Imperial Dreyse 1907 - Cabela’s Find

[fishermankw]

Dreyse - unknown model, unknown caliber, or how cabela’s had it labeled. Picked it up with a holster for three Benjamins and change. Couldn’t figure out why the front grip strap had so much wear. After closer inspection someone kindly removed almost all of the unit stamp … some remnants left, can see the dots and for sure a 7, may try a grease pen and see if I can decider anything additional.

 

[Spaffo]

Nice score, especially with the holster. Here is mine, "improved" by the WW2 GI that scored it.

 

[fishermankw]

Those are some sweet grips!

 

[AndyB]

There was mostly a german unit on strap, most real a police unit, the other piece with replacement grip has a czechoslovak native name. Majority of Dreyse were in 7,65ACP also .32.

 

[Spaffo]

It's the GI's name and 7th and 9th Army. I've seen other WW2 bring-back trophy pistols with grips that appear made by the same maker.

 

[chrisftk]

Dreyse - unknown model, unknown caliber, or how cabela’s had it labeled. Picked it up with a holster for three Benjamins and change. Couldn’t figure out why the front grip strap had so much wear. After closer inspection someone kindly removed almost all of the unit stamp … some remnants left, can see the dots and for sure a 7, may try a grease pen and see if I can decider anything additional.

These were a reasonably common sidearm during ww1-- some were both private purchased and some requisitioned by the military. There's a slight premium for imperial accepted ones. I have seen imperial unit markings on them, but it's fairly rare. Post-war, they often found their way into police departments. If you watch "Babylon Berlin", the main character, a Berlin police detective, carries one.

If you take the grips off, depending on how shallow the straps are you might see a negative of the image underneath. I really don't recall, and I have my example in my pistol safe, or I'd check-- I've had good luck looking at cancelled P08 unit marks under the strap. Here's a cancelled MG unit under the strap of a p08.

 

[fishermankw]

These were a reasonably common sidearm during ww1-- some were both private purchased and some requisitioned by the military. There's a slight premium for imperial accepted ones. I have seen imperial unit markings on them, but it's fairly rare. Post-war, they often found their way into police departments. If you watch "Babylon Berlin", the main character, a Berlin police detective, carries one.

If you take the grips off, depending on how shallow the straps are you might see a negative of the image underneath. I really don't recall, and I have my example in my pistol safe, or I'd check-- I've had good luck looking at cancelled P08 unit marks under the strap. Here's a cancelled MG unit under the strap of a p08.
View attachment 393999

Interesting - I hadn’t thought about doing that. I had assumed the removal was done by a GI state side, was this also done postwar by police units? It has the imperial acceptance stamp on the right side so a military purchase.

 

[plymouthmauser]

The last Dreyse was made in 1914. They were "retired" when the second generation of 7,65s came around, but made a revival of sorts at the end of the war to arm the Volkssturm. That's why you see a fair amount of them over here. Mine is a very early one, SN 24K ~1909, late of the Prussian Customs Service. 32s are my collection focus. I've had an Imperial Dreyse and Walther M4. Currently have a Sauer and Mauser with Imperial Proofs.
t

 

[chrisftk]

. I had assumed the removal was done by a GI state side, was this also done postwar by police units?

I doubt bubba would have done the removal. More likely if the gun was sold out of military use or transferred to a different unit. I've got a couple Lugers that had ground unit marks. I also wouldn't rule out that this was a possible WW1 bringback. Without any obvious signs of police use, like a unit mark you could never 100% say when it got here.

Still a cool pistol..

 

[fishermankw]

T

I doubt bubba would have done the removal. More likely if the gun was sold out of military use or transferred to a different unit. I've got a couple Lugers that had ground unit marks. I also wouldn't rule out that this was a possible WW1 bringback. Without any obvious signs of police use, like a unit mark you could never 100% say when it got here.

Still a cool pistol..

That makes more sense, I couldn’t figure out why bubba would have aggressively taken a file to it without changing other aspects. I’ll have to pop the grips off and see what I see. A WWI bringback could be likely, under the flap of the holster is a handwritten name. It’s a little too worn to read, but a standard spot for GI’s to sign.

