The (English: Royal Württemberg Gun Factory) was a state-owned firearms manufacturer from 1812 to 1874 and the predecessor of the

Mauser Mauser, originally the Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik, was a German arms manufacturer. Their line of bolt-action rifles and semi-automatic pistols was produced beginning in the 1870s for the German armed forces. In the late 19th and ...

arms manufacturer.

Creation

The armoury was created when Württemberg, as part of the

Confederation of the Rhine The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austrian Empire, Austria ...

, needed to outfit troops for

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. Workshops, to get independent from foreign weapon shipments, were first created 1805 in the steel mills of Christophsthal near Freudenstadt (

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

); stocks were added in the Württemberg

arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Ludwigsburg Ludwigsburg (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Ludisburg'') is a Cities of Germany, city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg (district), Lu ...

. King Frederick I ordered those independent workshops to be merged in a former

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

in Oberndorf am Neckar on 31 July 1811. This newly created factory began production on 6 November 1812 with about 100 employees. The first weapons were variants of the

flintlock Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...

s Modèle 1777,

caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel Gauge ( ...

.69".

1857

In April 1856,

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

and Württemberg were to adopt a new

rifle A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...

using

percussion lock The percussion cap, percussion primer, or caplock, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. Its invention gave ...

s and

Minié ball The Minié ball, or Minie ball, is a type of hollow-based bullet designed by Claude-Étienne Minié for muzzle-loaded, rifled muskets. Invented in 1846 shortly followed by the Minié rifle, the Minié ball came to prominence during the Crime ...

s for their troops of the VIII Army Corps. This led to the 1857 (union rifle, M/1857) in cal. .547". The rifle for the

line infantry Line infantry was the type of infantry that formed the bulk of most European land armies from the mid-17th century to the mid-19th century. Maurice of Nassau and Gustavus Adolphus are generally regarded as its pioneers, while Henri de la Tour d ...

was, with minor modifications in the sights, adopted by all three states; pistols and

carbine A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges. The smaller size and ligh ...

s for the

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

and sharpshooter rifles for the were, however, developed by each state on its own.

1864-1874

In the war against Denmark in 1864, the superiourity of

Breech-loading weapon A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ...

s became apparent; so, starting 1865, experiments began to adapt the Vereinsgewehr to a breech-loading rifle; amongst these, a trapdoor rifle-construction (system Milbank-Amsler), which should have been adopted. In joint developments with

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, a variant of the

Dreyse needle gun Dreyse may refer to: * Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse (1787–1867), German firearms inventor * Hitch Dreyse, a fictional List of Attack on Titan characters, character in ''Attack on Titan'' (''Shingeki no Kyojin'') series who serves in the military po ...

was proposed and adopted as in 1867, the danger of a Prussian-French conflict arose. The system Dreyse was adopted on 5 May 1867; 6,000 rifles were delivered by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. While instruction on the needle-ignition rifles was completed at the end of 1867, weapons for the 33,000 Württemberg troops lacked. So, muzzle-loading rifles were adapted to needle-ignition systems, as well as new rifles, a variant of the prussian M/1862 with the short lock of the M/65 were built. 1873, after the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

, those rifles were adapted to the new standard (system Beck); in 1875, the rifles were replaced by the Mauser Model 1871.

Sale

The Regal Württemberg Rifle Factory, between the end of the

Napoleonic wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

and 1850, had only 50 employees and an output of about 200 weapons per year; even in the decades 1850-1870, when the smooth-bore

s were replaced by rifles and 1868–1871, when 200 employees built the needle-ignition rifles, the factory was in deficit. When the brothers Mauser made an offer for the factory, as the Rifle M/71 was adopted by most of the armies in the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

, Württemberg sold them the factory on 20-FEB-1874.

then became one of the most important firearms manufacturers in the first half of the 20th century until it was sold in 1995.

Literature

* Hans-Dieter Götz: Militärgewehre und Pistolen der deutschen Staaten 1800-1870, 2nd edition, Stuttgart, 1996,

External links

Vereinsgewehr

replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

by Davide Pedersoli {{DEFAULTSORT:Koniglich Wurttembergische Gewehrfabrik Firearm manufacturers of Germany Military history of Württemberg Manufacturing companies established in 1811 Companies disestablished in 1874 German companies established in 1811 1874 disestablishments in Germany 19th-century establishments in Württemberg 19th-century disestablishments in Württemberg