"Featured herein is an extremely rare original 4-page, 2-sided Spanish language advertising folder/flyer. The flyer was found inserted in an equally rare Spanish language BERLIN 1902 PARABELLUM purple cover, gold lettering instruction manual in Germany. This flyer is advertising an experimental Model 1900 Luger carbine rig, being a very limited production Model 1900 7 inch “pencil” barrel 30 caliber BUG proofed commercial Luger. This is the very first Luger with an experimental “push button” stock iron attachment with only about 50 or less produced in the low 10,000 serial number range, which is the forerunner of the 1902 carbine with finalized lever type stock attachment design. The flyer contains a very unusual and decidedly different leather holster, attached to the push button stock with a rectangular type cover flap vs. the later navy style holster/stock with a tear drop style leather holster cover flap. The earlier holster has never been identified or located although the push button stock and the unusual Luger pistol survive, there is no doubt that the original holster did exist, especially since the navy style holster/stock combination didn’t appear for several years.

The subject flyer is most likely more rare than its subject matter, which itself is extremely rare. This flyer is only mentioned and partially shown in one Luger book and per the author this first Luger carbine design, curiously, was directed toward the South American market. ...The provenance of nearly all these examples to date indicate that that most production was delivered to South American countries... Supportive of this theory is the existence of factory literature written in Spanish depicting these unusual pistols. (Luger: The MultiNational Pistol by C. Kenyon, Jr., p 28-29, Copyright © 1991) There is no doubt as to the contents of the flyer to be of DWM origin, however there is no evidence presented to support the above comments regarding the “factory” origin or printing source of the Spanish language advertising flyer. The flyer does not credit a publisher or printer as does other early DWM literature, such as the DWM C93 Borchardt dark brown cover manuals and the later circa 1902 PARABELLUM colored manual series. These manuals identify the printer as H.S.HERMANN BERLIN. There is, however a tenuous connection between the Spanish flyer and the C93 Borchardt manual and that is a certain three-lobe floweret type logo or icon design on the cover page of both the C93 Borchardt manual and the cover page of the Spanish language flyer. With this commonality one can make the assumption that both the C93 Borchardt manual and the Spanish flier were printed by the same printing house, H.S.HERMANN BERLIN. The Spanish flyer was probably published in 1901, before the 1902 PARABELLUM manuals. There is a rare extant yellow cover Spanish language printing of the C93 Borchardt manual, also with a source printing identification of H.S.HERMANN BERLIN and there is no doubt as to the country promoted by DWM, being Spain, as evidenced by a dealers stamp in the manual, the dealers location being LOGROÑO, SPAIN.

...There was also a series of 175mm barreled guns, numbered from 10010 to 10044 with gaps. It has been suggested that these long barreled guns – which could be obtained with push-button retained stocks – were developed for trials in South America and even supplied to the German navy trials in 1904. (LUGER by John Walter, p 188, Copyright ©1986) It would seem unusual for DWM to print an advertising flyer, in Spanish no less, for a “trials” carbine with a Push Button stock, especially such a limited production item. The final 1902 style Luger carbine with lever type attaching iron stock was mostly sold and merchandised in North America.

There is yet another variation pre-WWI Spanish language commercial Luger manual featuring the 1906 new model 30 cal and 9mm Lugers and the commercial P.08. Apparently DWM thought there was enough interest or sales potential in South America and/or Spain to promote the new model Lugers. One can assume that a Luger instruction manual would be sold with a Luger, therefore with every Spanish language manual discovered a Luger was sold.