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The serial is 305178, not 35xxx, so it is fairly early in the war era. They started at 260000, where the Behorden model left off, and went to around 600000. The very late models omitted both the manual safety and the cocking/decocking lever.
I understand that the pre-production models had no manual safety. The one used was installed at the request of the Luftwaffe, which was to be the major customer. I have not been able to locate a picture of the early "no safety" model, but at least one other person has confirmed that it existed.
I believe the story because the safety is both backward (compared with every other such pistol) and totally superfluous. Maybe the answer is that the pistol was intended for parachute troopers, so a "make safe without decocking" mechanism was thought useful. (In the German service, parachute and glider troops were part of the air force, not the army.)
Naturally, any engraved German gun of the era is often thought to be a special presentation piece for Hitler or some other high ranking officer or politician. Of couse, such guns were made and presented, but they were always engraved with the name of the honoree and the occasion of the presentation, plus they are not just military guns gussied up. They are almost always special pistols made up for the purpose.
I say all this just to alert newbies that gun show gurus often try to pass engraved pistols such as this one off as presentation pistols. Sometimes, they even have an engraver add a famous name. Göring is a favorite, but Fatty might not have been amused at the wondrous variations of his name.
Jim
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