It was widely used in other countries as a military service pistol and by police forces. The Luger was the standard service pistol of Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Brazil, Bolivia, and Bulgaria. The Luger was officially adopted by the Swiss military in 1900, the Imperial German Navy in 1906 and the German Army in 1908. It was followed by the ' Marinepistole 1904' for the Imperial German Navy. The first production model was known as the Modell 1900 Parabellum.
It was meant to be an improvement of the Borchardt C-93 pistol, and was initially produced as the Parabellum Automatic Pistol, Borchardt-Luger System by the German arms manufacturer Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM). The design was first patented by Georg Luger. The Luger was produced in several models and by several nations from 1898 to 1949.
The Pistole Parabellum or Parabellum-Pistole ( Pistol Parabellum), commonly known as just the Luger or Luger P08, is a toggle-locked recoil-operated semi-automatic pistol.
