomann & Grunow Telescoping Stock —~ ‘The "Ideal" Holster’Stock-———— ‘The Stoeger Folster/Stock- aoe ‘The MGC Telescopic Holster/Stock and Wood Board Stock. Silencers :THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt ‘Cases and Cartons Borchardt Cases Parabellum Cases & Cartons Military P.08 ‘Transport/Storage Boxes Commercial Factory Cases & Cartons. Retailer Cases Chapter 20 Parabellum Ammunition Borchardt Ammunition ~ 7.65 mm Parabellum Ammunition —— Development Commercial 7.65 mm Ammunition Production —- Military 7.65 mm Ammunition ‘Swiss Parabellum Ammunition. Other Military 7.65 mm Ammunition Portugal ~ Finland ——————___— A Footnote: DWM 471C, the 7.65 mm Glisenti ‘The first pattern cartridge — Kropfungsliderung — Offset obturation. Conmier cial prodwetin en Military 9 mm. Ammunition for the Parabellum ‘The German Pistolenpatrone 08 ~ GPK. Trials ammunition, 1898 — 1908- Pre-WWI Production Production in WWI ————- The Dum Dum spectre Post WWI production Improvements and experimentation: ‘Tracer and Incendiary Bullets Priters 1523 eldicht tn ironmental Sealing: Nazi Rearmament and WWI — ‘Raw material economies ~ ‘Steel cartridge cases Special loadings 1542 Close combatisilenced ammunition. Dummy cartridges Blank ammunition Proof ammunition. Packaging and Labelling —— ‘Manuals & Training Material ~ Manufacturers - German Manufacturers of Pistolenpatrone 08, 190: Headstamps of Government Establishments Hadstamps of Private Companies ‘Manufacturers of Pistolenpatrone 08, 1920 1945. Bstablished Ammunition Manufactarers Other manufacturers Factories founded by companies outside ammunition manufacturTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt Companies adding ammunition making to thei traditional production—— Factories in Occupied Couniries- German Military Headstamps, Pistolenpatrone 08— 1909-1918 1920-1934 1935 - 1941 1941-1945. Other head stamp symbols — Foreign Manufactured & Contract Parabellum 9 mm Ammunition Dutch Contract 9 mm Ammunition ~ ‘Netherlands Indies Army (KNIL) ———- Dutch Navy Finland = Persia Bulgaria Portugal ‘Turkey Calibre 45" US 1906 Trial Ammunition. ‘The 6.5 mm Parabellum cartridge —— Parabellum Ammunition of standard commercial ealibres 4mm M20 Ammunition 5.6 mm lang fir Buchsen Aramunition ‘The 9mm “Poisoned Bullet” Disguised and Unidentified 9 mm Ammunition. 1920s IMKK Tarmung ~ DWM Case no. $59-- [Experimental and non-servie issue ammunition Polte Experiments. - Soft Iron bullets — Knurled ease = Steel-helmet acceptance cartridge Zielabungspatronen (Short range target training cartridges) -——- Explosive bullet Chapter 21 Shooting and Troubleshooting Ammunition today ‘WWII Steel-cased Ammunition — Reloading ‘Mechanical causes ‘Working in : Magazines The two-handed hold Tinkering verboten! — Sight Adjustment Chapter 22 Dead Ends and Curiosa —— ‘The .45" M1907 US Trials Parabellum ‘The Pocket Parabellum of 1925/6 ‘The Borchardt and Luger Rifles ‘The Luger Bolt-action Rifles 1893 — 96-- ‘The Luger Self-Loading Rifle, 1908 ~ 26 ‘The Borchardt Self-Loading Ritle 1907 —14——~THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! Contents: VoLUt Spandau P.08 Totenkopf Markings EWB markings Non-Luger developments Cleaning Aids Selective Fite Conversions ———- Extended Magazines and Loaders Holsters a Training & Target Shooting Devices Borchardt/Parabellum pattem .22" Scheibenpistolen (target pistols) Miscellaneous Accessories eens ‘Mercedes-Benz G4 Staff Cars BBiatant Opportunism. Stocks és Reversed Toggle Parabellum Chapter 23 Borchardt and Luger Patents. Hugo Borchardt’s Firearm Patents 1893 ~ 1914 ——— Georg Luger's Firearm Patents 1893 — 1926 Chapter 24 Parts List and Nomenclature. BarrelReceiver Unit ~ Action Frame Unit Magazine Addendum - Manufacturing Drawings ‘Old Model (Pistole 1900) ‘New Model (Selbstlade ‘New Model (Pistole 1906). POS (MaBtafetn aur Pistole 08). IP 08 (Méaptafeln zur langen Pistole 08)-—— Bibliography Glossary Acknowledgements & Illustration Sources The Authors Subject Index‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER P! FOREWORD Foreword ‘The foundation for this work was the book Die Pistole 08 by Joachim Gortz, published in 2000 in German as a revised and greatly enlarged edition. This book was the high point of his previous historical and technical work relating to weapons, and can well be regarded as his master work. With it he created a firm position as a weapon historian, since no collector of the Parabellum pistol can be without this reference book. Who was Joachim Gértz? Bom in Frankfurt on the Oder, he pursued English, American and German studies in Berlin, After a short period of University teaching there came a change to the Federal ‘Transport Administration. Thereafter, until retirement, he worked for Air Traffic Control at Munich Ainport Over preceding decades Gortz had created a name as a weapon historian. With his thorough, scholarly ‘working approach and indefatigable research in all relevant archives he created the basis for a complete range of historical works on weapons. For him there was only attributable data, no conjecture or assumptions and never any copying from other authors. He wrote many articles, was co-author of books and translator also of weapons books from English to German (e.g. “Luger” by John Walter) With Achim, as he was to his friends, I also wrote many articles concerning the Parabellum pistol. Over the decades the Parabellum pistol became the main field for Gdrtz. He built up a substantial collection and concentrated ever more on historical investigation, From the field of world wide distribution, as he told me, his main interest became the introduction and service of the pistol with the German Army and Imperial Navy. For his researches he spent untold weeks in the archives of Freiburg, Koblenz, Berlin and Ingolstadt. The Bavarian War Archive in Munich was his main source for the 08 Pistol, the final result being his work “Die Pistole 08”. Through these activities he came into contact with other historians, above all, in the early 1980s, with Dr Geoffrey Sturgess. Dr Sturgess is an aficionado for the collecting and the history of the Parabellum pistol. He made no fuss about his unique collection, but repeatedly tured up Borchardt and Parabellum specimens to support his extremely wide knowledge and working approach. Outstanding were his accurate research, documentary detail and an abundance of previously unknown data and details. Geoff Sturgess and Achim Gortz were friends who worked hand in hand in the Parabellum pistol field. Knowledge and discoveries were exchanged as were mutual visits. Having determined that a large number of English speaking Parabellum collectors, especially in the UK and USA, would be interested in an English translation of the Gértz book, Dr. Sturgess offered to edit this idea and following this agreement, work began immediately. It was agreed that Dr. Sturgess would expand the book and bring it up to current levels of knowledge. Supplements and expansion were to be in all directions, such as the Borchardt pistol, commercial Parabellums ete., and in the photography. Unfortunately Gartz could follow the project no further. Totally unexpectedly he died on 4 July 2002 from a hidden eancer. With unbelievable diligence and effort Dr. Sturgess has worked intensively for years on this new book, incorporating new information and corrections ete. Now the new book is ready, compiled with perfect understanding, not only of the pistols themselves, but particularly also of much of the historical background and knowledge of the spirit of the times during that epoch, ‘The world of the Parabellum collector and enthusiast has received a splendid book. My thanks and highest regard therefore to Dr. Geoffrey Sturgess. Reinhard Kornmayer, Singen, Germany July 2009‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER P! PREFACE Preface This book has been written for the collector and student of firearms to provide a historical background and context for the pistols designed by Hugo Borchardt and Georg Luger at the end of the 19th Century. Whilst written by and for collectors, it is not at all intended to be another “stamp catalogue” listing of every conceivable variation of these very diverse pistols, but to provide some insight into the technical development and distribution of the weapons and the reasons for the numerous variations that exist, frequently developed as responses to official/military and market demands, A similar approach has been taken to describing the markings, serial numbering systems and the official inspection and proof stamps that appear on these pistols, by explaining the manufacturing organisation, laws and official instructions under which these marks were stamped, rather than simply cataloguing them by rote, to assist the collector in understanding why a certain marking is, or should be, or perhaps should not be, present in a particular location on a spevifie variant of the pistol A particular emphasis has been placed on precise explanation and illustration of intemal mechanical characteristics and markings, especially of the rarer variations which few collectors have ever had the opportunity to examine, Since some of these have unfortunately been subject to extensive faking over the past 50 to 60 years or more, it is often only by knowledge of such arcane details, many of which have not been published before, that such deceptions can be detected. It has to be acknowledged that publishing such details inevitably helps the criminal element among the fakers, mechanics, fraudulent dealers and their apologists by permitting them to improve their frauds and the tortuous justifications frequently offered for them. There are, needless to say, other details that have not been inciuded herein. By correlating changes in production and mechanical details with known, documented changes in usage & markings and with established production or delivery dates of German military and other contract pistols it is also possible to build up a better picture of the chronology of development, serial numbering and dating of otherwise undocumented variants of the pistols and to further clarify the characteristics of genuine examples. The information herein will hopefully expose some of the fakes that exist already, to assist prospective purchasers and assessors to avoid them by such exposure, whilst not providing a complete blueprint for future frauds. Inevitably current owners of such weapons may suffer financially, which is regrettable, but hopefully what is published may also assist them to obtain redress from errant past vendors and fabricators of fakes, who remain responsible for their actions. Whilst written for the non-expert, and possibly for that reason somewhat repetitive in parts to the advanced collector, it is hoped there is sufficient new information herein to interest collectors at all levels. In order to avoid influence from the numerous errors and myths resulting from unquestioning repetition and the casual plagiarism that exist in much of the previous literature on this subject, and especially today on the intemet and the many uncritical weapons forums that exist, deliberately very little attention has been paid to the existing published corpus on the Parabellum, apart from identifiable illustrations not otherwise available of specific pistols and their markings, serial numbers etc... This book is based upon and expanded from Achim Gortz’s English translation of the standard German language text covering the German military variations, the Army's P.08 & IP.08 and Naval P.04, his “Die Pistole 08”, which translation he fortunately succeeded in completing shortly before his untimely death in 2002.THE BoRcHARoT-LUGER P's The original German work is notable for being entirely factual, being based upon many years of patient research in the German military and State archives as well as upon observation of specimens. Very few of the statements made therein cannot be backed up by official documents, or be shown to be demonstrably accurate by simple deduction from knowledge of the systems under which the pistols were manufactured, inspected, distributed and repaired. The Gortz archives are far wider in coverage than required for the original German language edition, and much additional information has been extracted from them that is published here for the first time. Unfortunately, incomplete as the German military archives are, they are far better for the German military versions of the pistol than are the archival sources of the factories that made the guns of the commercial and contract variants, as their records are generally non-existent due to destruction during WWII, Whilst small fragments of the later history survive in the Mauser records in Oberndorf, virtually nothing survives of DWM’s intemal records of Parabellum design or production. Consequently secondary sources, stich as the