Königlich Württembergische Gewehrfabrik

Creation

The armoury was created when Württemberg, as part of the Confederation of the Rhine, needed to outfit troops for Napoleon Bonaparte. Workshops, to get independent from foreign weapon shipments, were first created 1805 in the steel mills of Christophsthal near Freudenstadt (Black Forest); stocks were added in the Württemberg arsenal in Ludwigsburg.

King Frederick I ordered those independent workshops to be merged in a former monastery 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 muskets Modèle 1777, caliber.69".

1864-1874

In the war against Denmark in 1864, the superiourity of Breech-loading weapons 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, a variant of the Dreyse needle gun 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. 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.

The factory began urgent upgrading of existing rifles to the Dreyse system from 1867, requiring an increase in staff from 50 to 200, though the factory remained unprofitable.

1873, after the Franco-Prussian War, those rifles were adapted to the new standard (system Beck); in 1875, the rifles were replaced by the Mauser Model 1871.