the may 5, 2014 issue of shotgun news contains an article, beginning at page 16, entitled "eternal icon: georg luger's pistole parabellum. it is the second part of a story dealing w/ the model p. 08 pistol, commonly called the "luger," during the period from the weimar republic through the end of the third reich.
mr. kokalis is a thorough author. some might say uncharitably that he can be tedious. i rather enjoy him, though he does liberally pepper all his writing with generous mention of shotgun news' "contributing" advertisers.
but whatever your views on this topic, it has to be admitted that in this particular article he has served history rather ably, and gives a very accurate accounting of how jewish business interests were divested of their property by the connivance of the nazi and collaborating german business entities. he does not shy from this topic in this article about the luger pistol, because two jewish brothers, industrialists, had their enterprise which included the manufacture of the luger pistol, stolen from them by a nazi gauleiter, and the founder of the post-wwii krieghoff shotgun dynasty.
this topic has been treated earlier at this blog. http://wintersoldier2008.typepad.com/summer_patriot_winter_sol/2011/01/it-all-started-with-the-letters-bcd-on-the-receiver-ring-of-a-model-k-98-mauser-my-brother-gave-me-a.html . january 27, 2011 at this blog. but, the largely chat room discussion that i reported does not deal with the topic nearly as ably and concisely as kokalis's reporting, and from this point forward i will let his prose carry the story. most of the rest of this post shall simply excerpt mr. kokalis's account of how the simson family saw their business stolen by the machinations of the nazi state, and how they escaped nazi germany without their property, but with their very lives, and those of their families.
it is a compelling account (if you are patient), and i leave it to mr. kokalis. the story of how the simson family, german-jewish industrialists came to grief at the hands of the nazi's, begins at page 28 of the kokalist article, under the paragraph heading, "the 'jewish' luger."
"the jewish luger
recognizing that handguns of new production would eventually be required, the allied control commission allowed simson & company of suhl to purchase the p. 08 machinery from the erfurt arsenal for 821,000 reichsmarks. taking advantage of a prussian law passed in 1847 that gave jews nearly equal rights as citizens, leo and moses simson obtained an interest in two iron forges in suhl.
by 1857, the two brothers were subcontracting for parts used by local thuringian firearms factories. by 1862, the surviving brother, moses, modernized the plant. by the end of the german-austrian war of 1866, the simson factory was reworking captured austrian lorenz m54 infantry rifles with the so-called "dreyse auendnadel" system.
they received numerous government orders during the franco-prussian war of 1870-71, but a son was killed while serving as a prussian jaeger. meager times followed and the simsons explored the manufacture of bicycles and automobiles. the manufacture of swords, baynets and scabbards, wagons and luxury hunting rifles, as well as precision sighting equipment for artillery, sustained the company during hard times.
during world war i, simson again prospered and by 1916 was manufacturing 250 gewehr '98 rifles [the model 1898 mauser] per day, as well as parts for the mp18, i submachine gun, airplane engines, vehicles, telegraphy equipment, edged weapons and artillery aiming devices.
after the war, it survived by producing bicycles and household utensils and the simson supra automobile. they eventually introduced a small vest pocket, 6.35mm semiautomatic pistol, the model 1922/27.
after protracted negotiations with the reichswehr and the allied controls commission, circa 1924 simson & company, competing against mauser and dwm, was awarded the contract to refurbish and manufacture new military arms. an order to manufacture 10,000 maxim machine gun barrels was followed in 1925 with the production of p.08s and the dreyse mg13 machine gun.
however, even during the weimar era, nazi gauleiter fritz sauckel, a rabid anti-semite, attempted to disrupt simson's relationship with the reichswehr with fabricationed accusations. when sauckel was appointed reichsstatthalter (governor) of thuringia in may of 1933, the demise of simson & company was merely a matter of time.
at first, a 14-month investigation for alleged income tax evasion went nowhere. nevertheless, arthur simson was arrested with four employees and indicted for corruption. on 14 april 1935, arthur simson was jailed in berlin's moabit prison, along with his nephew and successor. after seven months, he was promised freedom if he admitted guilt and signed over all rights to his company to fritz sauckel.
he did so and was released, but correctly fearing that confiscation of his company and estate were only beginning, on 9 february 1936, he and two other jewish employees crossed the border into switzerland and from there emigrated to the united states. in 1936, sauckel renamed the company berlin -suhler waffen- und fahrzeugwerke (bsw).