fragments available in foreign archives of nations that tested or adopted the pistois, such as Switzerland, Holland, UK, USA ete., and some contemporary material published by third parties has had to be relied upon to describe non-German military developments. Necessarily also there has been extensive interpolation and extrapolation from study of examples of the pistols which, where speculative and unproven, as some conclusions inevitably are, is so indicated in the text. The whole period of production, procurement and issue of the pistols during the application of the Versailles treaty prohibitions of the 1920s remains very clouded by the official secrecy then applied to conceal the illegal aspects of German military weapons procurement in this period and few recorded, provable facts have emerged. ‘The nomenclature used herein for the weapons, as far as possible, is that applied officially by the factories, German military or foreign purchasers where it is correctly known. The common collector’s {jargon for many variations has deliberately been avoided sine, as it has evolved over the years from its frequently erroneous origins, by ascribing incorrect or fictitious model year designations to variants of the Parabellum, it bears now a confusing relationship to the true historical context of the development of the weapons, which is misleading, especially for the beginning collector. Calling a 9/100 mm barrelled Old Model Parabellum a “1902 Luger” may be convenient shorthand, but sinee the development of the 9 mm cartridge was not completed until 1903, and pistols of this type were not made or delivered, other than experimentally, until 1904 it is much less misleading and more accurate to simply call such an example a 9 mm Old Model (Parabellum). Similar misnomers apply to the Naval Pistole 04, the only official nomenclature for this pistol, which ‘was never a “1906 Navy”, far less a “first issue” or “second issue”, or “1908 Navy”, which variant was actually produced in 1914/15: *P.04 up-safe”, or “P.04 no grip-safety, undated” otc. far more accurately describes and identifies the variant being referred to and is the preferred nomenclature herein. A particularly misleading and totally erroneous appellation is the so-called “1902 Danzig Trials” model which, in collector jargon, has come to identify the 7.65/100 mm barrelled Old Model pistols stamped with the erown/ inspection mark associated with the German Army’s Rifle Proving Commission. As explained later, these pistols, invariably described and accepted in the literature as being from the documented group of 55 Parabellum pistols used for the German Army troop trials in 1902, have nothing whatsoever to do with this trial (far less Danzig!), and were not in fact made until 1904/5 when they were supplied for Dutch trials, not German, as proper analysis of their manufacturing, characteristics and the history readily shows. The accepted collector jargon names of such variants do a disservice, as they conceal the true course of historical development, serve only to confuse the collector, particularly the inexperienced, and have consequently been avoided in this work.THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTO! PREFACE This material has had an unhappy publishing history due to a contract long pre-dating the production of the manuscript, This resulted in publication of a caricature of the work, which contains numerous inappropriate changes in meaning and factual errors introduced by maladroit editing and also as a result of never being subject to peer review at the draft. This has likewise destroyed the intended chronological narrative of the book, as well as being presentationally condescending to the reader. This parody has been totally disowned by the authors, for which absolutely no responsibility is accepted by either author or the Gértz estate. This fully revised edition of the original manuscript has consequently been prepared, in the interests of historical accuracy and as a service to collectors, to correct this undesirable situation, which has not contributed to the anticipated advancement of understanding of the subject originally foreseen, and to ensure that the work survives as a fitting memorial to Achim Gortz’s scholarship and expertise in the subject, as he originally wished. ‘The original manuscript has accordingly been fully revised, corrected and expanded with additional new material. The final draft has also been subject to rigorous peer review, which has resulted in correction of many errors in the original manuseript. It is now presented as initially intended, using the original narrative chronologies following those of the German edition for each subject Chapter. It is hoped that this will be more easily readable and comprehensible as it forms the same series of parallel chronologies of the various aspects of the development, manufacture and use etc. of the pistols that the original manuscript and the German edition “Die Pistole 08” offered, without distracting editorial farbelows Since this material is wide ranging and complex in parts, this publication includes a DVD of the entire book in .pdf file format which allows full text searching, using the built in search facility of any .paf reader, allowing words, phrases, numerals and other expressions to be located instantly without reference to a conventional Subject Index, which is however provided for the printed edition. Use of the .pdf bookmarks, equivalent to an electronic Contents, also allows immediate access 10 specific subject areas by their sub-headings in the text. Instant cross-referencing across the whole book is provided by intemal links in the .pdf version (in blue text), since many sections and illustrations are relevant to a number of subject areas, but for brevity have not been repeated. The illustrations in the electronic edition have been incorporated with their full digital resolution and using minimal file compression, Consequently they can be magnified using the zoom facility of any pdf reader, up to many times single page screen display size, without loss of detail or the onset of pixilation, readily allowing very close examination of the smallest features in the illustrations, so climinating a major limitation of any printed edition. As a consequence it has been possible to reduce the printed sizes of ‘many illustrations, since their detail is available in the electronic version. xxvTHE BoRcHARoT-LUGER P's Introduction Borchardt & Luger This account is firmly rooted in the late Victorian period of the 19" C, one of intense development in firearms technology. The two most salient developments in small arms of this period were Hiram Maxim’s ineffable invention in 1884 of the first true machine gun, operating entirely under its own power by utilising the recoil energy of the discharge, and the development, also in 1884, of Poudre B, the first practical progressive burning smokeless propellant, by the French chemist, Paul Vieille. These ‘wo singular inventions ushered in the era of modem firearms, the adoption in 1886 of the 8 mm Lebel rifle by the French Army triggering an immediate arms race among European nations, led by Germany, to develop small calibre rifles and their smokeless ammunition, Although the primary aim was re-arming the infantry masses of their armies with rifles having the superior ballisties offered by smokeless ammunition, several nations also embraced the improvements in rates of fire ushered in by Maxim’s invention, the viability of which was also heavily dependent upon the adoption of smokeless powder immediately after its initial development. The spread of automatic arms also influenced inventors and military authorities seeking to replace the black powder revolver with similarly superior handguns, both to exploit the superior ballistics of smokeless powder and to eliminate the objectionable gas leakage between cylinder and barrel of the revolver. Many attempts were made to adapt hand operated mechanical repeating mechanisms to hand guns during the late 1880s, especially in Austria and Belgium, but these all suffered from inferior ballistics and excessive complexity, and were never popular, far less seriously considered for military adoption. Foremost in the search for a revolver replacement was Austro-Hungary, whose military authorities instituted a long running series of competitive trials from 1892. This produced the first functioning self loaders, from Austrian designers, the delayed blow-back Laumann-Schénberger and blow-back Salvator-Dormus designs of 1892, soon followed by von Mannlicher’s blow forward model of 1894. These fired low powered, rimmed case, smokeless cartridges and despite functioning were never seriously considered as military weapons. However, at the same time, in 1893, Hugo Borchardt, German citizen, designed and patented the first locked breech self-loading pistol, his Construktion 93 (C93) which was sufficiently successful to enter production at the Loewe factory in Berlin. Although tested by the Austrians and many others it was considered too complex and fragile for military service, despite its satisfactory performance. ‘This pistol was, however, as revolutionary in its field as Maxim’s machine gun had been in its sphere. Aside from Borchardt’s use of the same short recoil actuated knee-joint operating prineiple, derived from the Maxim, this pistol established for the first time many of the design features that have applied to pistols until modem times, notably the removable and refillable box magazine: grip; the use of a high powered smokeless cartridge with a fully locked breech; the use of a rimless cartridge case ete. That the pistol, despite limited commercial success, was a military failure was largely caused by Borchardt’s eccentric treatment of the mainspring issue and the complex delicacy of many of its parts. It was left to another Austrian designer, Georg Luger. to develop Borchardt’s design into one of the most successful and widely distributed pistols of the 20" C, after Borchardt’s rejection of Swiss criticism of the design following its trials there in 1897. It is the history of this development and subsequent refinement of Luger's design that is the principal theme of this work. 25THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS INTRODUCTION The Parabellum Pistol - its place in the 20th Century By adopting a self-Loading pistol for his army on 28 August 1908, Wilhelm Il, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, finalized a lengthy development and testing process. In the German tradition, the ‘gun’s official designation “Pistole 08” was derived from the year of its adoption: a somewhat bureaucratic choice, because the serviceability of the gun and of its ammunition had been a proven fact since 1904 and since 1906/7 it had already been ordered from DWM and issued to experimental Army units, although in. very limited numbers. In Germany, the term “Pistole 08” has sunk so deeply into the vocabulary of the public that it is commonly applied to all versions of the Parabellum, or Luger, pistol, and is often used as a synonym for handgun in general, as indeed has the word nagan in Russia or the names Webley in Britain and Colt in the USA. One may find a Walther P.38 labelled P.08 on display in a military museum, with the curator stubbomly refusing to alter the label on the grounds that all German military pistols were called “08” ... In fact, however, the P.08 was just one, albeit by far the most widely distributed, of many slightly different variants of handguns of Borchardt/Luger ancestry 1: Kaiser Wilhelm eventually signed the decree adopting the Considering, in comparison with the other Pistole 08 on 22 August 1908 at his Palace Wilhelmshhe in variants, the P.08’s lack of elegance and Cassel (now Kassel), whereupon it was countersis in ai hea s SS ace Whe ras Rms frei ish as pep nse ‘Colonel-General Karl yon Einem. ways the poorest of all. For the German soldier, though, the P.08 was a truly familiar, although sometimes capricious, companion in two World Wars, for his enemy it was a respected opponent and a most highly prized war souvenir, A little effort will yield much information, revealing a surprising variety of historical and technical details: seven producing factories; Army, Navy, Airforce, Police, Rural Constabulary, Commercial and Export versions, let alone prototypes and experimental guns; a multitude of accessories including dozens of holsters, magazines, cleaning rods, sub-calibre inserts and sponsorship of development of the most widely used pistol cartridge of all time, the 9 mm Parabellum; a wealth of various military unit markings and police property stamps, and a history encompassing the whole of the first half of the 20th Century, the enormity of its two World Wars, their origins and consequences, A study of this minor aspect of the history of the last century