Borchardt-Luger Controversy

Big Norm · 07-29-2002, 01:51 PM

Herb,
I am going to use a little logic here so admit that I could be wrong. (Did I actually say that!)
This is a period of rapid developement of the pistol and ammo. Ideas were flowing like water. New companies were being formed daily. The idea of naming guns my manufacture and model number had not yet been conceived.Companies like Loewe had the Loewe/Borchardt/rifle and the Loewe/Borchardt/pistol.Later they just shortened it to the Borchardt/rifle or Borchardt/pistol. Later, Georg Luger came along and so the transition guns got to be known as the Borchardt/Luger.For some reason, Borchardt got mad and walked off and essentially got lost.If he would have held the patent rights, he could have claimed money from either Loewe or DWM. But he probably didn't. That suggests that the company owned the patent rights. When DWM acquired Loewe they also acquired the patent rights.Since Borchardt burned his bridges behind him when he left the company, DWM just said "OK" lets drop the name Borchardt from the gun and just call it a Model Luger, or just Luger.
But then we get into Stoeger patenting the name "LUGER" in America. At that time, Hermann Boker & Co was the sales agent for Loewe amd DWM. Stoger was a large customer not to be offended. International patent laws may not have around at that time. At least not very strong. So Stoeger saw the window of opportunity and jumped on it by patenting the name in America. The non-luger Luger that I saw with the Luger name molded on it may have been in a plan by Stoeger to capitalize on the Luger name by producing their own guns in America under that name. Just guess work on my part. It could have been something else devised by DWM.
The article displayed earlier in this topic was written by Carl Borchardt about Hugo Borchardt. I wonder if the two were related. If so, then a bit of family pride or egotism may be involved.
But this is all just speculation on my part for the sake of discussion only. I own a Mauser Model 1934. So the concept of giving model codes to guns was not a common thing even in 1934 by companies as large as Mauser.
Big Norm

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07-29-2002, 01:51 PM	#5
Big Norm RIP Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: SE Michigan Posts: 1,864 Thanks: 1 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	Herb, I am going to use a little logic here so admit that I could be wrong. (Did I actually say that!) This is a period of rapid developement of the pistol and ammo. Ideas were flowing like water. New companies were being formed daily. The idea of naming guns my manufacture and model number had not yet been conceived.Companies like Loewe had the Loewe/Borchardt/rifle and the Loewe/Borchardt/pistol.Later they just shortened it to the Borchardt/rifle or Borchardt/pistol. Later, Georg Luger came along and so the transition guns got to be known as the Borchardt/Luger.For some reason, Borchardt got mad and walked off and essentially got lost.If he would have held the patent rights, he could have claimed money from either Loewe or DWM. But he probably didn't. That suggests that the company owned the patent rights. When DWM acquired Loewe they also acquired the patent rights.Since Borchardt burned his bridges behind him when he left the company, DWM just said "OK" lets drop the name Borchardt from the gun and just call it a Model Luger, or just Luger. But then we get into Stoeger patenting the name "LUGER" in America. At that time, Hermann Boker & Co was the sales agent for Loewe amd DWM. Stoger was a large customer not to be offended. International patent laws may not have around at that time. At least not very strong. So Stoeger saw the window of opportunity and jumped on it by patenting the name in America. The non-luger Luger that I saw with the Luger name molded on it may have been in a plan by Stoeger to capitalize on the Luger name by producing their own guns in America under that name. Just guess work on my part. It could have been something else devised by DWM. The article displayed earlier in this topic was written by Carl Borchardt about Hugo Borchardt. I wonder if the two were related. If so, then a bit of family pride or egotism may be involved. But this is all just speculation on my part for the sake of discussion only. I own a Mauser Model 1934. So the concept of giving model codes to guns was not a common thing even in 1934 by companies as large as Mauser. Big Norm