during world war ii, bsw produced anti-aircraft guns, the mg42, and the rocket launcher puppchen. in the soviet zone, afte rthe war all the machinery was shipped to russia. in 1946, sauckel was among the 24 persons tried at nuremberg and was found guilty and hanged. [i suspect slave labor & murder, and shall investigate this angle. jjjay.] the simson family was eventually partially compensated for their losses by the german government, but never again made firearms.
at first, simson & co. reworked older p.08s, replacing parts when necessary and refinishing the pistols. most often the front toggle link was replaced with one carrying their logo, whcih was "simson & co." over "suhl." i have a speicmen that is a rework of a navy luger. to meet the requirements of the versailles treaty, the 150mm barrle was replaced with a 100mm barrel, upon which is the only serial placed on the pistol during the rework, number "7139."
as this is legal in europe, but does not meet batfe regulations, prior to importation to the united states the serial no. "6578" was placed on the left side of the frame. the left side of the receiver carries crown/m navy proofs. there is a 1917 chamber date. other than the two serial numbers, navy proofs, and the simson logo on the front toggle link (and the usual bore dimension on the under-side of the barrel below simon's serial number), there are no other markings of any kind on this pistol.
the wood base of the magazine has no serial number. there are no strawed components; all of the pistol's parts are blued. with 96% finish, this rather odd pistol is worth from $1,500.
approximately 600 lugers were made and chamber-dated in 1925 by simson [this is before the gauleiter sauckel machinations & confiscation. jjjay], but only about 100 were made in 1926. i have a specimen probably made in 1927, as it is serial no. "3418." it has all matching serial numbers, except for the aluminum magazine base (serial no. "3133 --- p.08 aluminum magazine bases were mandated by the german army in about 1926), which is, however, of simson manufacture as it has simson's eagle/6 proof. most of the pistol's small parts also carry the simson eagle/6 proof and the last two digits of the serial number appear on the sideplate, takedown lever, extractor, and rear end of the toggles.
the full serial number is marked on the receiver, frame and barrel. the right side of the receiver is marked withi two eagle/6 proofs flanking an eagle/33 proof, followed by a military acceptance test proof. the front toggle has the full simson logo. about 94% of the original finish remains and 60% of the straw. this desirable specimen of a simson-manufactured p.08 is worth about $3,800.
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..... keep in mind that of the approximately 3 million lugers estimated to have been manufactured, simson made only 11,900.
of these, about 11,000 carry the full simson logo on the toggle, but almost 1,000 have only the letter "s" on the toggle and all those noted to date were manufactured after serial number 10000, as their serial numbers all have a "a" suffix. my specimen, serial no. "14a", with all matching serial numbers including the grip panels, was a police rework as it has a schiwy sear safety and its aluminum base magazine, although not matching, is marked with a police number "1" and a police *k proof.
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"hitler's rise and the luger's demise
[drieghoff's acquisition of the simson's property. jjjay]
the company of sempert & krieghoff was founded in suhl in 1886 to manufacture sporting guns and electrical parts. in 1904 they purchased the gun manufacturer, v.c. schilling, also of suhl. in 1919, as a consequence of a family death, sempert & krieghoff and heinrich krieghoff waffenfabrik were amalgamated, but continued to operate separately. the exact circumstances of krieghoff's pistol contract wtih the reichluftssportverband (rlv), behind which the emerging luftwaffe (air force) hid, will probably never be known, whether heinrich krieghoff approached the rlv or it was because of hermann goring's (reichsmarschall of nazi germany and commander-in-chief of the luftwaffe) influence is not clear. in any event, by 1935 krieghoff had obtained the machinery to produce the luger that simson had purchased from erfurt in 1920.
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by this time about 7,000 p.08s had been manufactured by krieghoff. approximately 2,8000 were made in 1937 and finally only about 50 in 1938. like all military krieghoff p.08s, my specimen has the krieghoff "h/achor/k" over "krieghoff" over "suhl" logo on the front toggle link. serial no. "3190" has all matching numbers, a slightly clouded bore, and the usual fine-checkered, brown plastic, ritzmann grip panels and a nickel-plated, rolled-typed magazine with an aluminum base that has the pistol's serial number and the distinctive krieghoff waa acceptance stamp, which is "eagle/2." because only 10,00 were manufactured and they are of high quality; this added to the luftwafffe mystique making krieghoffs highly desirable (yet not many more simsons were made and they do not command anywhere near the price of the krieghoff). i purchased the pistol 21 years ago for $2,250 and today it will bring $8,500. krieghoff holsters with an "eagle/2" waffenamt stempel sell for $800 and more.
so ends the excerpted portion of the kokalis article, sections "the jewish luger" and "hitler's rise and the luger's demise," pages 20 to 30, the 5 may 2014 issue of "shotgun news." author, peter j. kokalis.
