Spandau Lugers

Herb · 01-31-2002, 04:08 PM

This topic came up earlier on the forum and somewhere in the cobwebs of my mental filing system I vaguely remember reading about them. Both Datig and Jones hint to the possibility of the existance of a few, but doubt that they are authentic. Walter, in his book The Luger Story goes into a little more detail. Year is 1918, most would be numbered in the 12-201 grouping, but no.12 is dated 1917.

They (Spandau) Lugers are questionable due to the Erfurt-style proof marks on them. He further states that only four sets of Luger manufacturing lines were produced, one for DWM originally in Charlottenburg, later moved to Wittenau in 1916 and then to the Mauser-Werke factory in Oberndorf in 1930. The second set went to Erfurt in 1909-10 and was sold to Simpson in 1920, and was acquired by Krieghoff in the mid 1930's. The only other line was installed in Bern Switzerland in 1917. (NOTE this accounts for only THREE production lines, not four). He states that following the war no production facilities were found at Spandau. Since Spandau was the HQ of the Revisions-Commission a few Lugers were assembled there using parts retreived from other pistols that had failed to pass proof. Most will be based upon DWM made receivers and should have the crown/T/bar or crown/S, on the right side and some may have the crown/RC mark of the Revisions-Commission. Some may be encountered with a 'crown' over the word SPANDAU on the toggle link. At best it would appear that any Spandau Luger is probably a 'parts' gun as no real evidence exists that were 'manufactured' there. Sure wonder where that fourth Luger assembly line went!!

01-31-2002, 04:08 PM	#1
Herb User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Utah, in the land of the Sleeping Rainbow Posts: 1,457 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Spandau Lugers This topic came up earlier on the forum and somewhere in the cobwebs of my mental filing system I vaguely remember reading about them. Both Datig and Jones hint to the possibility of the existance of a few, but doubt that they are authentic. Walter, in his book The Luger Story goes into a little more detail. Year is 1918, most would be numbered in the 12-201 grouping, but no.12 is dated 1917. They (Spandau) Lugers are questionable due to the Erfurt-style proof marks on them. He further states that only four sets of Luger manufacturing lines were produced, one for DWM originally in Charlottenburg, later moved to Wittenau in 1916 and then to the Mauser-Werke factory in Oberndorf in 1930. The second set went to Erfurt in 1909-10 and was sold to Simpson in 1920, and was acquired by Krieghoff in the mid 1930's. The only other line was installed in Bern Switzerland in 1917. (NOTE this accounts for only THREE production lines, not four). He states that following the war no production facilities were found at Spandau. Since Spandau was the HQ of the Revisions-Commission a few Lugers were assembled there using parts retreived from other pistols that had failed to pass proof. Most will be based upon DWM made receivers and should have the crown/T/bar or crown/S, on the right side and some may have the crown/RC mark of the Revisions-Commission. Some may be encountered with a 'crown' over the word SPANDAU on the toggle link. At best it would appear that any Spandau Luger is probably a 'parts' gun as no real evidence exists that were 'manufactured' there. Sure wonder where that fourth Luger assembly line went!!