Steyr 1918 S özel yapım W-r Meister Klaus damgalı 6000 seri numaralı II. Wilhelm’in dönemi (?) hediye olarak verilen tabancalardan biri.
Dear Dr. Saraoglu,
This is indeed a very interesting pistol. It is an Austrian Ordnance Pistol 1912 pattern, it will take the 9mm STEYR round which is still produced in Italy by Fiocci. The interesting thing is that it has a serial number which fits into the military issue of 1918. And it has the military stamping W-n Double Eagle 18 which means that it was taken into military service in 1918. It was made in STEYR. Normally an engraved pistol would be privately owned and perhaps used as a present. It would have no W-n ( = Wien) stamp. So the history of your pistol is quite clear: it was a present to a high ranking personality in the Turkish army – so it was taken out of the normal military production. You know that Austria Hungary and Turkey were allies in the First World War. Emperor Karl visited Turkey – perhaps he had that present in his luggage. There were many acts to show the friendship between Turkey and Austria-Hungary. Rifles and artillery were sent to Turkey and also the other way round ! So there is for example an Austrian manual in which you see that German made Turkish Mauser rifles of 1903 pattern were sent to Austria. So I should say the existence of your pistol is no surprise but a proof of the friendship between Turkey and Austria-Hungary. The situation with Germany is similar. Only a few days ago a new book was published on the Austrian Pistols. It costs 120 EURO. If you are interested please tell me. If you ever come to Austria, especially to Linz you are kindly invited to see a collection of these pistols.
Yours sincerely,
Mag Reinolf Reisinger
Curator of the weapons´collection of Upper Austria
LtCol, Professor
