"Parabellum" - the legendary German pistol, which many have heard of, a weapon that has rightfully become the symbol of the German pistol of the first half of the twentieth century. "Parabellum" has a recognizable, original and unlike any other pistol look.
This pistol was developed at the beginning of the last century and received a rather original name - "prepare for war" ("Parabellum" in Latin). A special 9x19 Para cartridge was also developed for it, which has survived to this day, becoming the most massive pistol cartridge.
The prototype of the Parabellum was the K-93 pistol, developed by Hugo Borchardt. The K-93 automatics used a short barrel recoil stroke, threw the spent cartridge case up through a system of levers, simultaneously compressing the return spring, which then fed the cartridge into the chamber. Hugo Borchardt's design turned out to be successful, but it was laborious, expensive and material-intensive. In addition, the pistol used the original bottle cartridge of 7, 65 mm caliber with a diameter of the cylindrical part of 9 mm.
Production of the K-93 began in 1894. In the first three years, 3,000 pieces were produced, after which the management of the German company DWM, which produced pistols, decided to promote its pistol in the United States. But it was not possible to "push through" the pistol, the US military did not accept the "K-93".
It is from this moment that the history of the creation of the legendary "Parabellum" begins. The promotion and trade of Borchardt's pistol on the American market was taken up by the talented engineer Georg Luger. On the basis of "K-93" Luger developed three similar models, in which the return spring from the pistol body was placed in the handle. This made it possible to make the design more compact and lightweight. For added convenience, the grip itself was bent 120 degrees towards the barrel. A new shorter cartridge 7, 65 mm "Luger" was also developed: due to the more powerful gunpowder, the cartridge did not lose penetrating power, despite the fact that it was significantly shortened.
In 1898, Luger offered the Swiss army a third modification of his 7.65 mm pistol as a standard armament model. The tests of the proposed pistol were successful, and the government of the country purchased a large batch of pistols, thereby equipping the entire officer corps of its army with automatic pistols.
In 1902, the German government announced a competition for the rearmament of its army. Eight samples were presented to a strict German commission, the tests lasted two years, during which time some of the presented samples managed to undergo modernization. Luger, for example, redesigned the cartridge, the sleeve became cylindrical, and the barrel caliber was expanded to 9 mm.
At the same time, the pistol received the sonorous name "Parabellum", the same name was given to the new cartridge. In 1904, the naval commission opted for a modernized 9 mm Luger pistol. Officially it was called "9x19 mm Borchardt-Luger pistol, naval model 1904". The barrel length in this model of the Luger pistol was 150 mm.
The pistol received its "classic form" in 1906. The barrel length is 100 mm, the automatic safety is moved down, the mechanisms were slightly modified. It is this model of the pistol that is called "classic Luger" in America and "Parabellum" in Europe.
In August 1908, a 9 mm Borchardt-Luger pistol called "P.08" was adopted as a service model of a short-barreled weapon in the German army.
Also, specially for the calculations of field artillery guns and non-commissioned officers of machine-gun teams, an elongated "Parabellum" with a barrel length of 200 mm and a sector sight for shooting up to 800 m was created. The set included a wooden holster-butt. Lange P.08 ("Long P.08") was adopted by the military units of Prussia, Saxony and Württemberg in 1913.
The pistol turned out to be really successful. All delays during firing were mainly due to low-quality ammunition. A good choice of the tilt of the handle provided excellent accuracy. Shooting from the P.08 pistol is effective, approximately, at a distance of up to 125 m, but it is most effective at a distance of up to 50 m.
Parabellum began its triumphant march across countries and continents. Orders poured, as if from a cornucopia - Russia, Brazil, Bulgaria … America again bought a decent batch of pistols for military tests. Several arms companies from different countries bought a license to manufacture the pistol. The production of "commercial samples" has increased.
The outbreak of the First World War required a huge number of pistols. The German tactics of "breaking into enemy defenses" with the help of assault groups also required weapons for war in enemy trenches under conditions of high fire density. Convenient, fast-loading and lightweight, the Long Parabellums with round 32-round magazines (model P.17) were perfect. At the same time, "silent" versions of pistols with a silencer were also developed. For ten years in the period from 1908 to 1918, about 1.8 million units of P.08 were produced.
The defeat in the war meant the unambiguous death of the 9 mm Parabellum. According to the Versailles Treaty "it was forbidden to manufacture short-barreled weapons with a caliber of more than 8 mm and with a barrel length exceeding 100 mm." The production of short-barreled weapons was allowed only to one company "Simson und Co", which had neither production experience nor the necessary equipment. The demand for pistols from this company was extremely low. Later, from the parts stored in the arsenal of the city of Ertfurd, the production of the 7, 65 mm Luger pistol was established, and then, in the strictest secrecy, the production of the 9 mm model.
In 1922, the license for the production of "Parabellum" was transferred to the arms company "Heinrich Krieghoff", where their production was established in 1925. Since 1930, the arms company "Mauser-Werke A. G" joined the production. The weapons produced were marked with the year of manufacture, and not with a number, which made it possible to hide the real number of pistols made.
With the coming to power of Hitler, all restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles were lifted. But another problem arose - the "low-tech" manufacturing of the legendary pistol. During the manufacture, many manual operations were carried out, each copy required 6 kg of metal (5 of which went into shavings). Also, in the conditions of preparation for war, the German leadership was not satisfied with the significant high cost of these weapons.
With the cost price of one set of pistols in 17, 8 reichmarks to the German government, each pistol purchased from the company "Mauser" cost 32 marks.
That is why in 1938 a new standard officer pistol “Walter - R.38” of 9mm caliber chambered for “Parabellum” was adopted for service. The production of "Parabellums" was discontinued, but parts for the repair of the pistol were produced until the end of the war.
After the end of World War II until the early 1960s, Mauser and Interarms produced Parabellum for the American market. But modern collectors consider these pistols to be replicas, although they are completely identical to the original "Parabellum".
But the cartridge, developed specifically for the "Parabellum", had a more fortunate fate: it, as mentioned above, became the most massive pistol cartridge.
