Today, we're going to take a look at a really neat East German made PP. I don't want to go into a full blown History lesson, but I do need to give you some broad strokes background so that you know what you're looking at.

At the end of WWII, American forces had occupied the German city of Suhl, where several major German arms companies had factories. However, the city was soon turned over to the Soviets as it was in their occupation zone. Well, you know those communists; why let captured and perfectly good weapons factories go to waste? It wasn't long before East Germany was established (October 7, 1949) and they soon set to producing weapons to protect the proletariat from those evil Capitalists in the West. Being communists, they collectivized the various factories into one entity and named it the "Volkseigener Betrieb (VEB) Ernst-Thälmann-Werk" or, in English, the "State owned Ernst Thaelmann Factory", Ernst Thaelmann being the leader of the German communist party from 1925 until his imprisonment in 1933 (executed in 1944). One of the factories that fell under this umbrella was located in Zella-Mehlis, just north of Suhl. During the war, it had been owned by Walther and one of the weapons made there was the PP pistol. So, among other things, the plant started producing new PP's some time in the 1950's Nobody knows exactly how many were made but the highest recorded serial number to date is in the 19K range. It is assumed that these were made for police issue. The one we are going to look at today is one of the first thousand made. Are you still with me? OK, lets get to work.

As we look at this pistol, we'll throw a 1960's Walther PP in some of the pictures for comparison. As an aside, even though the Walther pistol is marked as being made in West Germany, it was actually manufactured by Manurhin in France for Walther. Why? Because the machinery that Walther had been using to make the pistols was now being used by the East Germans to make their pistols! So, you could say that the Eastie made example is more Walther than the Westie Walther. Confused yet?


We'll start with the left side:

The East Germans never gave the pistol a name, just a code 1001-0. It's marked on the left side of the slide along with the caliber 7,65 (.32 Auto). For the most part, the metal is very nicely polished and the entire pistol is nicely blued with a deep luster.

Inspection and firing proofs are on the slide and frame:



At the rear is the final acceptance proof:



The only markings on the right side are the serial number on the slide and frame:



Compared to a .380 Walther from the 1960's:

Overall, it compares very well to the Walther. The finish is the typical Warsaw Pact deep black and, because the metal was nicely polished, it has a lot of shine to it. It's only when we start looking closely at certain details that you see the Eastie is a little crudely made when compared to its Western cousin.

For example, compare the machining in the hole in the hammer (DDR on the left):



Magazine release button, East German first:



West German:

Notice that the slide serrations are a little finer on the Westie too.


The antiglare strip atop the slide on the DDR example (at left) is thinner and nowhere near as nicely executed:



Detail.  DDR at left:



The magazine is numbered to the pistol:

If it looks a little funky to you, that's because it has a film of that wonderful commie cosmoline on it. You can see it glooped in the holes too. As I have no intention of ever firing this, I see no reason to remove it. The internals and the bore (not chrome lined) are also coated in cosmoline.


The grips are a dark brown bakelite with a hint of red flecks and swirls mixed in:

Of course, the "Walther" banner has been deleted.


We'll continue in the next post.

With the slide and grips removed, we can get a look at the internals.
Left side:

Again, note the cosmoline. I love that stuff!

Right side:

Note that the barrel support is blued. Sometimes this is polished down to the bare metal. Also, some of the internal components are in the white. This is the only one I've ever had the chance to disassemble, so I can't say whether or not they are all like this.

The entire pistol has very few visible markings internally. Now, were I to totally disassemble the thing, I might find more but I'm not going to do that. The only markings I notice are a "W" on the left side of the rear strap:



A "1001/2" on the right side of the rear strap:



And an arrow on the bottom rear of the firing pin:

Again, cosmoline makes the surface look rougher than it really is. What you are looking at above are the shaft of the arrow and the feathers at the rear. There is a tip, but it's hidden by the safety axle and I couldn't get a picture of it.

Internally, the DDR pistol shows rougher machining in the nooks and crannies but where it counts, it's just as well machined as the Walther (DDR at top):

Notice the slight difference in the contouring of the ejector. To beat a dead horse, the cosmoline makes the Eastie look like it's rough but it's not.


Inside of slides with DDR at bottom:



Grip plates compared:



Safety levers and serrations compared. I think the plum hue on the East German safety is neat:



Muzzles:



And finally, compared to a 1964 East German Makarov:

By the time this Makarov was produced, any hint of crudity was gone.

The little East German PP is just a really neat little gem from the 1950's. The trigger is just as good as the Walther and racking the slide feels the same. If you were to close your eyes, you really couldn't tell which one was in your hand. No, the detailing isn't as good as the Walther, but it's still pretty nicely done. How well does it shoot and is it reliable? I can't say but I think it's safe to assume that it would function just as well as the Walther. In my experience, East German made firearms are some of the best to come out of the Warsaw Pact. It took me a long time to find this little bugger at a normal price but the stars finally aligned for me. So that's that.


Thanks for your time and I hope you were amused and learned something new!

And as always, thank you Mom. I try every day to live up to what you taught me. I miss you.

Neat, thanks for posting.

I'm more of a Makarov geek but, that it cool!