Heavily marked 1914/1920 Erfurt District Schutzpolizei Luger

[BigShell]

Very happy to contribute to this very interesting sub-forum. Recently snagged this police Luger with several unit markings. Looks like this one got around like a cheap hooker. Overall in really nice shape; matched except for the right grip panel and the firing pin (which I’m guessing is Swiss????).

Another interesting note is the grip spacer made of paper. Not sure if a period thing or someone later on was tired of the loose grip.

This isn’t really in my wheelhouse so comments and thoughts are most welcome.

 

[joryfreeburg]

That’s really cool…. Congrats. I really like picture 9…. Really well traveled!

 

[Philip]

It began life as an LP08 “artillery” Luger.

 

[RyanE]

Neat Luger. The first unit mark is odd, but might be an early Schutzpolizei Berlin unit.

It was then kicked over to the Schupo in Erfurt (The I is probably a district or hundertschaft). Really unusual to see that many cancelled markings, all of them in the same unit. Nice to see it kept it's original police numbered mag.

Is there a fireproof on the barrel? Looks like it has the early style ArA/WaA on top? DWM barrel I'm guessing.

 

[gunnertwo]

With a Navy style wooden magazine base. You could find an unmarked firing pin, perhaps the Swiss marked pin was what they had. It has lived an interesting life. Nice pistol.

G2

 

[BigShell]

All of these comments are news to me, I haven't gone down the Luger rabbit hole quite yet. Have one other, a 1936 Mauser, but wanted a nice WW1 era piece too. This one has a little more to it than that, but was cool enough at the right price that I jumped on it.

 

[BigShell]

Is there a fireproof on the barrel? Looks like it has the early style ArA/WaA on top? DWM barrel I'm guessing.

Not that I saw. Definitely no WaA. Didn't dawn on me that the barrel had been changed as I had no idea it was an artillery Luger originally.

 

[PizzaBert]

Not that I saw. Definitely no WaA. Didn't dawn on me that the barrel had been changed as I had no idea it was an artillery Luger originally.

Barrels longer than 4 inches were restricted by the treaty of Versailles. Navy Lugers or LP08s that were turned in and subsequently marked 1920 almost always had their original barrels shortened in “compliance”.

Your early Erfurt has a notch at the top of the receiver section where the rear sight base would have been in its original configuration. Though DWM and Erfurt would eventually use notched receivers for all new produced guns late war, 1914 was too early.

I haven’t seen the paper spacers before and I am uncertain if it’s period. Personally, I’ve done this before to shim grips on one of my Luger’s and keep a wandering Mauser barrel band in place.

 

[RyanE]

Not that I saw. Definitely no WaA.

Think you could get a close-up of the stamp on top of the barrel? I would be curious to know what it is.

Though DWM and Erfurt would eventually use notched receivers for all new produced guns late war, 1914 was too early.

Only the state arsenal at Erfurt implemented the mandate to cut all receivers in 1917. DWM was a private company and ignored it. Almost all 1917 and all 1918 Erfurt P08s were cut, but only LP08 DWMs had the cut.

 

[BigShell]

Think you could get a close-up of the stamp on top of the barrel? I would be curious to know what it is.

Not sure what it is. Could honestly be a scratch.

Edit: on closer inspection could be a bird/eagle or something.

 

[PizzaBert]

Think you could get a close-up of the stamp on top of the barrel? I would be curious to know what it is.


Only the state arsenal at Erfurt implemented the mandate to cut all receivers in 1917. DWM was a private company and ignored it. Almost all 1917 and all 1918 Erfurt P08s were cut, but only LP08 DWMs had the cut.

Thank you for the correction. I remembered wrong.

 

[RyanE]

Not sure what it is. Could honestly be a scratch.

Edit: on closer inspection could be a bird/eagle or something.

Yeah, that's the ArA4 acceptance. The Ausrüstungsamt (Equipment Office) was renamed the Waffenamt in 1920. The E/ArA4 acceptance on the 1920/1921 DWM pistols became E/WaA4 by the end of production in 1921.

So I'd say the barrel was a spare made for the Army by DWM in 1920.