As I recall the story, the Sauer family slipped out of East Germany when it became apparent to them the best they, as factory owners and therefore class enemies, could hope for under the DDR regime would be to keep their hides. When they left for the West, the drawings and technical data remained behind.
So, as goes the story I've heard, they got an exemplar of the Sauer production and went to work measuring off it and reconstructing the design and process from memory, then undertaking to put this gun into production. So, the West German Sauer design is close, but not exactly the same, as the East German. Some of the parts should fit - last year I had to replace a broken hammer spring in my 1979 Simson, and Merkel USA was able to supply one that needed minor fitting at most by my gunsmith to fit and work. To compete in the Western market - against the entire Free World, so to speak - the Western guns' fit, finish and workmanship had to be superior to the East's. In the East, once you hit your quota you were good - insisting on excellence and nice quality beyond meeting quota had sort of a capitalist aroma about them and didn't go far. We didn't see too many East guns because they were subject to a punitive tariff.
As I further recall it, the deal that really made the new Western Sauer company viable was Mr. Weatherby getting them to make his then-new rifles for the American market.
And, yes, these Merkels are worth something. Not as much as a post-reunification Merkel, but they are good solid guns. Governed by communists or not, the workers in Suhl were still Germans.
