So far, we seem to have three candidates for H.P.:
1. â??Hessische Polizeiâ? â?? In addition to the speculations in my original post, a visit to the Hessian Police website (www.polizei.hessen.de) confirms the legitimacy of the term, at least in present-day Germany.
2. â??Hessische Polizeischuleâ? â?? Also found on above website. My sole reason for preferring 1. above to this is simple numbers. I doubt that the police school would have a large inventory of weapons in comparison with the operational police forces. My database includes 5 Lugers and accessories of 4 others with H.P. marks. The largest number of weapons in the database from any one of the Prussian police schools is 3. The city of Berlin and 12 of the 14 Prussian provinces all had populations equal to or greater than Hessen. I think the number of surviving marks is much more in line with operating police units than a school.
3. â??Hilfspolizeiâ? â?? These SA-based units that were formed in 1933 are a possibility and I havenâ??t done much research on them. However, if my guess is correct that the M1914 Mauser with H.P.774 is a weapon used prior to obtaining Lugers, the H.P. mark very probably predates 1933.
Overall, I still lean toward #1 but the jury is clearly out. I would be particularly interested in learning if there are other non-Lugers out there with this mark.
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