The history of the Parabellum pistol, which was designed by Georg Luger, is preceded by that of the ‘Construktion 93’, or C-93 pistol designed by Hugo Borchardt. Both men should be credited for the definitive ‘Luger’ design that we are so familiar with today. Hence, we are launching the ‘Borchardt to Luger’ series with a rare C93 Borchardt pistol, which also happens to be one of a handful that was officially procured by Siam just after 1900! This feature will be a long read, as it is appropriate that we also dwell upon the protagonists behind this impressive history. Read on for another LSB journey in firearms history…

Hugo Borchardt was born on 6 June 1844 in Magdeburg, Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1860, and by 1872 he was Superintendent of Works for Pioneer Breech-Loading Arms Co. of Trenton, Massachusetts. He moved on to being a Foreman with the Singer Sewing Machine Company in 1874. Soon after, he was employed by Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Co. and later joined the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. His last job in the U.S.A. was as Superintendent and Treasurer for the Sharps Rifle Company, which he joined on 1 June 1876, and for which he developed the Model 1878 ‘Sharps-Borchardt’ 1878 rifle. When the Sharps Rifle Company was dissolved in 1881, Borchardt returned to Europe and took up a job with the Fegyver és Gépgyár Részvénytársaság (FEG) factory in Budapest, Hungary, where he was appointed works director in 1890. However, he soon returned to the United States for a two-year stint as a consultant to Remington Arms, which required his services in the development of the Lee rifle for the U.S. Army trials.

Borchardt was back in Germany by 1893, now aged 49 years, where he became involved with the Ludwig Loewe & Company of Berlin, which manufactured machine tools. This relationship led to the design and development of the ‘Construktion 93’, or C-93 self-loading pistol, which was based upon the Maxim toggle-lock principle. He also developed the 7.65x25mm Borchardt bottle-necked cartridge for his C-93 pistol. Borchardt died of pneumonia in Berlin-Charlottenburg on 8 May 1924.

Ludwig Loewe was born on 27 November 1837 in Heiligenstadt, Germany. His real name was Louis Levy, the son of a Jewish family. In 1869 he set up the Ludwig Loewe Commanditgesellschaft auf Aktien für Fabrikation von Nähmaschinen A.G. and began producing sewing machines. However, in 1872 he signed an agreement with the German army to produce service rifles, and set up a separate armaments company for this specific purpose, the Ludwig Loewe & Company. Loewe's armaments company grew into a major supplier of weapons to the German military. It eventually grew into a business empire, holding shares in Mauser, FN Herstal (Belgium) and Waffenfabrik Steyr (Austria-Hungary). Loewe employed both Hugo Borchardt and Georg Luger. Loewe was politically active as a member of the Berlin City Council. In 1877 he was elected to the Prussian House of Representatives for the Progressive Party, and in 1878 he became a member of the Reichstag.

Ludwig Lowe died in Berlin on 11 September 1886 and his younger brother Isidor Loewe took over the running of the company, which was eventually changed to Gesellschaft für Elektrische Unternehmungen Ludwig Loewe & Co. A.G. The company was involved in three main product groups: electricity, machinery, and armaments. In 1896, Ludwig Loewe & Cie obtained a majority interest in the Karlsruhe-based Deutsche Metallpatronenfabrik. In the same year, it was decided to merge the ammunition production of Deutsche Metallpatronenfabrik with Loewe's firearms branch in Berlin, creating a new company of which Loewe remained the owner: Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM).

Georg Luger was born on 6 March 1849 in Steinach am Brenner, in the Austrian Tyrol. Within a few weeks of his birth, Georg and his family moved to Padova, where his father, who was a surgeon, became a lecturer at the University. At the time, Padova formed part of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia (1815-1866). Georg attended school in Padova and grew up speaking Italian as his second language. Upon graduation, he returned to Vienna to further his studies at the Wiener Handelsakademie (Vienna Commercial Academy). However, in October 1867, Georg volunteered for military service as a Reserve Officer Cadet with Infanterie-Regiment 78. He was promoted to Cadett-Corporal 1 June 1868, and to Fähnrich on 1 October of the same year. Georg turned out to be such an excellent marksman that his superior officers sent him to the Austro-Hungarian Military Firearms School at Camp Bruckneudorf. He soon became an instructor and developed an interest in automatic loading systems.

