I’ve recently added a few examples of Swiss Parabellum pistols (also called Swiss Luger in the US) to the herd and now have an nice representative assortment

Switzerland was amongst the first countries to adopt Georg Luger’s pistol in 1900 (based on Hugo Borchardt’s C 93), after testing the (scarce) semi automatic competition of the day. The original caliber was the bottlenecked 7.65 mm Parabellum, i.e. .30 Luger.

5000 Parabellum model 1900 were produced at DWM (Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabrik) in Berlin and delivered between 1900 and 1906, numbered 1 to 5000. Mine is # 2882 and was made in 1904 and is in an exceptional condition for its age

















In 1906 the Swiss ordered more Parabellum pistols from DWM however with some modifications: coil mainspring instead of the somewhat fragile lead spring one, newly designed slide and extractor… Those were produced from 1906 until 1914 (Parabellum model 1906 DWM) and numbered from 5001 to 15215. Mine is number 8759, was made in 1908 and oddly privatised to civilian life in 1943 (P43 marking). This one shows a bit more wear.









World War I interrupted the supply from Germany, and in 1918 the Swiss decided to manufacture their own Parabellum in Waffenfabrik Bern, which was the state Arsenal. They were produced from 1918 until 1933 (Parabellum model 1906 Waffenfabrik or W+F and sometimes incorrectly named 1906/24 or 06/24) and numbered from 15251 to 33089.

Mine is number 21134 and was made in 1923. It’s the first one I bought and I’ve put several thousand rounds through it, including military style competitions. Still in very nice shape.











As can be seen, the German made and Swiss made pistols are almost identical