can produce much knowledge - nd Wissen ist Macht! - particularly when faced with much of the dross offered at auction and on the internet, as well as by the less reputable dealers and mechanics who are regrettably protected by the laws of libel. It is at this point that many people — shooters, collectors, and amateur historians ~ have found reward, financial and otherwise, in becoming engaged with this firearm, in studying its origins, design, variants, accessories, and its history. It is the breadth of this history and variety of variations of one of the most widely distributed of all pistols, that is a principal key to the Parabellum’s quasi-iconic status as a collectible artefact. Regrettably, much of this history lies in the dark and may never surface, because many essential and original documents were destroyed in April 1945, together with the main 2%‘THE BoRcHAROT-LUGER PIsTé UCTION German Military Archives at Potsdam, through Allied bombing two weeks before VE-day. In consequence, much of our knowledge has to come from secondary sources or has to be inferred from study of the weapons themselves. It is the objective of this book to present the history of the Parabellum pistol, its development and distribution and to set it in its larger historical context as far as possible, by particular emphasis on its use within the German Armed Forces in the first half of the 20th Century and in its technical position vis-devis its contemporary competitors. It is not the intention to present another sterile collector's tick- box catalogue of over particularised “Models”, nor to waste valuable pages with repetitive photographs of essentially identical variants of the pistol. Whilst all major variants are described, illustrations are limited to showing the essential detail of the variation or a marking so that meaningful comparisons may be made by the researcher and collector. Minor routine detail, such as the change of the year of manufacture impressed over the chamber of German Army P.085, or the minute variations of die stamps which naturally result from wear and tear of the master matrices from which the replacement working dies were produced, is largely ignored or taken as read, Since a major objective is to demonstrate the history of the development of the C93 pistol by Hugo Borchardt and of the Parbellum under Georg Luger, largely irrelevant one-off variants and developments are ignored, particularly non- factory and after market alterations which are mainly irrelevant distractions to the true course of the history of the pistol’s technical development, unless they demonstrate why a particular course of development was pursued or abandoned. Since the Parabellum now enjoys an honourable retirement from its active service through the first half of the 20" Century it has come to occupy an iconic position as a collectible firearm. ‘The problems associated with the enhancement in values that has occurred since collector interest became evident in the 1950s make it more necessary than ever that the collector of these pistols both widens and deepens his knowledge. In buying it is not sulTicient just to answer the question “what is (apparently) being offered?”, which a number of books may answer more or less satisfactorily when trying to identify a particular example, but also to ask the questions “how?” and “why?” a specimen may have the characteristics, markings ete. that it displays, or should display but does not. This requires deeper study of the production processes and machining techniques used to produce components; factory procedures, internal markings and serial numbering systems; official regulations, both civil and military, governing inspection and pressure proofing; distribution of weapons among the armed forees and police of the many users of the pistols, and in particular the changes that occurred and the time frames during which particular regimes applied in respect of such matters. Once knowledge of how and why a pistol may, or should have, acquired its characteristics and markings has been gained the prospective owner can make a reasoned analytical assessment of a specimen. Comparisons of known defining features and combinations of characteristics will usually result quite readily in an accurate identification of the precise variant, An assessment of its genuineness, properly based on the likelihood of the observed features occurring together, and upon comparison with other known genuine examples, follows automatically when a specimen is analysed correetly and in the depth recommended and shown in this work. 7THe BorcHaRoT-LUGER PIs The Toggle Action - Strengths and Weaknesses The second key to the appeal of the Parabellum is the technical-mechanieal aspect, most obviously represented by the highest standards of manufacture and the unmistakable toggle-action, common to all variants of the pistol. Both the Borchardt C93 and the early Parbellum pistols represent in the quality of their manufacture the apogee of late Victorian expertise in traditional metalworking. Even the non- technically minded cannot fail to be impressed by the complexity of the machining and fitting required by many of their components, which even today are not susceptible to the manufacturing simplifications brought about by modem CNC machining. Although the toggle action was not a German invention, being derived from its first use in Smith and Wesson’s Volcanic pistol, Winchester lever-action rifles and then in the Maxim machine gun, its application in a self-loading pistol was a unique feature, first in Hugo Borchardt’s C 93 pistol and then in the Parabellum developed by Georg Luger. Cc 2: The underlying principle ofthe Parabellum toggle joint is that the centre pivot axis, I, lies below the line joining the front and rear pivot axes, I & IIL, and that pivot II is prevented from moving further down by resting in contact ‘with the receiver, B. Tho action is thus prevented from opening until axis IE rises above the join line I - Ill, which Luger effected by ditect action of the fixed frame cam “ears” upon the toggle grips during recoil of the barrelirecciver/bolttogele assembly when fired. Luger further refined the application of the locking principle by using a fixed cam, acting directly at the centre pivot upon recoil to open the action on firing. No other handgun design using this feature has ever attained production status apart from a few small calibre clones of the Parabellum made for sport shooting, There are many dozens of locked-breech pistols using the Browning dropping barrel concept, a few have used the Mauser C96/Walther P.38 hinged locking block principle and similar transversely moving locking wedges, but there is only one Parabellum, in all its variations and sub-variations. The look-alike derivatives, made aftet WW II by the ERMA firm in Germany or for Stoeger in the U.S.A., utilise blow-back action adapted to cartridges less powerful than the Luger designs and resemble the Parabellum only in superficial outline. The Parabellum or Luger pistol is near unique in another respect inasmuch as it is one of the very few successful locked breech military handgun designs employing a hammerless action. There is no hammer, either exposed or shrouded, as employed in most other high powered handguns. Cartridge ignition is not effected by the blow of a cocked hammer directly onto the primer or indirectly via a firing pin, but by releasing the spring-loaded striker from its retention by the sear bar upon actuation of the trigger. This feature was considered to be a weak point in Luger's system by the Royal Prussian Rifle Proving Commission (or, more precisely, by the commission's competent officer, Oberleutnant Fischer) since there was no possibility of knowing whether the action was cocked or not, which had been a natural feature of the hammer of the military revolvers earmarked to be replaced by the new self-loading pistol, Partly to counteract this criticism, Georg Luger felt compelled to re-design the 28THE BoRcHARoT-LUGER P's Parabellum. action in such a way that the cartridge extractor also worked as a “loaded chamber” indicator (Patent of 1904). All Parabellum pistols of the “New Model” marketed since ca.1906, including of course all P_O8s, are fitted with this loaded chamber indicating extractor, as well as the coiled main spring which replaced the early leaf spring at the same time. Mainly by virtue of its design, though aided by its exemplary workmanship of manufacture, the Parabellum pistol shoots extremely accurately. There are two reasons: Firstly, the close tolerance guidance of the barrel-receiver unit within the frame for a length of not less than 130 mm as it recoils. Secondly, the coaxial movement of the barrel-receiver unit which remains perfectly aligned with the axis of the bore whilst the gun is recoiling. The system does not require a vertical movement or tilting of the barrel while unlocking, unlike the Browning system, which feature calls for a certain play between barrel, slide and frame and is detrimental to shooting accuracy, particularly vertical dispersion. Of course, accurate Browning-type pistols do exist. Normally, however, these are special variants like Colt’s Gold Cup National Match, or off-the-shelf pistols like SIG’s 210 series, made with a modification of the Browning principle keep the barrel aligned with the sight line until the bullet leaves the barrel, produced with Swiss watchmakers” precision and commanding Swiss watchmakers’ prices. With the Parabellum. accuracy was designed-in as standard. Indeed Parabellums in both calibres (7.65 mm and 9 mm) were successfully employed as competition handguns from immediately after their first military adoption, by Switzerland in 1900, until after WWII. As late as 1949, the Swiss marksman Heinrich Keller became world champion in the 50 m centre fire pistol match during the Buenos Aires World Championships, using a 7.65 mm Swiss-made P'06/29, sn. P 78108. It has been claimed occasionally that the toggle when opening obstructs the line of sight, preventing the marksman from taking aim properly. It is hard to understand how this could be thought possible, as ‘opening starts only after the bullet has left the muzzle and there is little avail in continuing aiming after this moment, once recoil has started to disturb the aiming picture. Secondly, the act of opening and closing takes less than 125 milli-seconds, which is too short a time to properly be registered by normal human perception. The toggle action as employed by Borchardt and Luger distinguishes itself from other handgun actions by its short action recoil, combined with almost perfect safety for the shooter. There is no slide which could be blown back into the user's face when faulty or overcharged loads are used. On the other hand, the Parabellum action calls for more than a minimum consistency with regard to its ammunition and some of its vital parts, e.g. the sear bar, are more exposed to environmental influences like dirt and rust than corresponding parts of more modern designs. It is the balancing of internal ballisties (time- pressure curve, bullet weight and frictional resistance in the bore) of the ammunition against the dynamic characteristics of the recoiling parts (mass, main spring rate, sliding friction) which gives most problems in Parabellum functioning with variable ammunition supplies. Far from most ammunition being "too hot” (with the exception of some military surplus 9 mm sub-machine gun ammunition), it is usually under-powered commercial ammunition which gives problems, especially in feeding, when the action parts do not receive sufficient recoil impulse to carry the bolt right back in the receiver against the increasing mechanical advantage and restoring force of the main spring. One of the most outstanding features of the Luger design is its grip angle of about 55 degrees. Imitated by some other designs, like the Nambu, Glisenti and the Lahti, though predated by Hiram Maxim's remarkable pistol designs of 1896, this angle is generally considered to be ideal for practical pistol work, It facilitates aiming and will point the gun instinctively onto the target, without exerting undue strain on the shooter’s wrist. The grip angle undoubtedly is also a major contribution to the aesthetic appeal of the pistol as a collectible item, it being far more attractive than most of its contemporaries,THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS INTRODUCTION 3: "The MaximSilverman patent pistol of 1896 (right) was the first to utilise the acute grip angle that was so characteristic of the Parabellum (left) and pre~dated Luger's adoption of the feature, fist seen in the 189% Swiss tial pistols by tvo years and indeed precursors and successors, particularly in the versions with the slim 7.65/120 mm barrel The trigger pull of the Parabellum is rightly considered to be “spongy” from the