GDR 'Vopo' new production lugers reunited!

[Vlim]

With the help of the forum, this relatively young section on postwar lugers and the attention it generated it was possible to reunite a pair of extremely rare P.08 pistols. As far as we know now, a small run of P.08 pistols was produced in Eastern-Germany, mainly as a study to see if series production was possible. This never happened and these pistols remained, unissued, in GDR arsenals until about 1988 when they were exported to Western-Germany for hard currency. The pistols were reproofed at the Cologne proof house in 1988, so we know that they were in the west at that time.

An example of these pistols was shown in our book 'The Parabellum is Back! 1999-2000', but due to the rarity we only were able to work from archive footage, coming from the archives of Joachim Görtz. In the mean time the location of the other pair (54 and 55) has been verified as well.

I was able to purchase my #72 a few years ago and it was quite a suprise when a fellow forum member explained he had bought #71. When he was ready to sell it, I bought it and a long flow of paperwork started. Now, some 8 months later, the pistols are finally reunited and here is a little photo presentation of the pair together.