[Schupo]

Ed,

I agree with you that the VOPO reworks were a mixed lot of left over police, military, and parts lugers. Everything from an unmolested P.08 as described by unspellable to assembled bits and pieces. I certainly think that some of this lot are more desirable than others but I also think they are all collectable in their own right as official East German pistols. I know that some folks look down on these pistols as just an accumulation of parts but they are in fact an official Volkspolizei rework that served the DDR well as the Pistole 1001-2. I suppose my bias is that I like official reworks. I was trained as an armorer and I guess I like seeing the technical manner of forced matching and fitting of parts as well as the generally excellent work that went into these pistols. I know they are not for everyone but I hate to see them destroyed by removing the hot dip blueing or broken up for parts or "restored" to pre-1945 configuration. Heck, there were only 10,000 of these things made in the DDR so unmolested ones will only become more scarce as some are deconstructed.

G. van Vlimmern,

Thanks for the citation of the DDR manual. I have been looking for one of these manuals but I have not found one yet. I have also heard the statement about the large "X" mark on the Russian capture pistols and I know they are on some of the Kar.98 that have been reworked. I just wonder what that marking means in Soviet nomenclature? I would love to see a Soviet manual that describes these pistols and/or rework or markings similar to the way the DDR manuals do.

Interestingly, I see the same armorer rework instructions/techniques carried out on the VP lugers as on the Weimar period reworks. For instance, VP armorers did not usually scrub serial numbers but cancelled them out and then stamped, or electropenciled, new ones to force-match new refit parts. Earlier armorers did the same thing following then current marking instructions. Of course, the DDR crown/N proof and the VP star proof certainly indicate a VOPO luger. This particular pistol has one of the new DDR production barrels you spoke of with the roughly crowned barrel. This one was reworked in August of 1953 according to the barrel markings. This coincides with the 1953 date mentioned by Marschall for the time new luger production (as the P.1001-2) took place at the VEB Ernst Th�¤lmann facility in Suhl.

George