doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com JP Sauer vs. Simson vs. Merkel Post-War

If my memory doesn't fail, the numerous DDR gunmakers were consolidated in the form of a trust, with individual companies remaining more or less autonomious; it was the production of the major parts that was centralized, with most if not all of the barrels made at Sauer, and the actions ar Simson (again, if I'm not mistaken). The variation between guns of the same grade was usually negligeable, but there was some variation of the types of guns made, e.g. Simson made the hunting O/Us, mostly of higher grades, while Merkel made both sports and hunting O/Us. Most smaller firms, like Haenel, were not regarded as highly as Simson/Sauer/Merkel, with the exception of Wolf, and Buchag, the latter generally though of as the "DDR Best".

I think some of us have assumed--perhaps incorrectly--that all the GDR guns were produced at the Ernst Thalmann Werk, which was the old Sauer factory in Suhl. "Buxton's Guide to Foreign Firearms", from 1963, states under the Buhag section: "Thus the famous Merkel and Sauer guns are now made by Ernst Thalmann peoples' works under the brand names Merkel and Fortuna . . . " However, the Buhag section continues: "The sale of Buhag, as well as other Suhl guns, is not handled by any of the several gun works but rather by a state organization known as Deutscher Innen & Aussenhandel . . . " That makes it sounds as if there was more than one factory in operation, although all the guns were marketed through the same state-controlled organization.

I have examples of all three post war guns. A comparison of the three reveals they are indeed essentially identical in every way. Some parts will interchange, some will not (likely due to the small amounts of hand fitting still necessary.) One of the guns actually has both Simson and Sauer names on it. A close look appears as if the Simson name was affixed first with a roll stamp, then partially removed with some machine tool, perhaps like a mill bit, then the other name added on top of all that. It's all rather blurred, but the quality of all the guns is good. I see basically little difference in these guns and pre war Sauers and Merkels I have. My only pre war Simsons are O/U guns, so there is no direct comparison in pre and post war Simsons in my group.

I can't add anything off top of my head, except that this



is exactly how the USSR export of firearms worked.

Chief, to complement your information, here are pictures of three 12 bore guns,
all from the GCR (German Communist Republic). Apart from the cch on one, you
can see they are the same. Two Simsons and a Merkel:






JC