Georg left the military in 1871 with the rank of Leutnant der Reserve. He took up the post of accountant (later also in the management) of the Jockey Club, which was a prime social meeting place in Vienna. It is there that he met Ferdinand von Mannlicher around 1875 and the two collaborated on rifle magazine designs. Georg appeared to have a latent talent for design, which served him well when in 1871 he took up a job with the Ludwig Loewe & Company in Berlin, where he gradually became a consultant designer.

In November 1894, by which time the company had become the Deutsche Waffen und Munitions Fabriken (DWM) after Loewe’s death, the 45-year old Georg Luger was sent to the Rhode Island, U.S.A., to demonstrate a C-93 pistol to the U.S. Navy Ordinance Board. The pistol was eventually rejected in later trials, despite a favourable report. Another set of pistol trials held by the Swiss military in June 1897, in which the C-93 competed against the Mauser C96 and the Bergmann No.3, ended with another favourable report on Borchardt’s design. However, the report was also critical of the pistol’s shortcomings and requested several improvements. This is what led to Luger being given the brief to redesign the pistol into the Parabellum pistol, which he patented in 1898, and which was adopted by the Swiss in 1900. It was also the start of an acrimonious relationship between Luger and Borchardt, who believed that his design could not be improved.

Although Luger was responsible for the incredible success that DWM enjoyed with the development and production of the Parabellum pistol, his contract with the factory was terminated in 1919 after the end of WWI. Luger successfully sued DWM over patent royalties. However, by this time, he had lost all his savings. Georg Luger died in Berlin on 22 December 1923 aged 74.

On 29th September 2017, the ‘Interessengemeinschaft zur Errichtung eines Gedenksteines für den weltbekannten Waffenkonstrukteur Georg Luger’ unveiled a memorial to Georg Luger in the Fichtenaue cemetery, which is located in Schöneiche bei Berlin, where Georg Luger spent his last years after WWI before he died. The entire cemetery was destroyed in 1945 and then dug out to provide mass graves for the last defenders of the capital. It is now a war cemetery. The approximate location of Luger’s grave location was still known and the memorial was erected there. The project came to fruition following prolonged negotiation with the town authorities and the mayor’s approval. The black granite headstone represents the toggle of a 1900 Parabellum pistol. In a short but moving ceremony, which was attended by Georg Luger’s descendants, members of the Gemeinschaft, author Geoffrey L. Sturgess and FESAC Chairman Stephen A. Petroni, Dr. Wolf-Dietrich N. Roth read a tribute to Georg Luger and his achievements while Prof. Peter Luger, who is Georg’s grandson, thanked the Gemeinschaft and the benefactors for the initiative.

The Borchardt C93 used a short-recoil actuated toggle action and fed 7.65x25mm bottle-necked ammunition from an 8-round box magazine located in the grip. The initial series of prototype pistols had a 154mm barrel. Later examples had the definitive 190mm barrels that we are familiar with today. The C-93 was initially marked with the Ludwig Loewe company name up to approximately serial number 1100. Thereafter, C-93 pistols were marked with the Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken name and serial numbers run up to around 3100. The Borchardt C-93 was the first mass-produced semi-automatic pistol, and around 3,100 pieces were manufactured between 1893 and 1902.

Borchardt’s pistol had been evaluated by the military forces of several countries, including Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, the U.S.A., and even Siam (later Thailand).

The beautiful example that we are presenting today, which is serial numbered 3019, is from the last of the C-93 production run, known as the ‘Series V’, and was probably manufactured just after the turn of the century. It is one of three known examples (serial numbers 2915, 2956 and 3019) which bear a Siamese six-bladed ‘chakra’ flaming wheel emblem on the rear grip-strap, indicating an official procurement by the Siamese military or police. Some sources claim that around twenty pistols were dispatched to Siam and that some of these may still be in storage. However, this claim has not been verified.

The pistol is in immaculate original condition, with hardly any signs of use or wear. All components bear matching serial numbers. It is also marked with the ‘D.R.P.’ patent number ‘75887’ and the proof letters ‘B’, ‘U’ and ‘G’, each surmounted by a crown. The pistol is complete with one matching-numbered magazine and a wooden shoulder stock with a leather holster attached to it.

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