Germany

Suhl’s iron ore and woodland supplied metal and fuel for its ironworks, while the Lauter valley provided water power.^{1, 2} Two iron hammers are recorded in the town around 1365, and another in 1437.³ A trade road across the Thuringian Forest helped Suhl sustain its markets and commercial links.⁴ Firearms were made there before 1500, and muskets became an important product for domestic and foreign armies.⁵

Suhl’s barrel- and gunsmiths’ guild appears in records of 1555, and in 1563 Count Georg Ernst of Henneberg-Schleusingen granted the gunsmiths guild privileges.^{6, 7} Zella became a firearms centre in the second half of the sixteenth century and in 1629 established its own guild of gunsmiths and locksmiths.⁸ During the Thirty Years War Suhl supplied opposing armies, and in October 1634 imperial troops under Isolani destroyed the town.⁹ Between 1756 and 1760 its gunsmiths sold 25,000 guns to Prussia.¹⁰

Other German territories developed their own military factories: Amberg’s factory worked mainly for the Bavarian army from 1801 to 1919, and Oberndorf’s arms industry began with the Royal Württemberg factory in 1811.^{11, 12} Suhl became part of Prussia in 1815.¹³ A school for military gunsmiths opened there in 1840, and factories including Haenel, Simson, Merkel and Sempert & Krieghoff grew up alongside Sauer’s older business.¹⁴ The Merkel founders brought different skills to the trade: Albert Oskar and Gebhard were master gunsmiths, and Karl Paul was a master stockmaker.¹⁵

The First World War cut Merkel off from its foreign markets.¹⁶ After the war its exports again reached 28 countries, although the company did not fully recover until 1924.¹⁶ Before the Second World War its sales offices served markets including Argentina, France, Norway, Spain and the United States.¹⁷ The Nazis expropriated the Simson family, and Gauleiter Fritz Saukel transferred its assets to the Wilhelm Gustloff Foundation.¹⁸ From 1939 Merkel supplied parts for engines, carbines and rangefinders, and hunting guns took a smaller place in its wartime production.¹⁷

American troops occupied Suhl on 3 April 1945, and Soviet troops took over on 3 July.¹⁹ Merkel resumed hunting-gun production by the end of that year.²⁰ In 1947 factories including Krieghoff’s works were demolished, and Simson’s machinery went to the Soviet Union as reparations.²¹ In 1948 Merkel’s founding families were expropriated.²²

Krieghoff restarted in Ulm in 1950 with 13 employees.²³ Manufacturers arriving from Thuringia, among them Anschütz, Krieghoff and Walther, prompted the establishment of Ulm’s proof house.²⁴ In Suhl, the state-owned VEB Ernst-Thälmann-Werk consolidated Haenel, Sauer, Merkel, Greifelt and other former businesses in 1954.²⁵ The works made hunting guns, airguns, sporting rifles, gauges, forgings and sewing machines, and later expanded hunting-gun manufacture to earn foreign currency.²⁶

Krieghoff introduced its K-32 competition shotgun in 1957.²⁷ A proposal from an American-German consortium to develop the Remington Model 32 design for clay shooting helped turn the company towards that market.²⁸ In Suhl, the state arms business merged with Simson’s vehicle and equipment works in December 1968 and entered the IFA two-wheel-vehicle combine in 1970.²⁹ The businesses separated again after the political changes of 1989–1990.³⁰

Merkel’s present Suhl factory combines hand manufacture with cold-forged barrels and hand engraving.³¹ Krieghoff International imports and services hunting and sporting guns through a dealer network in the United States and Canada.³² Blaser Group’s American importer, established in 2006 and based in San Antonio, serves the group’s German firearms brands alongside Rigby and MINOX.³³ The JSM represents German makers of hunting guns, sporting guns and ammunition and supplies its members with official production and foreign-trade statistics.^{34, 35}