New PPK
 

just picked up a new PPK this weekend. :rockon:

Very nice!

Don't be shy, give us the story.

Is the previous owners name engraved on the slide?

EB

I believe Walther's records are all still intact, so if this piece is authentic it is documented..

No I don't believe it is. I think it was a post WW2 engraving made for GI's or as a gift for a party member. The slide is wrong for the period, the front should be at a 90 degrea angle not round.

It is nice though and I had wanted it since the 1st time I had seen it. The friend that I bought it from had it for about 10 years ago and promised that I had the first chance if he ever wanted to sell, which he did this weekend.

The gun did appear in Walther's table top book which my friend was nice enough to give me a copy of. I am happy to have it and almost missed my chance, he had recieved a good offer from the Walther museum.

Well, it has the Schutzstaffel dagger motto on it, plus the name H. Himmler... :eek:

Why don't you see if you can find out who it belonged to??? :D

Maybe this gun has more provinance then you realize?

What G.I. that fought in WW2, would make a pistol with Himmler's name on it?


Why would the Walther museum want it,if the gun was made as a souvenir?

Just thinking out loud.

Bob

I'm not sure any "party members" were having pistols like this commissioned after WW2!!

This pistol is almost identical in my memory to a fantasy piece I saw being engraved at Ken Eyster's Centerburgh, Ohio gun shop back in the mid 1970s for a collector.

Could it have made its way all the way to Germany??

It's a post war pistol. Look at the slide.

Whatever it is, it is a darn nice engraved piece. Congratulations!

I saw pictures of this PPK many years ago, what a beauty!

I agree with Dan44 that the slide is wrong, thats why I felt it was post WW2 GI souvineer engraved. I had spoken with an engraver who said his first after war jobs was knocking out engraved pistols for GI's at the local Rod ang Gun club.

On the other hand this pistol is shown in Manfred Kerstens book " Walther a German Legend", on page 96.

Any way it will be in my collection for a while.

COngrats on your acquisition! A beautiful Walther for sure.

I was intrigued by the date, "November 9, 1944" on the gun. It may or may not be the gun's serial number. I think it has further significance to the original owner.
A little research revealed that this was the day nazi troops were purged from the island of Walcheren; hardly an event a nazi would commemorate. Another more intriguing possibility is this;
November 9th, according to the Pagan Daybook, is the Feast Day of Quatuor Coronati, the Four Crowned Martyrs, an ancient and mysterious celebration recognised both by Freemasons and the Roman Catholic Church (see also Quattro Coronati). It's origins date back to at least the Fourth Century and quite possibly even earlier.

302 November 9 According to Masonic tradition, four mysterious men, now known as the Quatuor Coronati, are said to have been executed in Pannonia, an area of present day Austria southwest of the Danube River. Masonic legends describe the Quatuor Coronati, as four stonemasons, thus the Masonic connection. (Ars Quatuor Coronati, Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, London)

305 November 8/9 According to the Roman Catholic Church, four unknown men are executed during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Their identities, the reasons for their executions, and even the place of their deaths remain a mystery. The Roman Church later claimed that they were four (possibly five) talented sculptors in the quarries of Pannonia who in 305 had refused to carve a stone image of the Roman god Aesculapius for a pagan temple. For this they were condemned to death as Christians, put into leaden caskets and drowned in the River Save. Later another legend sprang up in Rome, according to which four Christian soldiers (cornicularii) suffered martydom at Rome in 307, two years after the deaths of the sculptors in Pannonia. Their offense was refusing to offer sacrifice to Aesculapius. Both stories lack historical foundation and are merely tentative explanations of the name Quatuor Coronati, a name given to a group of really authenticated martyrs who were buried in the catatomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, the real origin of which, however, is unknown. (The Catholic Encyclopedia)

What does this all mean? I have no idea!!! Any other theories??

I'm not sure as to why that date. I feel it may have been something to the original owner.

The photo shows a mark on the front strap which is the number the Germans registered as it's serial number and was not a factory mark, the date being in that location.

I'm surprised German law does not require the defacing of the "SS" Runes and the swastikas under the eagles.

Is there an exemption for firearms?