[Schupo]

Dwight,

You ask a very good question. Obviously, some new parts were manufactured at the VEB Th�¤lmann. The new Barrels, grips, magazines, etc come immediately to mind. They had to have tooling for all these parts. Where is it now?

Ed,

It is also possible that you are correct that the few "new production" Lugers were hand made or perhaps even made of old unmarked armorer parts. I have never held one of these "N" serial number pistols in my hand. Does anyone have one that they can show or tell us about?

You mention the trouble and the cost of tooling and that is true for commercial sales. But, for military purposes the cost would be simply the cost of doing business. I would not think that the mentioned $10,000 cost would even raise an eyebrow in the military budget committee to ensure the ability to make new pistols or parts for old pistols. I can easily see making a few hundred pistols to test tooling just to make certain that the factory could ensure continuity of the P.08 and/or the P.38 pistols then in use (around 1953). What argues against the hand made or parts construction theory is what would then be the purpose of making up these few pistols? It makes more sense to me that the pistols were made as a test demonstration for the military/police tooling.

Just my musings and an educated guess though.

George