[spangy]

I think we all can agree that every Luger has a story it could tell if only it could talk.

Sometimes we get lucky and there are transfer papers from a GI 'take home souvenir' spelling out the who, where and why. Other times we rely on proof marks, patina, variations or even simply the date stamped on the gun itself. Still others have history woven into them such as Russian captures (x) and the Volkspolizei VoPo. When we look at a VoPo era Luger we immediately know the later part of its history.

This isn't about whether Thor is an excellent craftsman - we all KNOW he is.

Nor is it about the right of a man to do with what he will to his own property - of course you can.

This is about HISTORY and how a gun came to be what so many of you find to be ugly. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Vlim and myself can see the beauty in the VoPo BECAUSE of its deep history.

This isn't about German Democratic Republics history alone but the entire German history to date starting on that fateful day when Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb member of Young Bosnia aka 'the Black Hand', sought an end to Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina by assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary on the 28th June 1914. Aka 'the gunshot heard around the world'.

What followed was the 1st world war where Germany came to the aid of its Austrian brothers AS WAS EXPECTED. France and Britain saw its opportunity to remove Germany from its economic and technilogical throne by declaring war on Germany.

The end result was the treaty of Versailles signed in June 1919 at the Palace of Versailles in Paris. The armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting.

This treaty signed by what came to be known as 'the November criminals' stuck in the craw of Germans who thought that the war was still winnable and that the treaty of Versailles was a political 'sell out' that would and did hobble Germanys industrial might.

This resentment festered most specificaly in a young soldier in this 1st world war named Adolf Hitler. The 2nd world war blossomed out of the 1st world war. Had the treaty of Versailles been an even handed docuement more in keeping with fair play instead of a docuement intending to destroy Germany forever the 2nd world war most likely would never have happened. Nor would the Paris Peace Treaties (French: Traités de Paris) signed on 10 February 1947 following the end of World War II in 1945.

Thus East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic came into being - the remmnants of a country sliced in 2 by politicians.

The VoPo Luger is an important historic reminder of a specific time in Germany's history and as such should IMO be left alone.

This is only my opinion and Vlim's as well I asume but thats all it is and all it was meant to be ... this bickering has nothing to do with Thors restoration capabilities AT ALL.

I only wish that Vlims knowledge and insight into Luger history and its preservation was as respected as Thors ability to preserve the physical.