In 1945, at the end of World War II, a penniless man named Esmond Heckler (Esmond Heckler) returned to his hometown of Oberndorf, in western Germany -- the site of the Mauser arsenal. -the site of the Mauser Arsenal. Here he meets two good friends, Teodor Koch and Alex Seidel.
Edmund Heckler, 1906.2.2 to 1970.7.2 Theodor Koch, 1905.5.13 to 1976.10.21 Alexius Wilhelm Seidel, 1909 to 1989
Edmund Heckler was the son of Kilian Heckler and Armalie Schropp and moved with his family to Oberndorf in 1914. After graduating from elementary school and attending one year of secondary school, he dropped out of school because of the hardships and worked as an apprentice at the Mauser factory; after completing his apprenticeship, he enrolled in the (Esslingen) Mechanical Manufacturing School in Ellingsen, where he studied for three semesters and then received a certificate of competence. He then worked part-time to earn money and then continued his professional studies. It soon became clear that he had a knack for planning and production management in the field of precision mechanics, especially in the field of chipless molding processes. In his 30s he passed his engineering exams and got a job at Hugo Schneider AG in Berlin, then was quickly promoted to senior engineer and commissioned to organize new factories until the outbreak of World War II, when he built a number of production plants all over Germany, but the war put an end to his dreams of soaring to prominence.
Born in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany, Teodor Koch graduated from high school and took mechanical courses between 1921 and 1924, then studied mechanical engineering at the Ellingen School between 1925 and 1929, where he met the duo of Edmund Heckler and Alex Seidel. In 1929, Koch moved as an engineer to the Mauser Arsenal, the largest arms company in the Oberndorf area, as a business leader in charge of tool and jig manufacturing. The factory was bombed to rubble during the war, and after the war, Germany wasn't allowed to make weapons, so the Mauser Arsenal was disbanded in 1948 and he was left with nothing.
Alex Seidel is the son of Paul Seidel and Josephine Bantle. His father was a mechanic at the Mauser Arsenal, and Seidel grew up in the factory dormitory. After attending university in Ellingen, he passed the Chartered Engineer's examination and was employed by the Mauser factory, where he was assigned to the Development and Design Section as head of the pistol development group and designed the HSc pistol.On April 20, 1945, the Allies took the village of Oberndorf, and Seidel's pistol development group was disbanded, leaving him penniless. In order to make ends meet, he had to work as a longtime foreman for a farmer who raised sheep. Because of his indecision, he lost the opportunity to have the company named after him, and he was later responsible for the design of HK's first pistol, the HK4.
In 1948, the three men, like other villagers, tried to salvage what was worth salvaging from the rubble. They pondered daily where the way out was for their future livelihoods. Heckler first set up a development lab called "Ingenieurbüro Heckler" (Heckler Engineering) at 8 Oberndorf Strasse, and then decided to start a new company. While Seidel was hesitant at first, Heckler and Koch went ahead and registered a new company on the basis of the Heckler Engineering Office. The company contract was signed on December 28, 1949, and the name "Heckler & Koch, Gesellschaft mit beschützungsgesellschaften" was registered as "Heckler & Koch, Gesellschaft mit beschützungsgesellschaften". Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, abbreviated as HK GmbH). The company's administration was located on the second floor of Heckler's house, with a typing room and printing shop on the first floor, while the production shop was located in the basement of an old firefighting equipment warehouse, which was only a few steps away from Heckler's front door, but which they rented after much negotiation with the relevant administrative authorities.
At that time, Germany was not yet allowed to make weapons, so the three company founders planned to start with machinery and equipment for making everyday items. It was at this time that the opportunity came. Because the location of Germany's largest sewing machine company, the Oresden Sewing Machine Company, was in the Soviet-occupied zone at the time, it was difficult for people in the west to buy sewing machines or parts. And according to the Allied agreement, if one builds a civilian enterprise in the field of medical, health care, or household goods, food, and clothing, one can get production licenses, production funds, and supplies. So the founders of HK decided to produce sewing machine parts. Heckler one department to run, finally got the approval, and then with the help of college classmate and good friend Emil Reibel to get the machine tools, set up Heckler Adler sewing machine company, Reibel part-time as a broker. After completing all the formalities, two more workers were recruited, making a total of five people including the founder, and thus, a few years later, the HK company, which was known for producing excellent quality firearms, officially started their business with the production of sewing machine parts, this time in 1950.
