Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen (), or simply known as Walther, is a German firearm manufacturer, and a subsidiary of the PW Group. Founded by Carl Walther in 1886, the company has manufactured firearms and air guns at its facility in Germany for more than 100 years. Walther Arms, Inc. is the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Walther business unit and is based in

Fort Smith, Arkansas Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

History

The history of Walther started with the factory created by Matthias Conrad Pistor, the chief armorer of the Kassel Armory. Pistor is the ancestor of the Walther family. This plant was operating in 1780 and made pistols and other weapons. The granddaughter of Gustave Wilhelm Pistor married August Theodore Walther, whose son Carl Wilhelm Freund established the factory that employed apprentice Carl Walther. This small shop was established in 1886 in Zella-Mehlis, in what is today

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

. The company originally manufactured hunting and target rifles. Then in 1888, he married Minna Georgine Pickert, daughter of Christian Friedrich Pickert, from the well-established revolver manufacturer "Arminius Waffenwerk", in the same town. Walther Model 8

It was not until 1908 that, under the initiative of Fritz Walther, the oldest son of Carl Walther, they began to make pistols. Models 1 to 5 and 7 to 9 were in calibers

.25 ACP The .25 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol) (6.35×16mmSR) is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled centerfire pistol cartridge introduced by John Browning John Moses Browning (January 23, 1855 – November 26, 1926) was an American firearm designe ...

(6.35mm) and

.32 ACP .32 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol, also known as .32 Automatic) is a centerfire pistol cartridge. It is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled cartridge developed by firearms designer John Browning, initially for use in the FN M1900 semi-automatic pi ...

(7.65mm). The Model 6 was Walther's first attempt at a 9mm Luger pistol. It used blowback rather than a

locked breech Locked breech is the design of a breech-reloading firearm's action. This is important in understanding how a self-reloading firearm works. In the simplest terms, the locked breech is one way to slow down the opening of the breech of a self-reloadi ...

and proved unsuccessful, with only around 1,000 made. Its rarity has made it highly sought after on the collectors market. In 1929 Walther began to make the popular Walther PP ''Polizeipistole'' (police pistol) models. Walther followed this in 1931 with the first PPKs (''Polizeipistole Kriminalmodell'', or Police Pistol Detective Model). Walther manufactured both PP and PPKs in

.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...

(the most common caliber),

.380 ACP The .380 ACP (9×17mm) ( Automatic Colt Pistol) is a rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridge developed by firearms designer John Moses Browning. The cartridge headspaces on the mouth of the case.Wilson, R. K. ''Textbook of Automatic Pisto ...

and a minimal number in

. The PP models were the first mass-produced pistols with stamped parts. Still, the overall increase in dependability and high production quality with lower relative manufacturing costs made them the best option to replace the P-08 Luger. In 1938,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

awarded the contract for that replacement to Walther for the 9mm P38. A sick Polish survivor in the Hannover-Ahlem concentration camp receives medicine from a German Red Cross worker

A sick Polish survivor in the Hannover-Ahlem concentration camp receives medicine from a German Red Cross worker

From 1942 until 1945, the company used slave labour at the

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

, and operated its own factory at the camp. With his factory destroyed in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and Zella-Mehlis in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...

, Walther was reduced to just a collection of designs and patents. Fritz Walther started anew and began manufacturing in

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

in 1953.Keefe, Mark A., IV "Walther. Carl Walther." ''

American Rifleman ''American Rifleman'' is a United States-based monthly shooting and firearms interest publication, owned by the National Rifle Association (NRA). It is the 33rd-most-widely-distributed consumer magazine and the NRA's primary magazine. The magazi ...

'' October 2013 pp.64-68&110-114 The company resumed production of the P38 (renamed the P1) in 1957 to equip the new West German Army, the

Bundeswehr The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

, with sidearms. When Fritz Walther died in December 1966, his son, Karl-Heinz, took over the company, concentrating on the sports sector. In 1993, Umarex Sportwaffen (now part of PW Group) of

Arnsberg Arnsberg (; wep, Arensperg) is a town in the Hochsauerland county, in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the location of the Regierungsbezirk Arnsberg administration and one of the three local administration offices of the Hoch ...

