Questions Weimar period
 

Hello Fellows

A few questions about the Weimar period in connection to the Versailles treaty (IMKK)

I hope you can help me out of confusion.

1)Was the max 100mm (4 inch) barrel rule apply to all Luger pistols, military as civilian, or only civilian pistols ?

2)Was the DWM production (all or some) of Lugers illegal in the Weimar period ?

Happy New Year to you all!!

Reg.
Sej-gun.

:cheers:

1. Only to military, and military caliber was allowed by the police (9mm). In the early 1920's Simson & co was declared (wrong wording??) the official refurbisher and could make new P08's, they did so in 1925.

2. Evidently DWM was still making lugers for the military in the first year - 3 years after WW1, so you see 1920 and 1921 dated DWM's. They must have been stopped because suddenly you don't see any 1922's or 1923's.


Ed

Tanks for the answers, Ed
Re.
sej-gun.:)

:) of course, but let me add somethings;

I don't think there are any easy answers. Generally what I said is true, however, some LP08's made it through, as did navy lugers without being cut down, plus i would guess that some were hidden in storage; or perhaps they said that they were to be sold as commericial guns, thus the "germany" stamped WW1 LP08's?


Ed

Hi,

The Germans tried to evade the Treaty from the very beginning. This included using ammunition making machinery for other purposes, smuggling machinery across the borders to neighbouring countries, parking machines and tools at scrapyards and paying the scrap yards for storing them rather than destroying them, etc...

Many guns, including LP08s were stored in secret government arsenals in order to hide them from the IACC. One of the more illustrous guardians of these secret arsenals was Ernst Rohm.

The police started using commercial Parabellums in .30 luger until they could be converted to 9mm at a later time and date. Basically the police and reichswehr ordered guns in non-military calibers and bought the 9mm barrels separately.

So DWM got away with making .30 luger versions and limited runs of 9mm versions (short) for Reichswehr and Police and did some manufacturing for the export and commercial markets.

One of the famous German trials during those years was the socalled 'Bullerjahn affair' in 1925:

On december, 11th, 1925 Walter Bullerjahn was sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason. The trial was held in secret and no public was allowed to be present. Both the crime and the accuser remained unknown.

After years of inquiring, by the league of human rights and certain German politicians, it was reveiled that the accuser had been Paul von Gontard, then general director of DWM / BKIW. Gontard actively helped to create secret arsenals, in violation of the Versailles treaty. Gontard and Bullerjahn had a conflict which lead to Bullerjahn threatening to expose Gontard and the secret arsenals to the IACC. This was enough for a court to condemn him for treason. Bullerjahn was released after this became public knowledge.

Gerben,

Is this all documented? This is the first I have heard of it. It brings a whole new light to the question of how the Germans reacted to the Versailes treaty and the I.A.C.C.

It also would shed some light on the "Sneak" theory, as well as some other questions.

Thanks...

Ron

Please, what is the basis, the research to prove that .30 cal police Lugers were used ?....I know that .30 cal barrel were taken off .30 cal commercial guns with a 7.65 chamber marking, the chamber marking was xxx'ed out and the gun was put into service....but I have never heard of .30 cal's in service.....please if you can give any additional info you may have.

Howard,

In my database of perhaps 1,000 police Lugers, there is only one police-marked Luger in .30 cal.