I have run into a couple of gew 98s. They are both updated with bent bolts and tangent sights. One has the 1920 property mark on it. My question is, Does this mean it has not been to turkey out right and stayed in Germany or is there some that also were sent to turkey. The other is in a k98 stock with the side sling hole. Not sure if it has been shortened or not. It also has the bent bolt, so does that mean it was updated and used in Germany for WWII? Sorry for the newby questions and thanks for the help.
1920 property mark
- Thread starter desdem12
- Start date
Missed this post yesterday...
If a rifle has the 1920 property marking, it never made it to Turkey prior to WWII, - because if it has a property mark it means it was German government property, it couldn't be sold, certainly to a foreign power. The purpose of the "1920" was to show it was government property, that it wasn't an illegal weapon in the hands of civilians, and it was illegal for Germany as a nation to export or import military equipment of any kind (this was technically German law even when the nazis came to power, but what is law to nazis, - but before 1927 the IAMCC and "good-will" kept Germany abiding by the Versailles Treaty, more or less, after 1927, as an effort to appease the French and British, Germany passed “German laws” to prevent export-import of military equipment, it was one of the compromises Germany agreed to, one of the more important "issues" remaining regarding Versailles after Locarno normalized relations, - the police issue was another, Germany never did get far along in making the French happy on that regard...)
Anyway, if it is property marked it probably was in German hands up until the nazi era, offhand I do not recall if any were sent to Spain, they could have been, but Turkey learnt her lesson in 1918, after that she played both sides, short of "involvement", until it was obvious Germany was going to lose and lose big... some say German troops interned themselves in Turkey at the end of WWII, they got some rifles that way, but I do not know to what extent the story=facts.
Maybe do pictures, hard to say much about a rifle with so little to go on, - the vast majority of "property marked" rifles were destroyed before 1924, those that remained probably stayed in German hands until consumed by the war, scrapped for parts or lost in some backwater in Eastern Europe.
If a rifle has the 1920 property marking, it never made it to Turkey prior to WWII, - because if it has a property mark it means it was German government property, it couldn't be sold, certainly to a foreign power. The purpose of the "1920" was to show it was government property, that it wasn't an illegal weapon in the hands of civilians, and it was illegal for Germany as a nation to export or import military equipment of any kind (this was technically German law even when the nazis came to power, but what is law to nazis, - but before 1927 the IAMCC and "good-will" kept Germany abiding by the Versailles Treaty, more or less, after 1927, as an effort to appease the French and British, Germany passed “German laws” to prevent export-import of military equipment, it was one of the compromises Germany agreed to, one of the more important "issues" remaining regarding Versailles after Locarno normalized relations, - the police issue was another, Germany never did get far along in making the French happy on that regard...)
Anyway, if it is property marked it probably was in German hands up until the nazi era, offhand I do not recall if any were sent to Spain, they could have been, but Turkey learnt her lesson in 1918, after that she played both sides, short of "involvement", until it was obvious Germany was going to lose and lose big... some say German troops interned themselves in Turkey at the end of WWII, they got some rifles that way, but I do not know to what extent the story=facts.
Maybe do pictures, hard to say much about a rifle with so little to go on, - the vast majority of "property marked" rifles were destroyed before 1924, those that remained probably stayed in German hands until consumed by the war, scrapped for parts or lost in some backwater in Eastern Europe.
Ok that is great info. I don't own the rifle..yet. I may be able to do pictures but have to find out if these will be made available for purchase or what he is doing. This rifle with the 1920 mark has a bent bolt but is in a older stock. I knew nothing about any of this stuff before a couple of days ago. This rifle was part of a "stash" that included 2 gew 98s the lsr bcd 4 and about 4 other mauser sporters along with 2 vz24s and a Spanish 1916 thrown in. That is just the mausers 
