Rare KL and WWI Luger

 

Controversial Lugers 

Hey guys, today I want to talk to you about a couple of Luger's that are really rare and somewhat controversial. We're going to be taking a closer look at these two variations. One of them is that KL Luger maybe you've never even heard about it, but it has an interesting history and some theories about it. And the other, I know you can't see, it's a World War I Luger, but it has a Death's Head that was added post factory. So we're going to talk about the controversy about the Death's Head Luger. 

 

The Buchenwald Gun

But before I do, I want to apologize to some of our viewers from outside the United States. The last video I did was about the Buchenwald Gun. You can still go back and watch the original, we put the link on here. There was the original Buchenwald Walther PP that was an engraved gun. It has almost 600,000 views, which I think is really worth watching. But I did an update to it and most of you didn't get to see it.

 

Why is this censored?

If you're outside the United States, a lot of you didn't get to see it because it was banned or censored, or you had to give them a credit card to look at it. And that was because of the graphic images of the death camps. Now I find it very, very strange that in Europe or other countries or any country that they would want to censor those images, because after all, don't we want to warn people about the evils of Nazi-ism or fascism or racism? I thought that was very woke. But evidently, we're not supposed to show those images. So you were not allowed to see them. 

 

Here's what we covered in the Update

I will go ahead and tell you about the update. There were three things that we updated. First, we found the consecutive number of that pistol, we found the consecutive number gun. Secondly, we found three people who are possible candidates as being the German soldiers who owned the gun. We really narrowed it down to one guy, Carl Don Beck [02:03] who was the most viable candidate, and we showed some pictures of him. Of course, he was a guard in the camp and so therefore a lot of that was 'banned'. And then thirdly, Ted [02:15] who was the original owner of the gun, who took it from the guard at Buchenwald. A lot of people said, well, that never would have happened because he was ferrying dignitaries and politicians and reporters. And people said that never happened. Everything was cleaned up by then. And we in fact, showed rock-solid proof that he did ferry the Congressman, he did ferry Eisenhower back and forth to the camps and the dead bodies were still there and were not cleaned up when he was there in mid-April. So that was the essence of that. 

 

Now for the KL Luger

Now for the KL Luger

Now there is a tie in to the KL Luger. So how about if I talk about this one first. This is known as the KL Luger, for obvious reasons. I've sold a couple of these, but this has been over the last 20 years. I've only had a couple in hand and then I've seen some on auctions. They're all dated 1933, they're all marked like this. All of them look like something was shaved off or buffed off. So in other words, the original marking in this case, a date was taken off, and then they engraved, this is not roll-stamp, this is engraved KL1933. A lot of people have conjectured about what that means.

 

One theory as to what KL Means?

One theory as to what KL Means

But some of the best researchers and authors have pretty much concluded that the K is for concentration, German concentration, L Lager, concentration camp 1933. Now Dachau opened in 1933. Hitler came to power in 1933. And even though he was elected by a minority of Germans, he very quickly, like within two months of taking power, he began to round up his political rivals and put them into a concentration camp. At that point, it was a work camp. Now some people of course, died from being overworked. But early on 1933, it was technically not a death camp. They didn't have the gas chambers. But later on, that kind of evolved as things got worse and worse and the camp got fuller and fuller. And then of course, they opened other camps. And of course, I can't show you any graphic images. 

 

You'll take my word for it

You_ll take my word for it

But you'll take my word for it. Dachau was the first camp. And again, it was mostly political rivals communists and people who he thought were just not [inaudible 04:35] enough, they were put into these camps. Well, not everyone would probably agree on the meaning. It's been pretty well documented and accepted that the KL Luger actually went to guards at Dachau. 

 

Where did this marking come from?

Where did this marking come from

Now how did this marking come about? First of all, they all are World War I Lugers. You can see here from the markings, this is World War I. Likely the chamber date was 16, 17 or 18 and after the war, most of you know, they reworked the guns from World War I. There was probably a million Lugers that were made for World War I, but after the war some of them were destroyed, many of them reworked. This one actually was reworked for the police. And the reason we know that is the police used the crown N proof. It is in 9mm as the police would want and it does have the sear safety which is a police configuration. So this was reworked, not in 33, but probably in the 20s, reworked for the police. It is unit stamped, crossed out. So it went to one unit and then changed to another unit, which is SPL. 

 

Why the SPL Marking?

Why the SPL Marking

Now the meaning of that I believe is State Police L is land or rural. So the land police were the rural police, basically like park rangers and things like that. And of course, we know that would make sense because Dachau was in the eastern part of Germany. And in a very rural area, the Nazis did not want citizens or civilians checking out and seeing what was going on there. So they were usually in very rural areas. There is a city of Dachau, but this concentration camp was outside the city. So it went to the rural police.

