{"id":992151,"date":"2026-08-10T02:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T02:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/992151\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T02:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T02:12:25","slug":"adolf-hitlers-42m-luger-the-most-valuable-pistol-on-earth-at-center-of-sensational-court-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/992151\/","title":{"rendered":"Adolf Hitler’s $42M Luger \u2014 the ‘most valuable pistol on Earth’ \u2014 at center of sensational court battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cmost valuable pistol on Earth\u201d \u2014 a reputed $42 million Luger that\u00a0belonged to Adolf Hitler <\/a>\u2014 is at the center of a sensational court battle involving an appliance repair man and a cop in Argentina.<\/p>\n

The weapon \u2014 described as the \u201cHoly Grail of firearms\u2019\u2019 \u2014\u00a0 was allegedly swiped during a SWAT-style raid by masked officers at repair man Juan Pablo Ruppel\u2019s home in rural Buenos Aires province in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a one of a kind piece, and there is no question that it is the most valuable semiautomatic handgun in the world,\u2019\u2019 the 48-year-old dad of four told The Post in his first interview since a recent court ruling in the case.<\/p>\n

Juan Pablo Ruppel holding a Luger pistol.<\/p>\n

Police officers in tactical gear stand in a line, holding riot shields.<\/p>\n

Ruppel \u2014\u00a0 who inherited the\u00a0haunting historic \u201cghost of the Third Reich\u2019\u2019 from his German great-uncle and former Hitler bodyguard<\/a>, Hans Ruppel \u2014 had been accused of stealing minor items such as plates, glasses and cutlery at the time of the raid, his suit says.<\/p>\n

He was never charged over the allegations \u2014 but that didn\u2019t stop a crooked cop from swiping the alleged legendary Luger from his home, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The make of the gun, a\u00a0Luger Parabellum .45 calibre No.5, is\u00a0one of only five 1907 prototypes forged by the late famed\u00a0Georg Luger \u2014 and already\u00a0so legendary that\u00a0it was mentioned by Michael Douglas\u2019 character Gordon Gekko in the hit 1987 flick \u201cWall Street\u201d as \u201cthe rarest pistol in the world.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the Hitler provenance<\/a> that makes it an invaluable \u2014 even if chilling \u2014 piece of history, experts said.<\/p>\n

Four Luger No.5 pistols with wooden grips.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo understand the stakes here, you have to understand that this isn\u2019t just a beautiful firearm; it is a ghost of the Third Reich, the most valuable pistol on Earth,\u201d said British investigative journalist Laurence de Mello who is leading the family\u2019s independent investigation into the missing gun as they continue to search for it.<\/p>\n

The gun\u2019s\u00a01979 firearms owner license\u00a0listed in\u00a0 Argentina\u2019s national registry has\u00a0a Buenos Aires address \u2014 where heinous Nazi \u201cAngel of Death\u2019\u2019 <\/a>Josef Mengele lived for more than two years before fleeing the Argentine capital.<\/p>\n

The Luger No. 5 also is described in an Interpol notice as having the inscription \u201cAdolf Hitler\u201d on it.<\/p>\n

Hans Ruppel in old age.<\/p>\n

Juan Pablo says Hans told him that it belonged to Hitler <\/a>and was taken to Argentina in 1948 with the help of the country\u2019s president at the time, Juan Domingo Peron.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been saying the same thing for 10 years:\u00a0If someone offered me either $50 million or getting the gun back, I would choose the gun every time,\u201d Ruppel told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut since it still hasn\u2019t turned up and I can\u2019t keep waiting, I want the government to pay up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruppel is suing the Buenos Aires Ministry of Security for compensation for the gun, which was never returned to him after it disappeared while in police custody.<\/p>\n

Hans Ruppel in SS Division Leibstandarte uniform (third from the left).<\/p>\n

A civil court this month held the agency liable for $15,000 plus interest for now, pending an independent expert\u2019s analysis of its current worth \u2014 which Ruppel\u2019s lawsuit puts at around $42 million.<\/p>\n

The two cops who led the raid on<\/a> Ruppel\u2019s home are due to go on trial on criminal charges of aggravated theft and breach in the duties of a public officer in March next year.<\/p>\n

Ruppel told The Post that his great-uncle Hans \u2014 who was his grandfather\u2019s brother and had no children of his own \u2014 gave him the Luger No. 5 as a birthday present.<\/p>\n

Document of \u201cAuthorization for possession of a weapon of war\u201d issued by the Ministry of Defense, National Registry of Arms to Ruppel Hans.<\/p>\n

Hans Ruppel had served in the SS Division Leibstandarte \u2014 Hitler\u2019s personal bodyguard unit \u2014 during the Second World War and fled to Argentina in 1945.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0was not involved in Mengele\u2019s war crimes and was never accused in connection with Nazi atrocities during World War II, De Mello said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 25 years tracking post-war Nazi escape routes into South America, I know exactly how high-profile figures, U-boats and priceless assets slipped into Argentina,\u2019\u2019 she told The Post.<\/p>\n

Document detailing the specifications of a \u201cPistola\u201d (Pistol), model \u201cParabellum\u201d by DWM, caliber 45, dated June 18, 1979, and signed by Luis F. Demierre.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding Georg Luger\u2019s pristine Parabellum .45 Calibre No. 5 \u2014 the holy grail of firearms \u2014 inside a rural electrician\u2019s home is no surprise to me,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is incredible, is that provincial cops conducted a raid on a false premise to get it and knew exactly what they were looking for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took it into state custody and the state simply cannot find it. This smells worse than one dirty cop.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cmost valuable pistol on Earth\u201d \u2014 a reputed $42 million Luger that\u00a0belonged to Adolf Hitler \u2014 is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":992152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[38907,2841,281,42423,50,103,107],"class_list":["post-992151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-adolf-hitler","tag-argentina","tag-court","tag-guns","tag-news","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117068795199569654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=992151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/992151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/992152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=992151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=992151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=992151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}