competitive shooter's point of view, compared with what modem pistols can offer. This is, of course, attributed to the complicated system of levers required to release the striker from its retention by the sear bar. Luger pistols in general, let alone military P.08s made under war-time delivery pressure, will rarely demonstrate a crisp trigger pull that is factory-original 4 DWM’s 50” — Jubilee company history acknowledged the poor grip angle of the Borchardt C93 as being too upright, and that Luger's redesign, in addition to relocating the mainspring from the Borchardt’s ungainly rear f housing, made the new grip angle such tht the pistol would lie naturally in the dock Pa rpm ie nck tno Pa For the modern shooter, who is used Die Borcharde-Pistole hatte einen beinahe senkreche 0 @ post front sight and a wide stchenden Handgrif. Hierdurch wurde beim Schefen cine unbequeme Lage der rectangular rear sight notch, the wily Goll Cds aged iden Gd Se Sabet das Dowie, ‘LUST Pistols sights look out-dated tefands wodureh die Pista ene gre Linge Beka, : "and unsuitable for any serious Der Wafenkonsrakear Lag, der de Parbellan-Paeenwidche verindene Practice work. He would better dic Lage des Handgrifes derare, da sie der natirlichen Lage der Hand beim appreciate the design if viewed from Sdisisn snuprach Er lege de Shier, vorene noch cine Biteder, inden the standpoint of the Prussian draftee Fn heey hau ds Map, wre Str di Engr P= hose nanry training was based on the Gew. 98 Mauser rifle, which had a V-notch rear and an inverted-V front sight and who, when transferred to a machine-gun company, was thankful to be issued with a handgun, the sights of which were identical with the rifle’s. Also, a hundred years ago handguns were not fired with an outstretched arm (or with a two-handed grip with both arms outstretched), but from a bent-arm position, often with the shooter’s upper arm resting against his chest (see Fig. 1-11). Thereby the sights were positioned much closer to his eye, resulting again in the subjective perception that the sights were not at all “fine” or “narrow” in shape 30‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER P! UCTION In the P.08, the centre of gravity is positioned over the shooter's hand, which feature may be advantageous for instinctive pointing but less favourable for slow, deliberate fire. For the latter, the commonly accepted theory calls for more barrel weight. In the 1920s, Gerhard Bock, the dean of German pistol shooters and their coach on the oceasion of the 1936 Olympies, ordered two fat target barrels (“bull barrels”) made for the P.08. One of the barrels was used by Bock himself, the other by one of his fellow-shooters in the then famous Berlin Barenzwinger Pistol Club, where Bock reported that he could improve his scores in slow-fire events using the heavy barrelled P.O8. In almost all countries, with probably Switzerland being the only exception, shooters neglect to remember that the Luger pistol, together with its contemporary competitors, was tested and sighted-in at 30 meters, which was considered to be a close-combat distance at the time. Today, most pistol ranges and many official events are designed for the 25 meter (or 25 yard) range and practical pistol courses will be fired at even shorter distances. It goes without saying that the P.08, with its fixed iron 50 m sights, cannot match the 21° century handgun and its laser-dot or telescopic sights, but neither can its contemporary Browning, Webley, Mannlicher or Mauser competitors. Be this as it may, both nostalgic and technological aspects have made the Parabellum pistol an extremely interesting object of firearm and military history. Its many variants and accessories have been discussed in the literature many times. Thanks to surviving documentation, records of some of the models ilar the Swiss models 1900, 1900/06 and 06/29 - are so detailed and reliable that little or nothing remains to unveil. though recently unearthed correspondence in the archives provides many interesting insights relating to early procurement. Others have virtually no associated documentation but the most common variant, namely the German Army P.O8, has, despite glimmers of documentary illumination, remained in some ways the most mysterious model of all. Viewed from an optimistic standpoint, this lack of hard facts in many areas is liable to keep awake interest in this model and to promote further relevant research, Hopefully, this book will contribute to this goal by describing the facts that are known, as far as possible from surviving official records, thereby possibly prompting discovery of new data to establish a fuller true history of this fascinating and iconic weapon. On the other hand, from the pessimistic viewpoint, searce and unreliable documentation of Parabellum history has led to frustration here and misinterpretation there, leading to growing subjective speculation, wishful thinking and even seemingly deliberate misrepresentation on occasion, hindering authors from producing well-founded historical literature on the subject. This has been exacerbated by the plagiarism which is rife in the literature and which, in the absence of accurate historical research, has led to the repetition of earlier inaccuracies, guesswork and speculation to the extent that misrepresentations are nowadays portrayed as "fact" whilst being nothing of the kind. A further unhappy consequence of the portrayal of speculation as fact, in the absence of official documentation or research to refute such inaccuracies, has heen the proliferation of faking in the Luger field, which relies on ignorance or misinformation on the part of the buyer for its suecess, as well as technical skills in its execution. Whilst totally deplorable for its financial dishonesty, faking has even more serious consequences for the genuine historian and student, in that it both obscures the true history with spurious "models" and chronological inconsistencies and also frequently leads to the destruction or defacing of genuine weapons whose existence may be the only valid evidence of a particular strand of development or of production numbers. Such distortion of the true history of the Luger pistol has unfortunately been exacerbated by some authors who have failed to identify the questionable nature of certain "models" that they have described, either through ignorance or laziness in plagiarising earlier misrepresentations, or worse, who have deliberately portrayed spurious ‘variants” as genuine for their or their dealer associates” pecuniary advantage. 31‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS INTRODUCTION Where it has not been possible to establish facts objectively concerning a variant or its development from official sources (i.e. factory or governmental records or contemporary description), this book will consequently clearly identify conjecture as such, with explanation or justification for such inferences, These are inescapable in the context, given the incomplete nature of Parabellum documentation and the frequent reliance that must be placed on comparative study of (genuine) weapons themselves. Where certain variants are known to have been commonly faked, frequently in the past on the basis of erroneous information, effort has been made to describe the characteristics of genuine examples as comprehensively as possible to assist the student and collector. This however is a two edged sword, since it is fully realised that the better the description of a rare variant, the better able the fraudster is to produce a more accurate false reproduction where he does not have access to a genuine example to copy. In all such cases therefore certain minor characteristics which are unique to the variant in question have had to be omitted from this text. As a combat gun, let alone as a competition pistol, the Parabellum has long had its day. Even its action, the Henry/Maxim/Borchardt/Luger toggle principle, is now rightly considered to have been a technical peculiarity, a designer's dead end of undue cost and complexity, although highly effective, lingering on in active service until the 1970s in an earlier incarnation as the British Vickers machine gun. Where then is the gun’s fascination rooted? How can it be possible that grown men will cavil upon the number of serrations in its front sight or the number of stitches per inch in its holster seams? Well, dear reader, you've bought this book. You should know. hy the “Parabellum” Pistol? “Parabellum” was the Registered Trademark of the Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM), Berlin, and at the same time its telegraph address. It was derived from a common Latin saying, allegedly known to the Romans: Si vis pacem, para bellum, in English “if you desire peace, prepare for war”. In all probability, the saying was based on a quotation from the Roman military author Flavius Vegetius Renatus, who in . 400AD wrote: “Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum”. 5: DWM otal ey ine Tide Ma Gate unten iota of tle Te Mak YAMANE, Seattle al bps of firearms and projectiles, from 21 Mr. 43353. D. 2562. Deutfehe Waffen: & PH! 1900. Munitions + Fabrifen, Berlin. Anmeldung vom 22. 2. 1900. GCintragung am 21. 4. 1900. Gefdhaftsbetried: Herjtellung umd Bertrieb nage DwM Company asked for benannter Maaren. protection of the word Maarenverseidnif: Sdufwaffen aller rt und “Parabellum”, a contraction Gefhojie. eae i [Soe ‘of the two Latin words, as Der Aumeldung ijt cine Vefdhreibung beigefiigt. their Registered Trademark Registration was granted by the Imperial German Patent Office on 21 April 1900 and made publicly known in the German Gazette of Trademarks for 1900 on page 442. In the following years, in Germany and her neighbouring states, the term “Parabellum pistol” became the popular name of handguns made after the Borchardt-Luger design. Although the term was also applied to other company products (for instance, the Parabellum aircraft machine gun), the Luger pistol was to become the best-known product of the firm, particularly On 22 February 1900, the 32‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER P! UCTION in its P.08 version, and consequently even today the word “Parabellum” rings a bell marked “pistol” in everyone’s mind. “Parabellum” was also the telegraph address of DWM (see Fig. 3-13). In those days, in a world lacking satellite communication and internet e-mail systems, the telegraph service was used for urgent orders and inquiries. In order to spare their customers a long and costly address like “Deutsche Waffen-und- Munitionsfabriken A.G., Generaldirektion, Berlin N.W.7, Dorotheenstr. 43/44”, a big company like DWM could make arrangements with the telegraph service provider (in Germany, the Imperial Mail) for a code to be used instead. The customer would simply address his message to “Parabellum Berlin”, and the Imperial Mail would deliver the message to the DWM central administration building. Why a “Luger” pistol? It is a common usage in most countries of the world to name small arms after their inventor or designer. ‘The Colt revolver, the Browning pistol, and the Mauser rifle are just three examples. Official designations of different variations may vary from one country to the other; certainly they are more precise, but normally only the resident (the serviceman, the police officer) of the state in question will be familiar with them. Internationally, classification after the individual name of the inventor will provide better general recognition, sometimes more so than the name of the factory producing, or having produced, the gun. So the term “Pistole 08” is basically and correctly restricted to designate the German Army version of the Parabellum pistol, and only to the period of time following its adoption as a service model in 1908. Before 1908, even the German military called the gun the “Pisiole Borchardt-Luger", or “Pistole Parabellum”, or “9-mm-Selbstladepistole Luger” (9 mm Luger Self-loading Pistol). While German and European writers continue to use the term “Parabellum” to the present day, the Anglo-American collecting world has preferred to use the designer's name, usually complemented by additional terminology of greater or lesser historical accuracy for more precise classification: the “1908 Army Luger”, the “German Naval Luger 1906”, the “Swiss 1900 Model Luger”, and so on, but with more than one misnomer among them. In this book, which originally emphasised the history of the German Army Model of 1908, its antecedents and technical development, the official term Pistole 08 (abbreviated as P.O8 per the nomenclature of D.V.432, Waffenetats and other official documents) or its English equivalent " ‘08 Pistol” has been used throughout when applied to this variant. As noted above, in describing other variants, the factory designations or other official designations, German or otherwise, have