The relationship between Paul Mauser and Georg Luger and it's impact ...
 

ICOMAM Lecture - Koblenz (Germany) September, 2017

Dear Fellow Collectors,


Myself and Gerben, presented on the 12th of September to the ICOMAM (INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS OF ARMS AND MILITARY HISTORY) a lecture on the complex relationship between Paul Mauser (1838 - 1914) and Georg Luger (1849 - 1923) and the impacts on the C96 and Parabellum pistols.

The PDF copy of the presentation can be downloaded here: http://www.paul-mauser-archive.com/studies-e.htm

The complete story on the Mauser and Luger relationship is available in the book "Paul Mauser - His Life, Company, and Handgun Development 1838 - 1914."

More information can be found here: http://www.paul-mauser-archive.com/b...nformation.htm

The information provided in the lecture can be used but a credit to the authors is requested.

For more information about the use of the data contact the authors: mauser.archive@gmail.com

Good read,
Mauro

As always you are a historical wealth of firearm history!! Thank You!!

As I worked with Mauro and Gerben on the book, I can also present the book, documentary and presentation at venues in the USA. Please let me know if you are aware of events or curators that might be interested.

The story of Mauser is deep and fascinating. He was, thanks to the material in the archive, one of the most thoroughly documented industrialists in any industry in Europe of that period.

Marc

Two of the finest!!

Wow. That is a presentation I'd like to attend. The short outline above really paints Georg Luger as a real piece of [work]. :p

That is the duality of working with factual archival material. No matter the legend, or the opinion or the impact over the years - the original materials contain truth - even when the truth is uncomfortable.

Rich, if there are any museums or organizations near you that would be interested, I can contact them about doing a presentation including the documentary. Just let me know if you locate someone that would be interested.

I presented material at my gun club's picnic this afternoon.

Marc

Obviously, Paul Mauser hated Georg Luger. Putting the rifle bolt lug patent issue aside, just view Luger as a designer, he did have one advantage -- he had military experience in field (in Austrian Army?). That's valuable experience for a firearm designer's career.

Here's Georg: in 1867, Cadet in the Reserves, Austro Hungary

http://www.lugerforum.com/images/Georg01.JPG

Good marksmanship got him noticed and promoted...

very interesting

I have always felt that luger took over the Borchardt and made it his own. Reading about how he did this with Mauser really makes me wonder...

The story goes that Hugo Borchardt felt his C-93 was perfected, and stopped working on it, despite Loewe's requests.

It was an open door that Luger walked into.

I have never seen documentation relating to the redesign process that was applied to the C-93. The patents in Luger's name do, of course, exist and provide documentation of design stages and innovation, but we really don't have evidence of where the solutions to the C-93 design problems actually came from.

If, as proven, Luger would adopt, as his own, designs from the top gunsmiths and industrialists in Europe (people like Mauser and Feederle who had the ability to defend themselves), imagine how he would treat the regular workers he was associated with at Loewe in Berlin.

The scenario I'm speculating on (without facts) is that he would have design discussions with gunsmiths posing a number of issues and problems, and then listen and write down the solutions. When the model shop did the actual engineering and tried implementations of the designs and they worked, Luger patented them himself.

Once the redesign of the C-93 had gone far enough, and looked different enough and had enough innovative changes, the whole thing got patented in Luger's name.

As a sales engineer, I am confident that his most marketable product was his own name itself, and thus with enough reinforcement we have the "Luger" pistol...

Here are a couple Luger patent links to US granted patents. The first is for the M1900 pistol US patent PDF:

M1900

The second is to the improved M1906 extractor:

M1906 Extractor

The links will take you to full PDF copies of the patents... Both patents are exclusively in Luger's name, and this must also have been of benefit to Loewe who clearly supported him in the actions (since they didn't oppose the patent applications in any way). This effectively ended Borchardt's involvement in what became the most prolific semi-automatic military pistol of it's decade.

- - - -

All this is painful to accept, and to some extent the facts disclosed by the correspondence with Mauser changes our image of Luger as a man. Temptation and ego must have been stronger in him than we realized.

Marc

Due to Stoeger's trademarking his name, the US was the only country to call the Parabellum pistol the "Luger'. That must have pleased Georg immensely. :p

I have always thought that Luger's work was derivative, but in all honesty, so was Borchardt's. The pistol should have been called the "Maxim". :thumbup:

The 'volcanic' :)