Germany - Forgotten Weapons

Benke-Thiemann Folding Luger Holster

September 21, 2016 Ian McCollum 24

While most major pistols made before the 1930s had some type of shoulder stock available as an option, the Luger had much more variety of stocks than most others. In addition to the several types […]

Kalashnikov vs Sturmgewehr

September 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 86

The German Sturmgewehr and the Soviet Kalashnikov are widely and rightly considered the two most influential and iconic of the modern military rifles. While the German rifle certainly influenced the Soviet design, the two were […]

Frankenau Purse Gun

September 15, 2016 Ian McCollum 15

Patented in 1876 in both the US and UK as well as Germany, the Frankenau purse gun was a very small 5-shot, 5mm pinfire revolver hidden inside what appeared to be a normal small coin […]

RIA: H&K SL8, The Civilian G36 (Video)

September 7, 2016 Ian McCollum 37

The SL-8 was Heckler & Koch’s civilianized version of the G36 military rifle. There was, unsurprisingly, a major interest in semiautomatic civilian copies of the G36, but H&K was in a difficult position to meet […]

RIA: Luger 1902 Carbine (Video)

September 2, 2016 Ian McCollum 26

With the advent of successful self-loading pistols, one of the additional markets that many companies tried to appeal to was the compact carbine. Self-loading rifles in proper rifle cartridges would not be developed as quickly […]

RIA: Walther Model 6 (Video)

September 1, 2016 Ian McCollum 53

Wather introduced its first pistol in 1908, creatively named the Model 1. With the outbreak of World War One, the company was offering the Model 4 pistol for military use. This was a .32 ACP […]

RIA: Mauser 1913 Selbstladegewehr Sporter (Video)

August 30, 2016 Ian McCollum 50

Paul Mauser spent nearly 20 years attempting to perfect a self-loading rifle for military service. He came closest with this, his 1913 patent model, which was used by German balloon and aircraft fliers as the […]

RIA: Mauser Model 1878 “Zig-Zag” Revolvers (Video)

August 25, 2016 Ian McCollum 44

After making their big break with the adoption of the Model 1871 Mauser rifle by the newly unified German government, the Mauser brothers, took a shot at getting the handgun contract for the military as […]

RIA: Prototype Mauser HSv Pistols (Video)

August 24, 2016 Ian McCollum 35

When the German military finally could no longer tolerate the expense of the P.08 Luger in the late 1930s, they held a trial of possible replacements. The three main entrants were BSW with a gas-operated […]

RIA: Prototype Gustloff 206 Rifle

August 17, 2016 Ian McCollum 49

German arms development during World War II was quite the chaotic mess, in many ways. While it is not uncommon for different service branches to have independent procurement systems, in fascist-era Germany this was coupled […]