Borchardt/Luger History

"Impact on society and impact of war of the Luger pistol and its predecessor, the Borchardt?" Minimal, as a recent trip to parallel universe #3607 confirms. There Borchardt, as a young man, was killed in a duel with a jealous husband. There was never a Borchardt pistol for George Luger to redesign. Instead Luger improved the Mauser Broomhandle by adding a removable magazine in 10 and 20 round sizes. The Broomhandle was adopted in 9mm Mauser Export caliber by the German Army as the P07. During WWI a version of the Broomhandle was modified for select fire and the MP18 was never developed. Broomhandles were made by Mauser, DWM, and Erfurt. Production was switched to the Walther P38 (9mm Mauser) in 1941.


The 9mm Mauser cartridge became the world's most popular pistol cartridge after having been used by Germany in the Broomhandle and Austria-Hungary in the Steyer M1912 pistol which originally used the 9mm Steyer cartridge. George Luger's fame came from the beer can opener he invented. Even today, people remember the phrase, "Pass the Luger."


The effect on war of the missing Luger pistol was not noticeable. Effects on society were limited to movie bad guys carrying Broomhandles and those who would have been Luger collectors collecting Broomhandles. There were a few Luger collectors who collected different varities of European and American beer can openers.