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Vlim · 10-25-2008, 06:09 AM

Hi Alf,

Little is known about these holsters at the moment. After 1945 the Eastern Part of Germany was being prepped by the Russians to be formed into what later came to be known as the DDR. A challenge that was faced by the allied victors of WW2 was to get the internal German public services up and running again, in order to restore some stability there.

In the east they strived to create entirely new police forces, while the western part (under US, British and French control) took a different path. Many western policemen were simply reappointed pre-1945 policemen in the West.

The DDR forerunners decided to appoint former communist prisoners, resistance men and political figures as police officers, and this meant that they had to be equipped and armed. Initially, early after 1945, they reused WW2 equipment, uniforms and gear that was available, but at a certain stage the choice was made to have new equipment made. These holsters were most likely produced during that 1950s era. Many of them were unissued, so it appears that these holsters were caught somewhere inbetween a change of guidelines/policies.

We know that the allies (Russia, UK, USA, France) agreed to dismantle the German war machine and an agreement was made to supply the German security forces with non-German made equipment. This agreement was also the reason why France pulled out of Oberndorf and teminated the Mauser company. It is also the reason why the refurbishing programs of the P08 and trials with newly produced P08 pistols was halted by the East-Germans. They slowly moved towards using Eastern-Block guns and equipment and large quantities of WW2 guns, which had been in used with the Volkspolizei and the armed worker groups that were the forerunnes of the NVA (the DDR army), were put in storage.

The only pistols that seem to have evaded this phasing-out of German guns were actually the P08 and the Walther PP/K. The Walther became the party officials pet gun and the P08 was still in use as late as in 1966, but rather than holster it in the hardshell holsters shown above, they were mostly carried in the P38 style holsters.

VEB 6 is an abbreviation and stands for 'Volkseigener Betrieb 6', or 'People's owned company nr. 6'. At the moment I have no idea who nr. 6 was or where they were located.

Other DDR abbreviations that are useful to remember are:
MdI (Ministerium des Innern, Ministry of Interior)
MfS (Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit, or 'Stasi', the state security ministry)

These hardshell holsters will appear on auction now and again. So they are not really rare, but not very common either.

10-25-2008, 06:09 AM	#10
Vlim Moderator Lifetime LugerForum Patron Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Europe Posts: 5,053 Thanks: 1,036 Thanked 3,990 Times in 1,205 Posts	Hi Alf, Little is known about these holsters at the moment. After 1945 the Eastern Part of Germany was being prepped by the Russians to be formed into what later came to be known as the DDR. A challenge that was faced by the allied victors of WW2 was to get the internal German public services up and running again, in order to restore some stability there. In the east they strived to create entirely new police forces, while the western part (under US, British and French control) took a different path. Many western policemen were simply reappointed pre-1945 policemen in the West. The DDR forerunners decided to appoint former communist prisoners, resistance men and political figures as police officers, and this meant that they had to be equipped and armed. Initially, early after 1945, they reused WW2 equipment, uniforms and gear that was available, but at a certain stage the choice was made to have new equipment made. These holsters were most likely produced during that 1950s era. Many of them were unissued, so it appears that these holsters were caught somewhere inbetween a change of guidelines/policies. We know that the allies (Russia, UK, USA, France) agreed to dismantle the German war machine and an agreement was made to supply the German security forces with non-German made equipment. This agreement was also the reason why France pulled out of Oberndorf and teminated the Mauser company. It is also the reason why the refurbishing programs of the P08 and trials with newly produced P08 pistols was halted by the East-Germans. They slowly moved towards using Eastern-Block guns and equipment and large quantities of WW2 guns, which had been in used with the Volkspolizei and the armed worker groups that were the forerunnes of the NVA (the DDR army), were put in storage. The only pistols that seem to have evaded this phasing-out of German guns were actually the P08 and the Walther PP/K. The Walther became the party officials pet gun and the P08 was still in use as late as in 1966, but rather than holster it in the hardshell holsters shown above, they were mostly carried in the P38 style holsters. VEB 6 is an abbreviation and stands for 'Volkseigener Betrieb 6', or 'People's owned company nr. 6'. At the moment I have no idea who nr. 6 was or where they were located. Other DDR abbreviations that are useful to remember are: MdI (Ministerium des Innern, Ministry of Interior) MfS (Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit, or 'Stasi', the state security ministry) These hardshell holsters will appear on auction now and again. So they are not really rare, but not very common either.