1920 Luger Military or Police?

Dwight Gruber · 08-24-2023, 02:04 PM

In 1920 the German Reichswehr entered into a contract with DWM for production of P08s. These are the pistols found with e/ArA4 or e/WaA4 inspection and acceptance, dated 1920 and 1921. They are serialized with no-suffix, a and b suffixes, and anomalous n suffixes. In 1921 the IMKK voided the contract as being in violation of the Versailles Treaty provisions, and production was halted. (Leftover 1921-dated receivers made their way into the commercial production stream.)

This was explicitly an army contract. Unless one of these pistols positively has police characteristics--sear or mag safety, or unit marks--it should be presumed that it entered army service. None went to the navy.

The "1920" property mark has nothing to do with this topic, except to say that it only represents a pistol's existence in army or police inventory at the time.

--Dwight

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08-24-2023, 02:04 PM	#6
Dwight Gruber User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,908 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1,330 Times in 435 Posts	In 1920 the German Reichswehr entered into a contract with DWM for production of P08s. These are the pistols found with e/ArA4 or e/WaA4 inspection and acceptance, dated 1920 and 1921. They are serialized with no-suffix, a and b suffixes, and anomalous n suffixes. In 1921 the IMKK voided the contract as being in violation of the Versailles Treaty provisions, and production was halted. (Leftover 1921-dated receivers made their way into the commercial production stream.) This was explicitly an army contract. Unless one of these pistols positively has police characteristics--sear or mag safety, or unit marks--it should be presumed that it entered army service. None went to the navy. The "1920" property mark has nothing to do with this topic, except to say that it only represents a pistol's existence in army or police inventory at the time. --Dwight