HK started with bicycles and household appliances, then office machines and sewing machine parts, and the basement of the equipment warehouse soon became inadequate due to the increasing production. So the company rented an old Reichsarbeitsdienstes shed in Lindenhof, recruited more than 140 new workers, and moved all the machinery and raw materials in. Not only were spare parts produced in this "hut factory", as it was called, but the three engineer-founders also designed and manufactured cutting and stamping tools and precision machining gauges. By 1952, a new large-scale plant was built, and HK said goodbye to the hut era, and the production capacity was expanded accordingly, then the three engineers designed their own drilling machines, grinding machines and special machine tools, and in 1955, the B?hl factory was purchased, and at the same time, a fortuitous opportunity for the founders of the HK company began to return to their old profession - the manufacture of military products. -making military products.
With the confrontation between the Eastern and Western blocs, West Germany had to re-establish its armed forces, so the then Bundeswehr was in desperate need of weaponry. But at the end of the war, all the military industry was either bombed or demolished, and most of the weapons designers ran abroad for their livelihoods, and it was impossible to find appropriate production sites on German soil. Therefore, 100,000 FN FAL rifles, called G1 rifles, were purchased from Belgium in 1956, and then a batch of SIG540s, called G2, were purchased from Switzerland, but still not enough to satisfy the troops' needs. So they sent a delegation of federal officers to Spain to negotiate the purchase of 500 CETME rifles for troop trials, and since the CETME rifles at that time fired the 7.62mm reduced charge NATO round, it was decided that HK would modify them to fire the 7.62mm NATO round. the troop trials were successfully completed in early 1957. in 1958, West Germany reached a licensing agreement with Spain for the production of the improved CETME rifle. In May 1958, the federal government issued an authorization for the production of the CETME to HK, and the improved CETME rifle from HK was named the G3 rifle.
When the G3 rifle was ready to go into production, Rheinmetall, which owns the patent for the roller-locking mechanism, suddenly killed it and threatened to prevent it from going into production, and then, in the Rheinland company, the ability to make. 1960, HK remodeled the B?hl factory, in 1962 merged with Gentzler's Fichingen factory, and then constructed the ?schelbronn factory in 1966, and then built the Eckersheim factory for testing and acceptance in the same year. In 1980, a new, modern plant was built, and HK's activities included not only military and police weapons, hunting and sports weapons, but also precision instrument technology, machine building, electronics and construction facilities. 1976 saw the establishment of the regional headquarters in the USA, HK USA, which specializes in the production of weapons for the USA. (HK USA) specializes in providing excellent and reliable weapons to military units, law enforcement agencies, or the civilian market in the U.S. By the 1980s, the MP5 was popular in the U.S. as the primary assault weapon among law enforcement agencies to combat terrorism.
Despite the international popularity of the G3 and its range of variants such as the MP5, HK was in financial trouble in the 1980s because it had come to a dead end with the G11, a caseless rifle that had been in development since the 1960s, when HK and Noble Explosives*** formed a limited company to first develop caseless ammunition and then to build a new rifle. The caseless bullet, and then made the rifle to fire this bullet, in 1974 after preliminary tests, such as the government's financial support began to further improve. 1977 G11 to participate in the NATO small-caliber rifle selection test, after the defeat again improved, improved during the 1982 to participate in the United States of America's ACR program, to the early 1990s G11's technology to reach the level of equipment, at this time the development of the G11 has been At this time the development of the G11 has lasted more than 20 years. But the end of the Cold War, G11 equipment funds were diverted to the construction of eastern Germany, when the U.S. and canceled the ACR program, HK companies in the G11 invested time and money can not be rewarded, coupled with the government no longer support the military industrial enterprises, HK companies lost the government's funding.
At this point in time, the German banks, HK's breadwinners, took the opportunity to sell HK, and after much prodding and coercion, HK was purchased by a buyer in the U.K. On March 6, 1991, HK became a member of the Royal Ordnance, a U.K.-based armaments company. Despite the change of owner, HK is still one of the best light weapons companies in the world. After being purchased by RO, HK still successively launched a series of new products with excellent performance and reliable quality, such as USP and G36, etc. On January 1, 2000, a brand new weapon was published on the cover of the German Weapons Magazine, which was the first time that HK and RO cooperated in the development of a new product personal defense weapon. --PDW (MP7).