Why Walther?

[ErichS]

Why did the NSDAP hitch their cart in such ernist to Walther as oposed to the many other German arms makers. Was it due to their inventive product line or did Walther represent the new Germany as the party did?

Thoughts?

[John Pepera]

007 told them to do it.

[lew07]

007 told them to do it.

[ww2gunguy]

Because Walther made the finest guns in Europe at the time

or because 007 told them to

[crowback]

Walther

Walter was already making handguns for the German police prior to ww2

[ErichS]

Walter was already making handguns for the German police prior to ww2

Yes and so was Sauer and Mauser. I think there was possibly a more political reason. In an article by J Wotka he mentions that Fritz Walther for example was a member of the party prior to Hitlers assumption to power.

[james m]

Walther really hit the big time with their Model PP. It was pretty much universally accepted as the finest pistol of its type at the time. Yes Mauser,Sauer etc. had decent competative models but nothing caught everyones attention to the extent of the PP.
Also remember that Walther attempted to capitalize on this popularity by basically scaling up the PP as a 1st attempt at a replacement military pistol for the Luger. However; They had to change their design when it was determined that the PP as originally designed wasn't up to 9mm parabellum pressures hence the birth of the P38.
Jim

[JoeW]

Thanks Erich.

Jim, Mauser and Sauer really presented no decent competitive designs to the double-action PP/PPK system. Mauser was stuck with their 1914/34 model and content to crank them out while waiting to make a bundle with the coming rearmament program. Even thought they were a family owned business, the management of J.P. Sauer and Sons was a generation removed from the advanced design and marketing of the Walther brothers. They stuck with the well made but older single action semi-auto design of the Behorden model, but saw the future the Walthers had patented. Fritz and his brothers saw the hand writing on the wall and realized that in politics lay the road to recovery of the moribund firearms business in Thuringia. Walther used political connections in Thuringia like Wilhelm Frick and sold Himmler on the PP/PPK design in Bavaria (PDM models).

[crowback]

I agree that Walther was a good dues paying party member. Some things never change
QUOTE=ErichS;5630015]Yes and so was Sauer and Mauser. I think there was possibly a more political reason. In an article by J Wotka he mentions that Fritz Walther for example was a member of the party prior to Hitlers assumption to power.[/QUOTE]

[ErichS]

Thanks Joe for your educated and well informed answer as to why Walther was the favorite handgun of the NSDAP.

Erich

[james m]

Joe:
As I said in my initial statement above Walther really had surpassed everyone with the PP design.
Due to this; Their getting the contract for a Luger replacemet was a slam dunk even when the initial 9mm PP didn't meet requirements. The other companies had decent pistols,I've owned and shot many of them over the years, but they just aren't in the same league as the PP. I think we're saying the same thing from a slightly different perspective.
Jim

[Alan Smith]

Joe,

Any truth to the story that the Walther brothers were, at least in part, responsible for getting the Simson family's business nationalized? The story I have seen is that the Walthers allegedly complained (in writing) to NSDAP officials about the Jewish firm (Simson) getting military contracts . . . a situation which eventually resulted in the Simsons being divested of ownership of Simson & Cie, Suhl and the Simson family leaving Germany for the U.S.A.

BTW: I seem to recall years ago some collector/researcher had located Simson heirs in the NYC area; he was supposed to do a book about them and their very interesting family history of supplying the German military with arms for 100 years or so. Did anything ever happen on this research and/or book?