 

There was no place to get weapons for the guards

There was no place to get weapons for the guards

And then when they opened up the camp, I can imagine that they needed something for the guards. Now, I've said before that the German army had backorder on Lugers. They were having a hard time getting arms and ammunition because of all the restrictions from the Treaty of Versailles. So when they opened up this camp and said we'd like to order some Lugers, there really was no place to order them from. The only place making in 1933 DWM was not making them anymore, they made this one originally, they were forbidden from making new ones other than some commercial guns in 30 caliber. Mauser didn't start making them until 1934. And the only place making them with Simpson and Simpson Lugers were backed up for orders for the military and the police. So it makes sense that they gathered up some of the police guns, they reworked them, probably cleaned them up, replaced any parts. If they replaced a part they would renumber it so this is all matching; other than the magazine is not matching. So they would rework, it replace parts and springs and then they engraved on there KL1933. So that's the theory behind this gun. It makes it very unique, very rare. Doesn't really turn my crank. But if somebody out there likes the history of this gun, finds it interesting, that might be something they would want to check out. 

 

Quick Deviation

Okay, time to move on to the Death's Head, but before I do, check this out. I don't know if you noticed, there's a trench gun. Remember that I just did the Winchester Trench Gun that went to Tennessee Eastman. That actually sold on auction for a bit more than we expected. But there's a Trench Gun made by Stevens. Just an interesting World War II Trench Gun like the one I just covered. 

 

Now for the Death's Head Luger

Now for the Death_s Head Luger

But today we're here to talk about the Death's Head Luger. Now this one is even more controversial in that people just don't agree. If you read ten different researchers/authors, you'd probably get five opinions on what the Death's Head means. Let's take a closer look because this is very hard to see and it almost looks like a cartoon character when you see it.

 

It almost look like a cartoon

It almost look like a cartoon

Okay just like the KL this started out as a World War I Luger and this one is still dated 1914. You can see that Death's Head above it. And again this is engraved on there, it's very, very small and almost looks comedic. Well the first time I saw this on the Luger, I thought you've got to be kidding me, that's not real. But the more I collected the more I found that these do exist. We're not sure of the meaning, but some people feel that during World War I, certain units, but the death's head on there. So they'd all take it to the local armory. Everybody in that unit, it would be similar today if your unit all decided to go out on leave and get tattoos, all the same. In this case, there is a theory that they went to an arsenal and they were all marked. They looked like they were individually done because they're all just a little bit different, no two are exactly the same. But however, they always have the bones which look like big floppy ears, coming out both sides of the skull. And they all have the lazy S on top. Not sure of the meaning of the lazy S. Lazy S just means it's on its side. And again, this does not look very menacing to me and so I never took it really seriously. But when we sell these, they do sell at a premium. So it may have been a unit mark.

 

Death's Head Theory #2

Death_s Head Theory #2

However, there's another theory and that's kind of reinforced by some of the rifles. If you go to our website, if you collect rifles, you know that there are SS issued rifles, and often they will have that same Death's Head or a similar Death's Head. They also have SS runes. We've sold them in the past, and you can see them, the different Death's Head, they are different styles, but they're all pretty much the same. They have the bones coming out of the ears, they have the lazy S, often they have a big grin on them which again, it just makes it look like a cartoon character. But the reason some people think that they went to the SS is because of these rifles. So again, as I said earlier, the contracts for all new guns to go to the military, they were spoken for. So the police had orders in and the military had orders in. So when the SS started, and particularly the Waffen SS there were no place for them to get guns. So they would take these surplus guns and there was a number of arsenals throughout Germany that could do the work to rework these and add the SS runes or the Death's Head. In a lot of cases they were 30 caliber, and they switched them over to 9mm. These Death's Head guns are in 9mm, they're from World War I, they're reworked, and they often come with a holster that also has the Death's Head on it. 

 

The Guns came with Holsters

The Guns came with Holsters

And again, you can't see the lazy S, but it is there. You can see the bones, I guess that's like a thigh bone. But it just looks like he has big ears. You see the carved pumpkin look of the eyes, the nose and the mouth. Whether or not this is fake or real, it would be hard for me to say. I'm sure if some people faked them it wouldn't be that hard to just stamp holsters. This is a World War I, it is dated 1916, can't really see it. It was dyed black, which would make sense for the SS, and then this stamp was applied. 

 

What I can say for sure

What I can say for sure

These certainly are not factory, let's go to what I can say for sure. These are not factory markings. The KL was not a factory marking, that is not a factory marking, but they would take surplus holsters and surplus World War I era Lugers and they would reissue them to special troops. This may have been issued to the Waffen SS in early World War II or it may have been a special unit that was marked post factory. I can't really say for sure. Again, this doesn't really do anything for me. It's not something that I personally would collect. But these do command a premium because collectors do like them due to their uniqueness.

 

World War Luger makers 

World War Luger makers

Now I didn't mention this was actually made by Erfurt. So DWM and Erfurt were the two makers during World War I. Between the wars was Simpson and then of course, in World War II, it was Mauser and Kreighoff that made the Lugers.

 

Subscribe! As we never know what will show up

So here at Legacy we never know what's going to show up. So these two showed up this week and I thought I'll show them to you before they go to market. Most importantly, you can support our channel by liking and subscribing and send sending me a nice note once in a while. I really do appreciate it by the way, I get a lot of thank you's and I get very encouraging comments from many of you. So thank you for that. 

 

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