been used as far as possible, in the interests of historical accuracy and to avoid, as far as possible, the confusion which has been caused by non-harmonisation of common collector's and invented terminologies with their inaccuracies in particular regard to the correct chronology of production. Dr Geoffrey Sturgess, Egg, Switzerland October 2011 3THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE Chapter 1 Dramatis Personae ‘The origin and development of the Parabellum pistol were very much the result of the personal efforts of a few committed individuals, as outlined below, with the support of the principal European arms manufacturer of the era. Hugo Borchardt Hugo Borchardt was born in Magdeburg, capital city of the Prussian province of Saxony, on 8 June 1844. Magdeburg was a large industrial town with important metal-processing factories like Krupp- Gruson and Polte AG, the famous ammunition manufacturer. He emigrated to the U.S. with his parents, and became a naturalised citizen by 1875. He evidently trained as an engineer, having worked as machine shop superintendent for the Pioneer Breechloading Arms Co from the age of 24, then as foreman at the Singer Sewing Machine Co before joining the Winchester Repeating Arms Co in 1873, where he was granted his first patent (U.S, Pat 153,310, 21 July 1874), for a machine to cut lubrication grooves in bullets AY Later Gk ra) alt hermse? met) Gand, jhrvt atevition @ 0s fat wthar hus secocciraty Lecwesrive caclerrecet. deers op oreererly, Ma. ter spectre aateg nga tn weet thertiy Herflewee wt )/Md hi acerdtiieead & moeoe hale dessseitad os on BE Daag wastee Me bosaptig tit Pass hibat heft ilirmets CaP rady SETAE. Me lian ha beng allrrwed E faa whuwdint ocatel han elect inicend. Er CA wate dhulagec. lh ni foogfaraltine hawt) bees dea, for frucibeare ‘werk Ce atette. Parmele, af, Meal Pf weutel lata ford fruct ove facceshecl, arrest erulol be birvecn oti Month bob be twcabledy Car er rt mtatliveils wae af freee ti ferereite aan Met ortbiifGioty Ges Porta nd’ & hoe? Fig. I-I: A manuscript autograph letter of 1878 from Hugo Borchardt, while Superintendent of the Sharps Rifle Company, to the President/Treasurer, Edward Westcott, waming of the “suicidal” policy of repetitive laying off and taking on of experienced machinists due to the fluctuating flow of orders at the time, and the consequent delays in production of finished rifles, should the need arise 34 Whilst with Winchester, Borchardt first tumed his talents to firearms development, working on the early stages of a solid frame revolver design These designs, produced only as prototypes from ¢. 1876 - 1883 incorporated patents. and _—_ ideas developed, after Borchardt left Winchester in 1876, by Stephen Wood and the ex-Colt designer William Mason, who had had responsibility for the 1873 Colt Single-Action Frontier revolver design before _joining Winchester in 1882 Whether Winchester was ever truly serious about revolver production is uncertain, since none of their designs proceeded beyond the prototype stage, but the intent that they signified was apparently sufficient to dissuade Colt fiom proceeding far with the sale of the Colt - Burgess lever- action rifle by 1883; the corporate gentleman's agreement that Colt would not make rifles if Winchester would not produce revolvers held from then on until recent times, This lack of commitment to his designs must have been evident to Borchardt, who left Winchester to become factory superintendent of the Sharps Rifle Co. on 1 June 1876. There he introducedTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE the well-known Sharps - Borchardt falling block single shot rifle (U.S. Pat, 185,721, 26 December 1876) which design he licensed to Sharps. He also secured the production rights to the Lee bolt action repeating rifle, but his efforts to bring this design to production in the late 1870s failed due to Sharp's financial difficulties, culminating in their suspension of operations in October 1880 and Borchardt's subsequent return to Europe in about 1882. Until c.1890, he held the position of the director of the Fegyver es Gépgyér (Small Arms & Machine Factory) in Budapest, which was part of the Loewe industrial empire. After a second stay in the U.S.A. from about 1890 to about 1892, he took residence in Berlin, where he became a leading firearms designer for the Ludwig Loewe & Cie. Trust. Y oarentawr \ Fe earextschnet eA / I = esse, ‘Fig. 1-2: Hugo Borchardt first German Patent, DRP 69455, Lafete fiir Handfeuerwafe, describing a recoil actuated self-loading mounting for a Gewehr 88. From this time on Borchardt’s biographical data are more accessible than for the time before 1892. For instance, his first place of residence in Berlin is on file: Berlin S.W., Koniggritzer Strasse 62, and by 1901 he was residing at Kurftirstenstrae 91. Also on file are his inventions for which patent protection was claimed at the Imperial German patent office (see Chapter 23). From 1892 to 1913, Borchardt was granted not less than 29 German patents protecting inventions in the field of firearms and related accessories. More than 10 other patents in his name pertained to inventions related to machine tools, gas ignition devices for household stoves, lighting systems and the like. Judging from surviving patent literature, Borchardt seemed to have owned and operated for a while a firm engaged in the commercial exploitation of his inventions relating to gas lighting and heating systems, electricity still being in its infancy. In addition to Borchardt’s patented inventions, there were some 60 registered designs filed in his name, most of them concemed with firearms and assumed to be in general congruent with the patents issued to him. (Regrettably, the old German Registered Designs filed before c.1935 were officially destroyed by the German Patent Office in the early 1950s, Only inventors’ names, places of residence and titles of designs can now be traced in official journals.) Obviously, Borchardt was prolific and versatile as an inventor. His greatest achievement and his main memorial was the design of the first commercially successful self-loading pistol in the world: the “Construction 1893” or simply “C 93”, as it was later called, following contemporary military terminology. The calibre was 7,65 mm Borchardt, the cartridge design being Georg Luger’s. Borchardt’s choice of a toggle action for his handgun was certainly influenced by the WinchesterTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE rifle with which he had become familiar during his first stay in the U.S.A. and his term of employment by the Winchester company, as well as by Hiram Maxim's application of the same locking principle to the first successful automatic weapon, the Maxim Machine Gun of 1884, Borchardt, though, lacked all military experience, He was a technician and a designer, not a soldier (and no businessman, either). He found complete satisfaction in the fact that his pistol worked flawlessly. He would not acknowledge its faults, which lay in its delicacy and unwieldiness, rendering it unusable for military service, this latter purpose being a prerequisite for commercial success. Consequently, the manufacturers, DWM, asked another designer in its employ to re-design the pistol with a view to current military requirements and specifically to address Swiss criticism following its demonstration there in 1897: Georg Luger, who had been an officer in the Austrian Landwehr (Territorial Army), That this rankled badly with Borchardt is evident from the riposte of his patent agent, Carl Burchardt, in the 25 July 1901 edition of the “American Machinist” Magazine to an article by Grahame Powell (designer of the Powell indicating device fitted in 1903 to the 9 mm US trials pistols) in the 16 May edition describing “The Luger Automatic Pistol”. This was undoubtedly written at Borchardt’s instance, and is vitriolic in its scathing denial that any of Luger’s modifications were original or even innovative, and its insistence that the intellectual property in the Borchardt-Luger pistol, as it was claimed to be correctly termed, was entirely Borchardt’s. This sets the tone of the relationship henceforth between Luger and Borchardt, although Luger did not recall it in such an entirely negative light When it became obvious that electricity would win the battle with household gas appliances, Borchardt returned to the firearms field with several patented inventions related to improvements in details of established designs, the Parabellum pistol ostensibly being one of them, and to an unsuccessful self-loading rifle (see Chapters 22 & 23). None of them ever materialized. He had missed the bus in refusing to contemplate improving his pistol when invited to by DWM in 1897, and died on 8 May 1924, survived by his wife Aranka, née Herezog.. His last residence (since 1907) had been (Berlin-) Charlottenburg, Kantstrasse 31. Just around the comer, at Weimarer Strasse 28, Georg Luger had been living until 1905 Slat befonderer Ungelge fest, ber 3 Mat 19%, vermitters 8 Ebr, extighe! ned Leer, Idymeres, mi gtober Gedaid getxegenca Leidea mein inalggeicéier Raza. der Qogenirsr uxd frttfex exfe Titeer ber Uapercigen Bele: and Pasitionsfabsit and Cyetteaieaticar Lez beatiges Tefeafedrit Sugo Borchardt tmx Bites Bea 80 Jahren, Gs theler Treaee Sram Mranta Borchardt eb. Serczog. Gheclocentucy tex SMe! WM eee Route 1 Die Felex grr Clndiderang fizde: em Dowseriiag, bem & Mel, ragaittags $f hs, te Srenstoriam yx Silmersborl, Seritner Erzage 101, Rat, Fig. 1-3: The newspaper announcement of Hugo Borchardt’s death on May 8th, 1924 in Berlin, 36‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHapTer | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE The Borchardt-Luger Pistol AMERICAN MACHINIST MAGAZINE — JuLy 25, 1901 Etor American Machinist: Cchardt, whose interests and good right by the breech mechanism standing open Respectully referring to a descrip- are naturally antagonized when these by reason of the exhaustion ofthe maga~ tion appearing in No. 20, this year, of facts are concealed and a false impres- zine. Thisarrangement was invented by ‘your valued journal, concerning the so- sion regarding the system created, while Borchar like al the rest, and protected called Luger pistol (written by Mr. indeed there is presented only one ofthe by patents in his name. tis therefore Grahame H. Powell | permit myself, on modified forms ofthe Borchardt system, not subject to invention, and much less behalf of Herr Hugo Borchardt, engineer, later developed from the original form can it be spoken of as an arrangement Kurfurstenstrasse, 91, ofthis city, hum- of the same Borchardt pistol. solely ofthe Luger pistol. bly to communicate the following: ‘Theauthorofyourarticlestatesthat_ | submit io your courteous consid~ The article referred to contains the description ofthe Luger pistol was eration an original copy of the de some fundamental errors, which are taken from an exposition on this subject Meuron description, which will serve as Tike to prejudice in a certain degree by Major de Meuron in the "Swiss Mili-- proof ofthe foregoing assertions, and | the well established interests of the tary Review.” and that the Luger pistol hope that these references willbe suff- above-named gentleman. On the sup- has been tested together with others in cientto induce the author of your article Position that such an injury naturally has different countries - for example, in the _ to make a suitable correction. rot been intentional on your part, !beg, United States — and has been adopted Cant T. Burcnasor, ‘to observe tha, in general, every manu- in Switzerland. On the contrary, let it Technical and Patent Bureau. facturer has not merely a very material here and now be emphatically stated Berlin. Interest but a fundamental right that his that the pistol spoken of in the de form of construction and the products Meuron article in the “Swiss Military Editor American Machinist: ‘made according to this construction be Review” is sololy and explicitly the Thewriter ofthe above letter cor- ‘accompanied with such a designation Borchardl-Luger. Moreover, this pistol is rect in assuming that no injustice was thatthe originator ofthe system is clear there represented as having been admit-_ intended to the interests of Mr. Hugo and plain, The pistol described in your ted to the tests under the description Borchardt in the description of the auto- valuable journal, which is unfaitly des- Borchardt-Luger. In the United States matic pistol in issue No. 20, and while ignated as the “Luge” pistol, pertains in tests also the pistol has figured expressly unquestionably the article in the “Swiss its arrangement unquestionably to the asthe Borchardl-Luger pistol. Doubaless, Military Review" referred to and de- Borchardt system, asindeed isacknowl- therefore, itis prejudicial and disfigur scribed