Only ignorance of history, particularly Luger history, would cause someone to primarily relate the Luger to the Nazi era. Children find the Nazi era easier to sieze upon and remember than the whole bigger picture of the 20th Century.
Without later study and awareness, that early "German Luger = Nazi" fix on the Nazi era remains the strongest reflex.
The Luger came about in a different era. Imperial Germany, a colonial power much more similar to England, France, Russia, Holland, and the USA of that time.
Consider that the Nazi era brought about the degradation of the Luger, not its glorification. FIrst, the use of alpha-numeric codes to designate the manufacturer source, instead of the wonderful DWM and ERFURT logos of WWI, (Krieg's excused) with coded dates at first, instead of the full date on the breech-top, and then the discontinuation of strawing and rust blueing, which results in a much less disctinctive gun (IMHO). FInally they just discontinued it altogether, in favor of the P38.
The P38 .... now THAT'S the Nazi gun.
|