My first Luger!!

[Dwight Gruber]

Don,

According to Annex 10 of the 1932 Prussian Police Directive, PM. is the designation for the Polizeischul M�¼nster. And this raises a bit of a controversy.

Your unit marking is P.M. Note that there is a period after the P. In the arcane topic of unit markings, the periods are meaningful--a mark with a period between two letters can signify something very different from the same two letters without.

There are collectors who are "strict constructionists", who assert that only unit marks which are stamped completely in accord with the regulations can be interpreted. They would suggest that the organization your unit marking represents cannot be determined because it is not a documented marking.

Other collectors will make allowances for the human element in the actual stamping of these marks, particularly in the case of Police armorers who may not be familiar with the rigors of the system. Police School markings seem to be particularly susceptible to this non-standard marking, noteably the specified LSAl. (Police School Allenstein) stamped LS.Al. and the very controversial HP. / H.P. , there are a couple others.

So no, your P.M. marking cannot be absolutely confirmed as the Police School in M�¼nster, but that interpretation would be commonly accepted. It would be interesting and meaningful if Lugers were reported marked PM. .

--Dwight

--Dwight