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German shotguns made in GDR
SCOUT5
Member Posts: 16,182 ✭✭✭✭
I've ran across a couple of shotguns lately with made in GDR on them. one was a Merkel the other a Simson Suhl. Is this an East German mark made during their time in the USSR?
Any concerns with guns made there, good or bad?
Any concerns with guns made there, good or bad?
Comments
Because of various laws restricting trade, with the countries behind the Iron Curtain. Guns made in East Germany, weren't commonly found here in the States.
They had a good reputation for being quality guns. Highly though of in Europe countries. That didn't have the restrictive import laws like the U.S. did.
They just had the misfortune to be in the East Zone when the country was divided up at the end of the war.
Merkel is still in business, although under Arab ownership.
I found this one interesting, I just don't have the cash right now. Seems well made and I like the double triggers. Needs more choke in one of the barrels to be real useful to me.
http://www.GunBroker.com/item/649913489
I passed on a Merkel made in GDR at a good price that I now wish I had bought.
Merkel and Simson were established quality gunmakers before the Nazis took over and long before the Communists took over.
They just had the misfortune to be in the East Zone when the country was divided up at the end of the war.
Merkel is still in business, although under Arab ownership.
Other than the names, there was no connection, between pre W W II Merkel and Simson companies. And the ones, in post W W II East Germany, who had the same names. The East German ones, were communist state enterprises. Who used the Merkel and Simson names as honorifics, to the pre W W II Merkel and Simson companies.
Completely different, from Walther in West Germany. Where family members rebuilt the original company.
The quality was my concern, rufe says they kept quality up.
As rufe already said, almost all of the production was exported to western Europe, so quality standards were high. In the old ComBloc, goods from East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary were in high demand due to their superior quality.
Russian goods on then other hand were built to standards (declining):
Aerospace/Nuclear
Military
Foreign export to the West
Domestic consumption
Export to Satellite nations
Needless to say, if you lived in Bulgaria that Soviet built TV set you spent ten years saving for was not exactly a Sony Trinitron!