A visit to the Quandt family
 

While on a trip through Germany, I made a stop at the cemetary in Bad Homburg. This is the final resting place of several members of the Quandt family who had a lasting influence on the history of the Luger pistol.

Günther Quandt took a controlling interest in the Loewe group, which consisted of DWM and Mauser, amongst others, in 1929 and he orchestrated the move of DWM's luger production to Mauser in 1930.

His son Harald Quandt played a role in the post war history of DWM, until being killed in a plane crash in 1967. Harald was the only surviving son of Günther Quandts second wife, Magda, who would be come notorious as the wife of her second husband, Josef Goebbels.

Herbert Quandt, son of Günther from his first wife, she died of the Spanish flu following WW1, although severely handicapped by eye problems, eventually took over the role of the patriarch of the family and became well known in Germany as the rescuer of BMW. The family still owns a large percentage of the car company today. Under Herbert's command, it was decided to produce the new Mauser Parabellum as a 'Quandt group' project. All parts were manufactured and supplied by members of the Quandt group, which included NWM in the Netherlands (barrels), MFT in the Netherlands (magazines), IWK, the follow-up of DWM (toggle parts), etc...

After WW2, the family settled in Bad Homburg, where they also found their final resting place.

V, Thanks for your info on this family, which I've never seen mentioned in my luger books. TH