A Luger, also known as Parabellum is an arm-locked pistol based on principles by Hiram Maxim. It is semi-automatic, magazine-fed, and operates on the short-recoil principle. The pistol, designed by Georg Luger, was an evolution of an earlier Hugo Borchardt design. It was introduced in 1899.

The Luger pistol was and has always been manufactured to very high standards and thus has a very long service life, far in excess of 100 years if properly maintained and cared for. Because of the fact that the barrel is fixed to the slide, Lugers are very accurate pistols.

The first Luger pistols fired the 7.63 mm Borchardt pistol cartridge, which was anemic by any standard.

The Swiss Army evaluated the Luger pistol and after a change to the more potent 7.65 mm Luger cartridge adapted it as its military sidearm, named the Ordonnanzpistole 00 or OP00.

Next the Luger pistol was accepted by the German Navy, and in 1908 (P-08) by the German Army after the caliber was changed to 9 mm Luger as the 7.65 mm Luger cartridge was considered as being too weak.

The Luger P-08 was the standard sidearm for the German army during both world wars, but was being replaced by the Walther P38 by 1942. By that time the Luger pistol was simply too expensive for military use due to its high standard of manufacturing. By that time Walther was manufacturing both the Walther P38 and the Luger P-08.

Reasons for the demise of the Luger pistols military career have been its dislike of dirt and dust resulting in malfunctions and its inability to fire various types of ammunition as it was designed for a specific power level. The Walther P-38 was less problematic in these fields.

Although obsolete in many ways today, the Luger is still sought after by collectors both for its sleek design, good accuracy, great durability and to some extent by its connection to Nazi Germany. In Switzerland, the OP00 is still being used in sports shooting events because of its accuracy.

Production of the Luger P-08 ended when Walther refurbished a lot of Lugers in 1999 for the pistol's 100 years anniversary.

Thousands of Lugers were brought back as souvenirs by American GIs after World War II, and are still in circulation. Modern look-alike pistols are built by several companies.

Operation

The Luger uses a jointed arm (the joint is sometimes called a knee) that locks in the extended position. Upon recoiling with the barrel, a cam strikes the joint, causing the arm to hinge and the cartridge case to extract, beginning the firing sequence again.