Police use of 1920 property stamp

[Don M]

In a thread on Jan Still's site, I responded to a question from Jan about evidence that the German police, as well as the Reichswehr, were instructed to apply the 1920 property stamp. Since this reply was buried in a thread on Browning 1900s, I thought I would repeat it here for the benefit of those who look primarily at Luger postings.

Many references including Jan's Weimar Lugers and Görtz's Die Pistole 08 include the 1 August 1920 directive of the Reichswehrministerium (Ministry of War) instructing the Reichswehr to apply the 1920 property stamp to identify its weapons. Based on this document, most collectors have assumed that only the Reichswehr applied this stamp and the existence of the stamp implies Reichswehr ownership at that time. However, there is considerable evidence that similar directives were issued to state police authorities. Attached is a photocopy of an instruction issued to the State Security Police of Saxony detailing the location of the 1920 property stamp on their weapons. The illustrations are identical to those in Still's and Görtz's books from the Reichswehr document. The Saxon document was discovered by members of the German Police History Society in the state archive in Dresden and shared with me by Horst Friedrich. Although the copy is poor and a strip is missing from the middle, the first two lines of the heading appear to read, “Stempelvorschrift für Handwaffen und M.G. der L. S. Pol. aus Anlage der allgemeinen Entwaffnung der Bevölkerung.” This translates as “Stamping Instructions for hand weapons and machine guns of the State Security Police from the illustrations of the General Disarmament of the Population.” This rather clearly indicates that the Saxon police were also instructed to apply the 1920 property stamp.

Evidence that the Prussian state police received similar instructions is found Browning M1900s and Dreyse M1907s with Imperial-era Prussian police markings and 1920 property stamps. A number of these also have Weimar-era police markings. It is inconceivable that these weapons would have been transferred from the police to the military for stamping and then immediately back to the police.

While it is a bit of an extrapolation, I believe also that the majority of the police P08s and C96s with 1920 property stamps were already in the possession of the police at the time the stamp was applied.

[Edward Tinker]

Don, with documentation, Sturgess' book talks about this

[Don M]

Originally Posted by Edward Tinker

Don, with documentation, Sturgess' book talks about this

What does it say? Does it agree with me?