[Guest]

Hello. I have a East German rework with L. Lg.70.S.XIX on the front strap. There is line struck through everything but the XIX. There is also a starburst stamp which I was told was the E. German Police stamp. What does it mean? Thanks.
Joe

 

[Jan C Still]

Jugo
If the unit marking was done according to the 1932 Prussian State Police documents:
L. Lg.70.S.XIX signifies Landjagerei Luneburg, police command area XIX
The S is not according to the 1932 documents.

If the markings were to some postwar orders the above would not apply.
Jan

 

[Gercolctor]

jugo1
It is my opinion, that often when the police unit marks are Xed out, it indicates that the weapon was removed from police inventory and reissued to the military.
I have a model 1914 Mauser pistol that was captured in March of '45. The Dusseldorf police unit marks [S.D.II.84.] are Xed out, but still readable, like yours. As the war progressed the military needed any handgun they could get, including those spare, unissued weapons in the police inventory.
The man I bought it from had a dated picture of his father in combat gear, holding this Mauser pistol, standing next to a rather unhappy German Army senior NCO, who had an open, empty holster on his belt.
Joe

 

[luger08]

Hello jugo1,

sorry for late answer, but it takes time to read all the postings.

Concerning your request, here is the answer:

What you have on the frontside of the grip are two different police markings. The first one, L.Lg.70, belongs to the Landjägerei Luneburg, weapon nr. 70, as mentioned by Jan. The second one is "S XIX" followed by a police star. The first one, L.Lg.70, should be x-ed out or lined out when the second one has been stamped on, a procedure that has been done regularly and is very common. The "S" belongs to the second police marking and should not be lined through or x-ed out, but maybe after lining out the L.Lg.70 there was not enough space and that´s why they had to stamp the "S" into the line.

The mark "S XIX" followed by a star is a postwar police mark from the Berlin Police Forces. As you know the city of Berlin has been divided into four sectors which were under control of one of the four allied forces troops. So the first "S" indicates usage of the weapon by the police forces in the soviet sector of Berlin. There are other pistols known which bear the "A" for american or the "F" for the french sector. I have another 08 with the mark "S IV" + Star and a PPK with "S I" + Star in my collection.
The XIX is a roman number indicating the Police Inspection within the area of Berlin. It stands for Police Inspection 19 which is the area of Pankow (a municipality part of Berlin) and was (of course) in the soviet sector.

In my opinion it is not correct to name this mark a "VoPo" or "Volkspolizei" (= East German Police Force) mark, because these marks were stamped on the weapons before founding of east and west Germany in 1949. They were stamped while Germany was under allied occupation between 1945 and 1949. But of course after 1949 your gun may have served with the east german police, most likely after the splitting of Germany it stayed within the eastern part of Berlin.

Hope I could help you with your pistol and I would appreciate to see some pics.

Best regards,

Andy

 

[Jan C Still]

Andreas
Thanks for the insight into the post World War II unit markings.
Jan