Luger was already working for Loewe when Borchardt's pistol was conceived. He was originally hired to assist Mauser to obtain an Italian rifle contract. Luger had worked for the main competitor, Mannlicher, and spoke Italian.
Worth mentioning that the first manager of Vickers after the merger with Maxim was Siegmund Loewe, brother of Ludwig and Isidor Loewe. When Siegmund died, Albert Vickers took over his seat at the supervisory board of Loewe.
Luger pulled one over on Paul Mauser, patenting an insignificant design feature and subsequently demanding royalties from Mauser. This also ended in court, but Luger won. Needless to say he was unwelcome at Mauser afterwards.
So there were very close ties between Maxim, Vickers, Loewe, DWM, Mauser and FN.
Luger's methods included cheating and bribing. In a letter he mentioned offering bribes to the wife of an acceptance official.
This also led to the situation where Paul Mauser started patenting in his own name, rather than the company.
|