, Germany, acquired Walther. It continued to manufacture under the Walther name in Ulm and Arnsberg. The German Walther company is known as Carl Walther Sportwaffen. In 1999, the U.S.-based Smith & Wesson company became the authorized importer for Walther Firearms. In 2012, the PW Group formed a new subsidiary, Walther Arms, Inc., located in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to take over the distribution of Walther arms in the United States.

Products

Handguns

* Walther OSP * Walther GSP * Walther SSP * Walther Olympia * Walther SP22 *

Walther Model 4 Walther is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German form of Walter, which is derived from the Old High German ''Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari'' -"warrior". The name was fir ...

* Walther Model 8 * Walther Model 9 * Walther PP *

Walther PPK The Walther PP (german: Polizeipistole, or police pistol) series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols, developed by the German arms manufacturer Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen. It features an exposed hammer, a traditional double-a ...

Walther P38 The Walther P38 (originally written Walther P.38) is a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol that was developed by Carl Walther GmbH as the service pistol of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of World War II. It was intended to replace the costly Luger P08 ...

Walther TPH The Walther TP and TPH handguns are extremely compact double-action lightweight semi-automatic pistols in .22 Long Rifle and .25 ACP calibers. Pistols in this size range are sometimes referred to as pocket pistols, or ''Taschen Pistolen'' in Germa ...

* Walther P1 * Walther P4 *

Walther P5 The Walther P5 is a 9mm semi-automatic pistol developed in the mid-1970s by the German small arms manufacturer Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen. It was designed with the German police forces in mind, who sought to replace existing 7.65mm pistols ...

* Walther P88/Compact *

Walther P99 The Walther P99 () is a semi-automatic pistol developed by the German company Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen of Ulm for law enforcement, security forces and the civilian shooting market as a replacement for the Walther P5 and the P88. The P99 an ...

* Walther P22 * Walther PDP *

Walther PPS The Walther PPS (''Polizei-Pistole Schmal'' / Police Pistol Slim) is a semi-automatic pistol developed by the German company Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen of Ulm for concealed carry for civilians and plainclothes law enforcement personnel. It ...

* Walther PK380 * Walther PPQ * Walther Creed * Walther Q5 Match * Walther PPX * Walther CCP * Walther FP60 *

Walther Q4 SF Walther is a masculine given name and a surname. It is a German language, German form of Walter (name), Walter, which is derived from the Old High German ''Walthari'', containing the elements ''wald'' -"power", "brightness" or "forest" and ''hari' ...

* Walther WMP

Rifles, shotguns and submachine guns

;Submachine guns * Walther MPK/MPL ;Shotguns *

Walther automatic shotgun The Walther automatic shotgun is a German self-loading shotgun that was produced by Walther. It resembles the Browning Auto-5 in design. History The shotgun uses designs by Fritz Walther and Georg Walther patented in 1918. Original production w ...

;Air Rifles * Walther LGR * Walther LGV * Walther LG300 * Walther LG400 ;Firearm Rifles *

Gewehr 41 The Gewehr 41 (German for: rifle 41), commonly known as the G41(W) or G41(M), denoting the manufacturer (Walther or Mauser), are two distinct and different battle rifles manufactured and used by Nazi Germany during World War II. They were large ...

Gewehr 43 The Gewehr 43 or Karabiner 43 (abbreviated G43, K43, Gew 43, Kar 43) is a 7.92×57mm Mauser caliber semi-automatic rifle developed by Germany during World War II. The design was based on that of the earlier G41(W), but incorporated an improved ...

* MKb 42(W) * Walther G22 * Walther WA 2000

References

External links

Carl Walther
official German brand website (German).
Carl Walther
, official German brand website (English).
Walther Arms, Inc.
official U.S. brand website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Walther Arms Arnsberg Companies based in Baden-Württemberg Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia Defence companies of Germany Firearm manufacturers of Germany Knife manufacturing companies Neuengamme concentration camp Ulm Companies involved in the Holocaust