the Borchardt-Luger arm, the edged in a short notice appearing in ingwhen the author of your article, who, _ pistol was presented to this government another place. In the article itself the indeed, has made much use of the ex- for test, whether intentionally or through pistol is with complete injustice denoted position by de Meuron, speaks exclu- an oversight, as the “Luger automatic the “Luger” pistol, not only in one but sively of the Luger pistol. It is as preju- pistol,” and has been so known ever in many places, so that every un- dicial as unfair, in so much more as the since. prejudiced reader who does not know entire description mentions noessential As to what part of this arm is the the facts ofthe case obtains a false idea. detail which isnot found in the frame of invention of Hert. Borchardt there has ‘A new Luger system is here treated of, the Borchardt system. been no evidence, so far as |am aware, ‘which in fact has no existence. Much This isespecially true, for example, presented to this government. mote, the pistol referred to, as already of the arrangement which is designated Graviae H. Poweit stated, is in its system and its general ar- with so much emphasis as “ingenious Washington, D.C,, July 15, 1901. rangement uterly and altogetherthe In-_ and characteristic solely of the Luger tellectual property of Herr Hugo Bor- pistol, that the line of sight is covered Georg Luger ‘The assignment to convert the Borchardt pistol into a handy and militarily serviceable handgun, leading to the Parabellum pistol and its variations, including the P.08, was given to Georg Luger, the son of a Tyrolean military surgeon, Georg Luger was born on 6 March, 1849 at Steinach on the Brenner pass in the Austrian Alps, which route is the main link between Germany-Austria and Northern Italy. His parents were Bartholomaus Luger, a surgeon, and Anna Maria, née Schirmer. After completing grammar school, Luger spent six years at high-school in Padua in Northern Italy, which until 1866 was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He then attended the Royal Privileged Business School in Vienna, the Austrian capital, On 19 December 1867, Luger joined the Austro-Hungarian army as a volunteer officer cadet of the 78" line infantry regiment. During his time in the amy, he successfully participated in a class at the school of musketry at Bruck on the Leitha river. It is possible that the knowledge and experience gained at Bruck may well have contributed to his later career as a small arms designer. 7‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS jer was baptised in 1849. The priceless rococo high altar and painting of 1770 by the renowned local artist Mastin Knoller (bom in Steinach 1725, died Milan 1804), which would have been familiar to Luger, were all that were salvaged from the disastrous fire of 1853. CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE On 16 October 1871, Luger was posted to the 39 line infantry regiment where he held the position of an accountant and pay NCO until 31 December 1872, when he was transferred to the army reserve. On 31 December 1878, he was promoted to lieutenant of the Territorial Army (Landwehr), which commission he resigned in 1883 for reasons unknown, In 1874-75, Luger had a job as an accountant in the Commissionsbank, Vienna, In the Viennese residents? registers for 1874-75, he is listed as a bank clerk. From 1876 to 1881, he was on the staff of the Austrian aristocrats? turf club. His trade is listed as a clerk in private employ. From 1882 to 1887, however, he is on the register as a “Waffemechniker” (weapons techni- cian), and during his last years in Vienna, he allegedly converted the gle-shot Werndl rifle into a five-shot repeater (possibly in co-operation with Ferdinand von Mannlicher, but there is no patent or other record to conclusively link him to von Mannlicher or this work). In 1891 though Luger moved to Berlin, the German capital, as his main place of residence, where he contracted to work for the firm of Ludwig Loewe & Cie. as a travelling salesman, as well as a firearms demonstrator and designer. At that time Loewe was the strongest competitor of Luger’s former colleague, von Mannlicher, and the OWG, Steyr with whom he worked. ied enti Bite Cagec He travelled to several European states and to the US.A. in order to demonstrate to Minis- tries of War and to national Firearms Boa- rds what the Loewe firm had to offer. In short, this was the Maxim machine gun, from 1892, and Mauser rifles sinee, from 1887 the Mauser rifle factory had formed part. of the Ludwig Loewe & Cie. industrial empire and Mauser rifles were produced in both the 1-8: A picture postcard of an Austrian Machine Gun Detachment in fiont of the Mauser, Obemndorf barracks at Bruck on the Leitha river ca, 1912, where Georg Luger had been a works and in the Loewe, ‘marksmanship trainee in the 1860s. 38 Berlin factories.‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS i 1H] Hh ii EL CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE Fig, 1-6: Georg Luger's first Pay book in the Austrian Army, covers his service in the Royal Baron von Sokcevie Infantry Regiment of the Line No. 78 (an imperial & royal oo Austro-Hungarian regiment, mainly manned by Czechs, which “belonged” to Feldzewgmeister Baron von Sokevic as Inhaber (owner and, literally “Master of Ordnance", ‘a rank equivalent 10 (Coil en a Capen ‘esl Sse hie fur Hh atl Sle Get Meet Se rte far B86 pe BE ote rnp Sie ME hee SH Teates nk Caen Gu ier ox Dele laa yaad at 4 yk Gynt pane ta 4 Bee Some oma oer lee Ga a Gren domed eS WRI pied atte eM Apparently Luger was entitled to have his own inventions patented at his employer's expense, Loewe in return reserving the rights of commercial exploitation, for which Luger was granted a ert Rael B™ bic fut = nog General) from 1860 — 69) from Sea ee AT Sag ne 0S joining up on 19 December 1867 t0 eremceemee Geng Ager his promotion to Paymaster splot g Biome ans Sergeant Major on 16 March 1871 ime z ‘This records that, although subject to sat tho draft, he volunteered for 6 years nate Lane ty mises Tine service followed by 4 years of sien 19 Dacor a reserve service, in return for a bounty of 3 florins. In addition to his service record, this offers small insights into personal aspects which are otherwise unknown, such as his eye and hair colours and height - in Viennese inches: the metric system was not introduced into the Austro-Hungarian Army until 1871 (Law of 23 June 1871, promulgated by the Ferorcimungblatt (Army Regulation) of 12 April 1872), The Viennese inch (Zall) equated to 26.34 mm, or 1.037 ur ‘sn! ean ad Sapp Imperial inches, making Luger's 39 height $ ft 8 ins in modern Imperial ‘measure. Note his proficiency in the Tanguages of the Empire, including Slavic (Serbo-Croatian), which considerably assisted his close relations with the Serbian Army and Royal family in later life. Note also his officer's observations of his behaviour, remarked upon later by his collaborators. ly (digence and very decent, socal ik share of the profit by way of royalty. Two noted examples of relevant agreements can be documented to the present day: Luger received in royalties 1,00 Mark for Fig. 1-7: Georg Luger (lefi) visiting Greece, probably in the early 1900s: his companions closely resemble members (unidentified) of the Barenzwinger Pistol Club with whom he was strated in a contemporary photograph published in Gethard Bock’s book Moderne Faustfewerwaffen und thr Gebrauch (1941 3" Ed.), Germany sent no shooters to the Athens Olympics in cither 1896 or 1906, but the latter date and the oscasion of the Games may possibly have been the venue for this photograph: Bock himself competed in the Stockholm Olympic games of 1912.‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | ~ DRAMATIS PERSONAE cach Parabellum pistol produced by DWM and, from the introduction in 1916 of his patented relieved sear bar permitting the pistol to be cocked with the safety applied, 0.10 Mark for each such Abzugstange neuer Art . (In U.S. currency of pre-1914 times, this corresponded to respectively 24 and 2.4 cents, or the equivalent of some $5.00 and $0.50 in today’s money.) EDIT wae, ‘Mitaugs-Kerte G (%— Wiidmungs- Farle ‘we leat ton a tr foant y * Lage pein rates: Mrbow Ms Fig, 1-8: Luger's identity papers showing his position as a Reserve Lieutenant in the 2" Landessohitzen Batailfon in. Innsbruck and giving him call-up orders in the event of mobilisation Although Luger is best remembered as a handgun designer today, his first patents had no bearing whatsoever on pistols. His concer was improvement of bolt-action rifles, and from 1893 to 1896 he was granted patent protection in Germany for not less than 17 relevant inventions. Interestingly, Luger had reason to sue Paul Mauser (the famous founder and then the operations manager of the ‘Obemdorf Rifle Factory branch of the Loewe concer) on the grounds that the latter had violated some features of Luger’s rifle patents or registered designs and he won the lawsuit. It did not win him many friends in Obemdorf however. After the summer of 1896, Luger’s tide of rifle inventions ebbed away, since his employers then engaged him initially in the promotion of the Borchardt pistol and subsequently gave him the job of re-design to make it better suited for military purposes (and, hopefully, make it a commercial success at the same time). Upon Hugo Borchardt's refusal to entertain any criticism of his design, DWM’s management’s idea seems to have been that a former military officer, having graduated from a school of musketry, could be better entrusted with the job than the original inventor himself, ‘who was an excellent technician but had no military background and who had also by then turned away from firearms design, at least for the time being, to engage himself in the ficld of gas heating. 40THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE Z eS is Fig. 1-9: Georg Luger (6th. from right) with a group of colleagues or visitors, possibly members of the Barenzwinger ee ea Ee en ee ereerel ee Pe ES ne oe ea Roe ees pect ee ee incorporating all his patented improvements to the Gew 88. His son, Georg Franz stands (6th left) holding a prototype Fee eons rele RETEST SUT a eee ee es Ee ere ee ene eee eee the rear toggle link, attached to its precursor of the Naval holster’stock: detail left. It took Luger more than a year to implement the initial, essential alteration of the original Borchardt C 93 pistol. His first pistol patent, Deutsches Reichs-Patent (DRP) 109481 “Sperre fur Riickstosslader” (Safety Device (lit: Locking Device) for Recoil-Operated Firearms) was applied for on 30 September 1898. Equivalent foreign patents were Swiss Patent 0.17977, filed on 3 October 1898, British Patent no. 9040/1899, and U.S. Patent no, 639414, both filed on 29 April 1899. Although DRP 109481 primarily describes new and additional safeties for the Borchardt pistol, the patent drawings are proof of a fundamental re-design: the mainspring has been moved from its awkward housing behind the action over the web of the hand to a new position in the rear of the grip. This feature, not patent-worthy in itself, was clearly a key step to improve the compactness and handling of the pistol, to such an extent that the common designation of the working principle properly became “Borehardt-Luger” and remained so for the next few years. Itis a well-established fact and is described in detail in Chapter 3 that it took Luger nearly two more years, until 1900, to make the pistol a practical, serviceable handgun suitable for military adoption. 4l‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS PATENFURKUNDE. [f Z ; = Gang Shag ne UechMlahag [GHGENSTAND DES PATENTES IST: Le Modal dae seme ows tare 3 go lohr EL KAISERLICHES PATENTAMT, CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE During this period, Luger cooperated successfully with Oberst von Orelli, officer-commanding of _—_the Kriegstechnische Abteilung (KTA - War Technology Department) in the Kriegsmaterialverwalung (KMV Swiss Bureau of Ordnance). He considered the latter’s suggestions, in particular those which were aimed at weight reduction, and implemented them in the design. His cooperation with the Swiss military authorities and the perceived excellence of his design for target shooting led rapidly to his considerable personal fame and popularity in that country, where shooting sports have always been held in high regard, to the degree that his caricature featured on the official Fig, 1-10:The Patent-Urkunde (Grant of Patent) to Georg Luger in Charlottenburg for DRP 109481, "Sperre fir Ritckstoflader" issued by the Imperial Patent Office on 12 February 1900, valid for 15 years from the application date, 30 September 1898. The printed text and drawings are bound into the hhand annotated cover, which has the full text of the Patent Law of 7 April 1891 printed on its rear leaf, and is bound with metal eyelets and braid’ woven in the red-bfack-gold Gorman national colours, sealed with the embossed seal of the Kaiserliches Patentamt. post-card of the Eidg. Schatzenfest (Swiss Federal Shooting Festival) held in St Gallen in 1904. In this connection, reference should be made to a widespread misinterpretation of a minor issue in | 8 postal, Bat ge: ae Luger-related historical data. On 4 May 1900, the “Selbstladepistole System Borchardt-Luger” was officially adopted by Swiss Government for Army service under the designation “Pistole, Ordonnanz, 1900”. As the relevant patent claim in Switzerland dates from 5 May 1900, it is often insinuated that following the adoption Luger dashed to the Swiss Patent Office in Bern at the first ‘opportunity next morning, to have the finalised design of his pistol protected as soon as possible, for the first time in the world, This is simply not true. Luger's Swiss Fig. 1-11: Georg Luger's caricature, in the typical pistol target shooter's Patent claim was not registered in bent-armed stance of the early 20! Century, featured on the official post- the early morning of May card of the Swiss Shooting Festival, held in St. Gallen, 1904. 