[Mauser720]

Don -

Excellent research! Thank you.

I tried to find out more about the Rif Contract in order to understand the "few thousand" Lugers, and also to try to understand how at a time of such political turmoil in Germany anyone could have possibly thought it was a good idea to sell Lugers to Berbers in Morocco.

Today there are about 4 million Riff speaking people in Morocco, and another 2 million in Europe. So a "few thousand" Lugers initially does not seem credible. However, there was a war of independance going on in the region. During 1920 to 1927 the resistance was led by Emir Abd-elKrim el-Khatabi of the Beni Ouriaghel tribe. There are at least 20 principle tribes in the Riff region, and his particular tribe does not seem to be considered a principle tribe. Nevertheless, irregular troops under his command eventually defeated approximately 50,000 Spainish troops in Spainish ocupied Morocco. He was eventually defeated by a combined force of Spanish and French troops. In my opinion, if you consider who he was, the types of troops he was leading, and the fact that he was not from one of the principle tribes, it does seem more reasonable that only a "few thousand" Lugers were involved in the original contract. These tribesmen were not organized like typical European military forces.

I have also wondered what on Earth the Weimar Germans were doing to even consider such a clandestine plot to sell Lugers to a bunch of what we would call irregular partisan troops in North Africa. However, we are reminded that Imperial Germany did have a colony in East Africa, and this was stripped from them when they surrendered in 1918. But the point is they already knew the value of colonial assets. And according to one source, there were "outright subsidies paid (to the Riff rebels) by German concerns interested in exploiting the mining riches of the Riff." So it is likely that was their motive for even considering a deal that on the surface seems so ill advised.

Now the 15,000 Lugers you have identified is a number more in line with what Gortz & Sturgess claim did go to the Prussian police.

In summary, it is only my initial opinion there must have been two incidents in which unmarked Lugers were produced; i.e., a small number for the Riff, and a larger number for the Prussian police as reported by Gortz & Sturgess.

And I think you must be absolutely correct in discovering that many of what were thought to be 1929 Lugers were actually made prior to 1929.