Don Maus drew my attention to this thread, asking if my translation of August Weiss' handwritten notes "a few thousands" cannot be misunderstood.
This is the text in German which was written by August Weiss at te end of 1972 (August Weiss Files Document 26):
"P. Riff. Vordergelenke ohne Firma von D.W.M. Berlin Wittenau nach den ersten Weltkrieg um 1927 - 28. durften aber nicht geliefert werden Baron von Gontard & der Regierung wurde es zu riskant & wurden von der Polizei übernommen"
(August Weiss Files Document 26a - same date)
"Es waren aber etwas mehr Vordergelenke in Berlin ohne Firmenzeichen gefertigt, welche später in Oberndorf für P.P. verwendet wurden und wohl für Polizei geliefert wurden, aber keine grosse Stückzahl."
(August Weiss Files Document 44 - Notes of an interview with August Weiss, handwritten by Dr. R. Gminder on 03/21/1972)
"...Riff Kabilen: paar tausend...".
The quantity of "a few", or "a couple" thousand has not been written down by August Weiss, but was noted by the director of Mauser Jagdwaffen G.M.B.H, Dr. R. Gminder during one of his interviews with August Weiss, the former head of Mauser's pistol production between 1930 and 1946. Mr. Gminder (now a retired Professor, living in Heilbron, Germany) recalls the many visits he paid to August Weiss. "The man had an amazing memory, but before he would answer one of my questions, he would look first in his dairies, in which he had noted practically everything. Mr. Weiss wanted to give me the facts. The quantity of the Riff pistols was not in his dairies. Therefore he could not give a exact number - but speaking from memory he mentioned "a couple of thousand".
In our book "The Mauser Parabellum 1930-1946" on page 340, left column the next text is printed:
About the Unmarked Toggles
Document 26 (1972):
"In DWM Berlin Wittenau after WWI (around 1927 - 1928), we made a few thousand Parabellum pistols having no DWM marking for the so called Riff tribe in Morocco. These could not be delivered; (DWM's CEO) BAron von Gontard and/or the government thought this was too risky. These pistols were later taken over by the police in Berlin".
In this text I have added the "few thousand" from Dr. Gminders notes to the text which was composed from the shorthand written by August Weiss.
I can't help correcting two things that were written by John Walter in his "The Luger Book" (see post above).
- The unmarked ex-Riff pistols did not go to the Reichwehr in 1931-32 but to the police in Berlin 1928-29.
- ... Apart from the DWM monogram on the toggle-link, they were otherwise indistinguishable. German crown/N proofmarks were standard. ...
The Oberndorf proof house did not use the Crown/N stamp, but instead used the Double Crown/U proof stamp.
This was a great help for our research; some 4,000 Luger pistols came from Berlin, most of these had been test proofed in Berlin, having the three C/N stamps. A few mixed stamps are reported.. In that case Mauser had changed the barrel (for many A.F. Stoeger pistols). Only the replaced barrel was stamped with Cc/U, the receiver and the breech block will have the C/N stamp from Berlin.
I hope this helps.
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Joop
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