2 5, butTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE precisely at 7 %4 hrs. p.m., as the title page of Swiss Patent no, 21959 clearly indicates. The applicants were Luger’s Swiss lawyers, Messrs. E. Blum & Cie. of Ziirich, Switzerland Admittedly, one might be tempted to say “so what”, but it is felt that if a date in the Parabellum’s history (which is often scarce and scantily documented) can be quoted correctly, without the intent being misconstrued, this should be done, But more importantly in this context, Luger had already asked for patent protection of the design characteristics specified in Swiss Patent no, 21959 as early as 7 March 1900 in Great Britain (GB Patent no. 4399 /1900) and 17 Mareh 1900 in the U.S.A. (US Patent no. 753.414). Consequently, the registration in Switzerland was only to protect a novelty in that country, and the date of application, following Luger's habitual practice, was delayed as long as possible to maximise the period of protection. ees. on xsnes poet PATENTSCHRIFT a ou oi, ese ae eee ec Fig, 1-12: Swiss Patent 21959 for the finalised Parabellum pistol, showing the exact submission time, 7.45 p m., on the day after its adoption was ratificd by the Swiss Parliament Though application itself was filed by Messrs. Blum & Cie., the timing was no doubt controlled by Luger from Berlin to follow adoption closely, since there is no proof that he stayed in Bern, ‘Switzerland, in person in early May 1900. On the contrary, it must be assumed that there is a greater likelihood that he was present in Berlin, when on 6 May 1900 not less than seven separate claims were filed with the Imperial (German) Patent Office (Kaiserliches Patentamt). Amazingly, he had managed to split the design features filed in the United Kingdom, in the Unites States, and in Switzerland into seven separate letters of application, all of which were found to be justified claims and were granted patent protection in due course (DRPs 129842, 130377, 130847, 130911, 131451, 132031, and 134003). It ean only be guessed at why he should have done this. ‘One suggestion is that the Imperial German Patent Office was known to be particularly critical of the patent-worthiness of designs claimed to be new by their inventors. The idea of just another toggle-action self-loading pistol, with almost identical component parts shaped slightly differently and arranged in different places than in its forerunner, might well have been rejected. The Patent Office was obliged and used to rendering advice to an inventor and his legal consultants with regard to the chances for a claim to clear the hurdles or not. Specific features, however, viewed and evaluated in isolation from a particular gun, might have been considered to be more promising. Admittedly, this is nothing but surmise, but to be sure, Luger was no newcomer to the field by 1900, having been issued 18 patents in Germany alone before that date, and one can safely assume that he knew what he was doing (at the company’s expense). a‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE Another plausible suggestion is that a patent claim protecting a particular gun part prohibited application of this part in any firearm without the consent of the patent holder. If for instance some other inventor planned to use a magazine-actuated hold-open device in, say, a semi-automatic rifle, he would have been obliged to apply for Luger’s permission and pay him a fee for using a feature protected by DRP 130847, It should be remembered that originally, by training and trade, Luger ‘was a businessman and a bank accountant and that he certainly knew money’ s worth, PATENTSCHRIFT Fig, 1-13: Luger's German patent DRP 129,842 of 6 May 1900, applicd for simultancously with the Swiss Patent 21959, demonstrates the principle of opening the togele by way of actuating the toggle knobs through cam surfaces of the frame. This was the last and most decisive step in the transition from the Borchardt to the Parabellum pistol. Other improvements following this patent were alterations of details only. Note the chequering rather than the normal reeding of the front edges of the Old Model relieved toggle illustrated in the drawing: no such genuine example of a Parabellum pistol is known to exist, but at least one attempt to fake a “patent model” so equipped is known, with spurious serial number 8. Having promoted sales of the Mauser rifle in the 1890s, Luger was then responsible for the world- wide promotion of the “Pistole Parabellum”, as the gun was known in contemporary literature from about 1900. It is a well-established fact that following the Swiss tests (although not necessarily as a result of them) the armed forces of several nations conducted tests and trials with semi-automatic pistols in order to select a model to succeed their aging, mainly black-powder, revolvers. The Parabellum pistol played a leading part in many of the tests conducted soon after the tum of the century, often being demonstrated by Luger personally. His design was not without Fig. 1-14 Georg Luger's only article on the Parabellum pistol and challenge to all comers to a 10 point competitive trial, published in “Das Schiesswesen’” on 10 April 1902, defending its selection by the Swiss Army against criticisms by Dr. Reinhard Ganther, (referred to as Sees 6.) who was a propagandist for the Bergmann pistol: right & bottom, the Bergmann No. 5'M1897 pistol, sn 117, personally presented to Dr. Giinther by Theodor Bergmann in appreciation of his support, inscribed “To THE CONNOISSEUR OF THE BERGMANN-PISTOL DR. ‘REINH, GUNTHER FROM THEOD. BERGMANN”‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE detractors, one in Europe being a Dr Reinhard Giinther, a Swiss firearms expert and author at the tum of the 19", Century. Gunther was an active promoter of Theodor Bergmann’s designs and in ‘March 1902 wrote an article critical of the Parabellum and its adoption by Switzerland in Volume 3, No. 49,0f “Das Schiesswesen" (Shooting), a supplement to the fortnightly “Deutschen Jager- Zeitung” (German Hunting Journal). 1A fy ¥ Fig. 1-15: Despite his intimate relationship with sales of the Parabellum pistol, Georg Luger was for many years also a principal demonstrator and salesman for all DWM's products, then bearing the tlle ChefConsiructeur. (Chit Draughtsman). Here (4th. from left) he presides over a demonstration of what appears to be an example of the close Iiaison between DWM and Vickers in England, probably in the winter of 1907, though various characteristics of the gun and mount suggest 1908 - 09 as the time fiame: the principal spectators are Serbian officers, but the weapon being exhibited inthis posed photo (note the absence of belt from the feed-way) is an unidentified example of what appears to a hybrid of the German Army MGO1 action fitted with a version of the distinctive fluted water jacket of the short lived crs Model 1906 "Now Light” Maxim, the first to use such a jackct. This same pattern of Maxim was also supplied by DWM to Japan ca, 1908, but adapted to the Vickers New Light M1906 wipod. The mount of this example, however, 2 fore-runner of the M1909 commercial tripod, it and the gun water jackst adapted to use the clamp of the MGOS Schiitten (sled mount). The gun operator strongly resembles none other than Hiram Maximis redoubtable assistant and co-patentee (of a self-Joading pistol), Louis Silverman of the Vickers Crayford works, wearing his distinctive bowler hat, without which he never seems to have been photographed, This prompted the only article Luger is known to have written for publie consumption in reply in Volume 4, No. 1, of 10 April 1902, of the same journal. In this he refutes Ginter’s criticism of his design, with particular reference to its acceptance by the Swiss press following the initial issues to the Army, and issues a challenge to Giinther to a face to face 10 point competitive trial of the severest nature against Bergmann’s design (probably referring to the M1897 No 5 Pistol, Bergmann’s primary entry to military markets) and any other competitor to the Parabellum. Gunther did not take the bait however, and the virtues of the matter have been decided by history Being the responsible and competent designer, Luger took the opportunity several times in the early years of the century to demonstrate his design to national ordnance boards, e.g. in Great Britain, theTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE U.S.A, Austria, and of course in Germany. He was a marksman himself, being a member of the Barencwinger (Bear Pit) pistol club in Berlin and he had won many shooting prizes. In contacts with military authorities, his former capacity as an officer in the Austrian Army paid off, as did his skill as a weapons demonstrator, in which role he was responsible for sales of the Maxim MGs for DWM in several countries, particularly in the Balkans, where he was assisted by his linguistic skills. His contact and counterpart in the Prussian Rifle Proving Commission (Gewehr~ Prigfungskonmission ~ G.P.K.), Oberleutnant Adolf Fischer, pointed out as late as 1930 how pleasant and prolific the cooperation had been, In contrast to Hugo Borchardt, whom Fischer characterized as a pure technician, Luger had been both an engineer and a soldier, Consequently, he had been in a position to fully understand military requirements and to implement any alteration suggested by the Commission in the original design. Fig, 1-16: Georg Luger with colleagues, probably, judging by their dress, from the design department that he headed, photographed around 1905 inside the DWM Berlin-Martinikenfelde factory (c f Fig. 1-9 taken outside the same doors at the rear right). Note the overhead power transmission shafts and belting, then the standard means of distributing power to individual machine tools in large factories. The rifles piled in the foreeround are military pattem "System Luger” bolt ‘action rifles: the man seated right holds a cavalry carbine version of the same, and left isa full-stocked Pirschbuchsen, in the patter of the Gew 91. Whilst the man third from right holds an Old Model Parabellum, Luger himself and the man 4th, left are holding New Model pistols, which assists dating, At Luger's feet isa selection of profile milling cutters As will be described later, in the years from 1901 to 1904 Luger designed the 9 mm Parabellum cartridge, adapted the pistol to it and at the same time developed the “New Model” of the Parabellum pistol. Having completed these jobs, his attention was directed for a short while to a completely different field, improvement of details of roller bearings. Then it was again the pistol’s turn. In the U.S.A., the Board of Ordnance laid out their requirement for a replacement for the .38 Colt Revolver Model of 1896 to open competition, but subject to the condition that any newTHE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE handgun worthy of consideration was to be in the .45 inch calibre. Luger set out to adapt the Parabellum to the special trials cartridge designated by the Board and made by Frankford Arsenal, the 45 M1906, which was later developed into the 45 M1911 or .45 ACP cartridge. ‘This necessitated a re-design resulting in overall larger and “fatter” dimensions of the gun, On account of an illness, he was unable to complete the design work in time. The U.S. Board of Ordnance and Fortification postponed their tests until Spring of 1907, which can only be interpreted as a compliment extended to Georg Luger, who was personally known to the responsible officers, Fig. 1-17: Luger's hand drawn pen and ink drawings of the action of his self- loading rifle, prepared for his