and, there you have it. somewhere around 1935 the manufacturing assets of the simson & co. firm had been extorted into the ownership of nazi gauleiter and states governor fritz sauckel, and thence by the influence of hermann goring by 1935 the firm krieghoff had acquired those manufacturing assets from the nazi state. and, krieghoff made luger p08 pistols on the very same machinery that had been used by the simson firm, to make the very same pistol.
yet, the pistol of the thief "successor-in-interest" krieghoff is more highly valued by collectors than the pistol of the rightful owners whose property was extorted from him. on page 24 of the kokalis article, are several pictures of the simson and co. lugers, showing the company logos on the front toggle link. on that link, below the company name, is the logo "suhl," for the town of manufacture.
on page 32 of that same article, are several pictures of the krieghoff luger, one of which shows the company logo on the front toggle link, as described by kokalis in the text of the article. on that link, below the krieghoff company name, is the logo "suhl," for the town of manufacture.
the pistols appear identical. the script for the word "suhl" on the krieghoff is identical to the script for "suhl" on the simson and co. pistol. this is so, because the pistols were made on the same equipment, presumably using the same blue prints, shop drawings and jigs, this all belong to the simsons before stolen by the nazis and delivered to a willing, and probably participant in the theft, krieghoff.
yet, to this day krieghoff has the good name, and the simsons have obscurity.
history, and the opinion of history, are not yet served. it must be commented upon, that history has been well served by the efforts of peter j. kokalist in this very skillfully done article. even though the primary focus of his efforts was to describe a gun which he collects, and obviously admires, he has not shied away from truth, and from naming names, when confronted by the acts of those who deserve our opprobrium.
the simsons were skilled and resourceful entrepreneurs, and good at their craft. we need not examine that issue as pertains to the krieghoffs, because their legacy is as thieves, thieves who gained their property by the actions of a man hanged at nuremberg. they succeeded to and profited by the actions of a murderer, one fritz sauckel.
good on peter j. kokalis. for having the courage to speak truth.
john jay @ 04.24.2014
Nice find. An awful lot of old German industry goes back to the pre-war era, some of it long before that. Odd and evil things happened then, and during the war. Hard to point the finger of guilt at today's owners of those companies for what happened back then. But it's perhaps easier to do so if the current owners are the same family as those back then.
Posted by: drew458 | April 26, 2014 at 08:37 AM
drew:
thanks for the read, and thanks for the comment.
and, you raise good and valid points.--
the krieghoffs may or may not have had a whole lot of "choice" in taking over the simson's equipment. when hermann goring (goering) came calling, one opened the door.
yet, the circumstances point to the krieghoff's having full knowlege ... all of this took place in suhl, and all of this was very well known thanks to the participation of fritz sauckel in the whole sordid affair.
krieghoff, haenel, a whole lot of suhl manufacturers were very heavily into german armaments. and, they would have known quite well of sauckel's roll in extorting the property of the simson's.
most telling to me, in making my assessment, is the absolute dearth of any comment i've run across from the latter day krieghoffs in their role of taking the machine tools from the simson plant.
and, their utter absence in any comment about the use of slave, and jewish slave, labor in armaments manufacture.
fritz sauckel was the highest ranking minister in the nazi government in control of labor practices, and in making sure that key elements of german manufacture had sufficient labor to operate & produce.
he was one of the 24 defendants at the nuremberg trials, and was found guilty for his role in procuring slave labor, and in the deaths by maltreatment and outright execution of such labor, in slave camps and labor camps.
he was hung by the neck until dead.
the krieghoffs would have been beneficiary of his role in government in securing their labor "pool," and responsible for the treatment of such people.
the krieghoffs got off light.
they continue to get off light, in my view. instead, they are well respected "industrialists."
john
p.s. after wwii they became famous for the reliability of a double barreled shotgun they made, to exacting standards.
it was, in fact, a carbon copy of the remington model 32 (and parts interchanged).
don't fix it, if it ain't broke.
they chose the right shotgun to copy. so much for engineering.
as always, they profited from cheap and "available" labor.
Posted by: john jay | April 26, 2014 at 10:49 AM
p.s. wikipedia has a pretty good article on fritz sauckel.
he role in procuring german slave labor is thoroughly commented upon.
by the way, suhl is just a little southwest of berlin. very close to all the "action" in the third reich.
not much of any of this would have gone unnoticed inside the nazi hierarchy.
all in the family, as it were.
Posted by: john jay | April 26, 2014 at 10:52 AM