 

[JoeW]

The last Dreyse was made in 1914. They were "retired" when the second generation of 7,65s came around, but made a revival of sorts at the end of the war to arm the Volkssturm. That's why you see a fair amount of them over here. Mine is a very early one, SN 24K ~1909, late of the Prussian Customs Service. 32s are my collection focus. I've had an Imperial Dreyse and Walther M4. Currently have a Sauer and Mauser with Imperial Proofs.
t

1914? Others believe production continued through the end of WWI and perhaps a few more years until the 1907’s successor, the Neue Rheinmetall pistol, was introduced in the early 1920s. And as for retirement, the Dreyse 1907 continued as an issued pistol for both the uniformed police and secret police through the end of the war. The 1907 was included in all Order Police training/service manuals through 1943 and RSHA arsenal archives show a Dreyse in the 248000 range being issued to a senior SS officer in the early 1940s.

Here is a link to an informative thread on another forum.

Dreyse 1907 Database

www.lugerforums.com

 

[Spaffo]

Babylon Berlin is an excellent noir series. Here's the star with his Dreyse.

 

[JoeW]

And here is Gereon showing us his Akah "Reichsbank" style shoulder holster worn under his jacket. The show reproduced the Reichsbank holster shown in this Akah advertisent almost to perfection.The Dreyse 1907 fit a PPK sized Reichsbank holster barely, but appears a better fit to the PP marked Reichsbank holster on the left, with a Menz Spezial fiitng the PPK sized Reichsbank holster on the right. The fourth image is of my Dreyse 1907 formerly issued to P.P.B.IA No.184 (Polizei Präsidium Berlin
Dept IA-the Political Police) and reissued to the Berlin Kripo, Issue 184.

.

 

[Spaffo]

Wow. Amazing pistols and extras. I'm jealous. The politzei ID is especially cool.

 

[fishermankw]

These were a reasonably common sidearm during ww1-- some were both private purchased and some requisitioned by the military. There's a slight premium for imperial accepted ones. I have seen imperial unit markings on them, but it's fairly rare. Post-war, they often found their way into police departments. If you watch "Babylon Berlin", the main character, a Berlin police detective, carries one.

If you take the grips off, depending on how shallow the straps are you might see a negative of the image underneath. I really don't recall, and I have my example in my pistol safe, or I'd check-- I've had good luck looking at cancelled P08 unit marks under the strap. Here's a cancelled MG unit under the strap of a p08.
View attachment 393999

Tried removing the grips but that front strap is very thick. Gave the grease pens a shot too and just got the periods at the top of the seven. They apparently did a very thorough job when they removed the mark.

 

[R.Blue]

And here is Gereon showing us his Akah "Reichsbank" style shoulder holster worn under his jacket. The show reproduced the Reichsbank holster shown in this Akah advertisent almost to perfection.The Dreyse 1907 fit a PPK sized Reichsbank holster barely, but appears a better fit to the PP marked Reichsbank holster on the left, with a Menz Spezial fiitng the PPK sized Reichsbank holster on the right. The fourth image is of my Dreyse 1907 formerly issued to P.P.B.IA No.184 (Polizei Präsidium Berlin
Dept IA-the Political Police) and reissued to the Berlin Kripo, Issue 184.

.View attachment 394112View attachment 394113View attachment 394114View attachment 394115View attachment 394116

And here is Gereon showing us his Akah "Reichsbank" style shoulder holster worn under his jacket. The show reproduced the Reichsbank holster shown in this Akah advertisent almost to perfection.The Dreyse 1907 fit a PPK sized Reichsbank holster barely, but appears a better fit to the PP marked Reichsbank holster on the left, with a Menz Spezial fiitng the PPK sized Reichsbank holster on the right. The fourth image is of my Dreyse 1907 formerly issued to P.P.B.IA No.184 (Polizei Präsidium Berlin
Dept IA-the Political Police) and reissued to the Berlin Kripo, Issue 184.

.View attachment 394112View attachment 394113View attachment 394114View attachment 394115View attachment 394116

Here’s an interesting in I picked up recently-

 

[Gringo]

Since we're sharing Dreyse 1907's...my only example is one that was assigned to the Leipzig police. Previously owned by Don Maus.

 

[JoeW]

Here’s an interesting in I picked up recently-

View attachment 394377View attachment 394378View attachment 394379

Very nice Roscoe. And according to the January 1939 RFV directive, Dreyse1907s were designated for use by Zoll border patrol units on foot and on horseback.