patent application, which was rot made by his son Georg Franz until after WWI due to war time military secrecy, and was eventually published as DRP 459395 on 8 November 1928 (see Fig. 1-25). having demonstrated to them the first prototypes of the 9 mm Parabellum pistol in 1903, ‘As has been deseribed in detail by other authors and is not a specific topic of this book, since it represents a dead-end in Parabellum development, the .45 Luger pistol failed to pass the U.S. tests of 1907 (see Chapter 22). Principally, failure in the trials was not caused by the design of the pistol, but largely by the faulty ammunition provided by Frankford Arsenal, which gave a four times higher rate of jamming than DWM’s ammunition, The toggle action of Luger’s pistol had some difficulty functioning reliably with cartridges differing in load, principally in the buming characteristics of its powder, from those produced domestically in Germany. The Colt factory and their designer John M, Browning had used the time which Luger had spent in bed to good advantage: their design was better adapted to the Frankford Arsenal ammunition and as a‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS F RSONAE conseq the Colt-Browning pistol was finally adopted for government use, eventually becoming the world renowned Model of 1911. When, in 1911-13, a long-barrelled shoulder-stocked pistol was developed by the Rifle Proving Commission the officer responsible, Hauptmann Adolf Fischer, again cooperated with the DWM engineer, 60 year old Georg Luger. Again the cooperation was pleasant and successful, resulting in the “lange Pistole 08", adopted on 3 June 1913 for issue to field artillery units, aviators, and fortress crews. During this period immediately before WWI Luger also finished development of his self-loading rifle, an adaptation of the Parabellum toggle locking principle to the German service 7.92 mm cartridge. It was of considerable interest to the German War Ministry, who tested it against a similarly conceived toggle locked SLR designed by Hugo Borchardt, The G.P.K. rejected Borchardt's design in March 1914, but requested DWM to keep Luger's design secret until further notice (see Chapter 22). The well-known photograph of Luger in full evening dress (Frontispiece & Fig 1-18) was taken at this same time, on the occasion of Luger’s 40" wedding anniversary in February 1913, when he was at the height of his powers within DWM as Chief Designer and vis-a- vis the German military administration During the First World War, 1914-18, Tuger made two more developments relating to. the Parabellum pistol, y, in 1916 the relieved sear bar (patented on 1 April 1916) and in 1917 the Maschinenpistole 08 (Machine Pistol, or Submachine Gun, Mod, 08), The latter was based on the IP.08 converted to selective semi- or fully- automatic fire and meant to be used as a secondary armament for airplanes (see Chapter 14). It was never patented however, let alone produced except as prototypes, since by 1917 aviators had come to rely on the superior firepower of machine guns, Luger’s last years were clouded by a bitter lawsuit fought with his employers, DWM, over intellectual property rights gave him notice of dismissal on 30 January 1919 to be effective on 31 March 1919. On 21 March, he was requested to hand back “all documents, drawings, designs and design models, as well as weapons ete. legally owned by the company prior to dismissal.” Fig, 1-18: A counterpart of the Front known photograph of Georg Luger alone, Which dates both photographs to February 1913 and identifies his wife, Elisabeth. The Arwen 1673 inscription, in her handwriting, reads "Tn im itcan a ; commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of A. etollgefunderan Kaohzeit, ‘our wedding in Vienna on 9 February 187 Georg & Elisa Luger.” Lun Srinnerung an dé wteryigete fahreraenca unserer om 9 berry ¥ Shine fuyer,THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE Fig, 1-19: Georg Luger's medals and decorations, centre & right, as worn in the photographs of the Frontispiece and Fig. 1-18, together with, top-right, the 1914 Patter [ron Cross 2" Class (with Non-Combatant Ribbon) and its miniature, awarded during WWI (after these photographs were taken) for his services to the German nation. The sash medal is the Commander's Cross of the Order of Danilo I of Montenegro, 1873 Pattem, and the breast star is the Commander's Star, 1* Class, of the same Order. Top, centre-right is the bronze-gilt Austrian Armed Forces Golden Jubilee Commemorative ‘Medal, 1898, and below it the silver Commemorative Medal of the 10" German Pistol Shooting Federation mecting in Dresden, 1911, The miniatures, chain mounted, lower-centre , are shown, left in another of Theodor Penz’s photographs taken on the same occasion, of Luger's wedding anniversary, in 1914 (note the absence of the Iron Cross, added to the ‘miniatures later in WWD, These are from right to left, Luger's Iron Cross, Commander's Cross, Danilo I, Austrian War ‘Medal, gilded bronze, 1, Patter: Knight's Cross of the Order of the Romanian Crown, 1", Model; Austrian Golden Jubilee Medal; Knight’s Cross in Silver of the Order of Danilo I of Montenegro, 1893 Pattem; Golden Jubilee Medal of King Nikolaus I of Montenegro, 1910, gilded bronze, Commander's Star, Danilo 1. Below the chain is a button-hole miniature of the 1914-18 German Honour Commemorative Medal worn when full dress decorations were not required. Basically, Luger was willing to comply as far as the request pertained to finalized patented designs, the drawings and models of which were held in DWM custody anyway. He refused, however, to hand over any drawings, drafts and models still under his consideration, because in his opinion this > was still part of his intellectual property, since not yet patented and thereby subject to autom assignment to DWM. Specifically, the self-loading Bike vente i infantry rifle was at stake, which had cost Luger 3 : a7 DEUTSCHE ware an sean considerable effort ever since the tum of the century and which had been under serious Fig, 1-20: The peremptory letter of 30 January 1919, personally signed by Paul yon Gontard, DWM's General Director, summarily cancelling DWM's contract with Georg Luger. The text reads Mr Engineer Georg Luger Berlin On the basis of the announcement of our company, here submitted in copy, we are compelled herewith to give notice from the 28th of this month of termination of the present contract between ourselves within the legal and agreed period Deutsche Waffen und Munitions fabriken aQoulass 1 Enclosure 49‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS PERSONAE consideration by the G.P.K. since before the War (see Chapter 22). Amongst Luger’s affidavits to the suit he states that the rifle was being tested by the GPK until the very end of the War as what he refers to as the Modell 6, which had differences from the preceding Modell 5 in the furniture, to ee Fig, 1-21: The letter of March 21, 1919, from DWM's office at Kaiserin DEUTSCHE W. ru MUNITIONSPABRIKEN. © Augusta Allee 14-24 demanding retum, a of all company property — written ies ‘material, drawings, constructions and Perle ngs, ane Babee 119 models, as well as weapons = in the possession of Georg Luger, prior to the termination of his contract on 31 ‘March, 1919. Note that this office had iF deste Lue er, the telegraph address DEWAMU rather than the famous PARABELLUM address of the pre-war sales office at Dorotheensir 43/44, Witasredorferaty.102/209. huslottonbars, jouer a.Je., ait velobes wir Thnoa densarischan: | trag cokindigt kabon, nde atenes Monata ex Throw dpstellungovernsttaia bot vas aus 7 20. ang bustehendes ¥ make it better adapted to military use, and in the main- spring. The last test firing at the GPK-s Schiefplatz in Berlin | was witnessed by Ley aowie atten ppevor Three 4 Oberstleutnant —_Klienhans, ce yr on der Shad toes von Tanta afervicenton | Major Eckhard and soheiden, exsuchea iz Sis, die ix Thzen Besite bo = oh genbreaden HndLichen, anceres Pires 1: on und Wodeh joke, Zelobnangen, Konstrukt tt en Ghoxgeden, Vertetchniéses ber dio siatlichon Gegenctlinde.. Oberleutnant Buchwald on 4 November 1918, just a week prior to cessation of hostilities. Luger, and his opposing party, DWM’s Director-General Dr- Ing. Paul von Gontard, fought the lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court in Leipzig, ee | where Luger won in_prineiple —— (judgement of 1 November 1922). For a detailed decision and award, the Supreme Court referred the case back to the Prussian Court of Appeal in Berlin, It appears that the matter came to a rest here with no further action being taken, because the plaintiff, Luger, died a year later. Dentsony Watfen- nd Muni tlonsfabrix SD iy During this legal action, much dirty linen was washed in public and many an insult was traded. To cut a long story short, Director von Gontard accused Luger of having been a complete failure as a firearms designer, his inventions being over-complicated and liable to cause financial losses, allegedly, the deceased Paul von Mauser had been of the same opinion. Luger called upon several DWM engineers, including Borchardt and Gebauer, as witnesses (who were unable to testify in matters of finance, however) and on Generalmajor (ret.) Thorbeck and Major (ret.) Graenzer, both of the former Rifle Proving Commission (whose evidence was strongly in his favour). Luger in turn accused von Gontard of having caused financial disadvantages for DWM inasmuch as he had sold the P.08 to the Government for a mere 46.50 Marks (then $11, now equivalent to some $220) although the German military had been prepared to pay 48 Marks, in Luger’s assessment, von Gontard had acted this way only to obtain by these dubious means the longed-for title of a Royal Councillor of Commerce, not knowing the first thing about the firearms trade anyway ... and so on and so forth. 50‘THE BORCHARDT-LUGER PISTOLS CHAPTER | — DRAMATIS F RSONAE For the modem student, a particular statement made by Luger in the course of the lawsuit is of more than passing interest: to counter von Gontard’s charge that the pistol designed by him for DWM, namely the Parabellum, had been both a technological as well as a financial failure, he retorted in 1919 that had the gun been so poorly designed then indeed DWM would not have paid him a royalty of 1.~ Mark apiece over 22 years, summing up to a total of 914,000 Marks ($220,000 approximately then, equivalent now to $4.4M). This then is the most exact measure we have of the exact total number of all Parabellum pistols made by DWM from 1898 to Luger’s dismissal in March 1919, both years included. It should be noted that no royalties were paid for the P.08s produced by the Royal Rifle Factory at Erfurt, which becomes evident from paragraph 4 of the contract concluded between DWM and the Prussian Government in November 1908 (Chapter 4). Also, in the records surviving the lawsuit, mention is made of Luger’s basic fixed salary as a designer for the DWM firm of 10,000 Marks per year ($2400, or SSOK p.a. today). ‘This corresponded roughly to a Major-General’s basic pay (less housing allowance granted to the latter). Luger claimed that he and his family (spouse, three sons, probably a cook and a maid) would not have been able to live in keeping with his station on the salary alone; he depended on additional income drawn from royalties, fees and commissions as mentioned above. ul von Gontard & Gunther Quandt Luger’s protagonist, Dr-Ing. Paul von, Gontard presided over the post WWI demise of DWM, as it shrank to less than 700 employees from its war-time peak of over 18,000. He continued as Director- General of DWM. until 1928, having taken over the post initially in 1905, becoming both a Privy Councillor and a member of the Prussian Upper Chamber, the Herrenhaus or House of Lords. A shareholder revolt at the 1928 Annual General Meeting, however, voted out the whole board after closure of even the sewing machine division of the company and the Quandt industrial dynasty took over control, in the person of Dr. Giinther Quandt who was appointed Chairman, which position he also filled at the Mauserwerke. Quandt became a prominent Nazi sympathiser, joining the NSDAP in 1933, who assisted Hitler's financing through his majority ownership of Accumulatorenfabrik A.G. (the monopoly German producer of submarine traction batteries in both world wars, nowadays Varta AG) and his directorship in A.E.G., and became one of Hitler’s economic advisers. He ‘was at this time still married to Magda Fig, 1-22: Dring. Paul von Gontard (1869 - 1941), Direstor-_Rietschel, his second wife (also known (Gaperal ch DW MUS SSS 137 as Magda Friedlinder after her step- father by re-marriage of her mother between 1904 - 14), whom he divoreed in 1929. This allowed her then to achieve lasting notoriety by becoming the wife of Josef Gobbels, whom she married in 5