The Prussian commissioner for firearms manufacturing, Carl Gottlieb Haenel, began producing bicycles and weapons in 1840 — a combination which was not uncommon at the time as it required similar means of production and skills.

[2] Those included replacement of Mannlicher-style en-bloc clip with a double-stack fixed magazine of their own design (in order not to infringe on Mauser patents).

Deliveries were also made to South Africa, Spain, Japan and the Republic of China through a license agreement with a Belgian company, named Baynard.

[5][6] 1935 saw a dramatic increase in arms production in the build up to World War II and a new automatic firearm with an intermediate cartridge was developed.

The 7.92×33mm chambered MP43 (originally known as the Mkb 42(H)) assault rifle was devised to stand out from the Erma Werke MP38/MP40 submachine gun with its higher performance and economic design which was manufactured through a then innovative factory stamping technique.

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, U.S. forces briefly occupied the city of Suhl and imposed a production ban on all arms factories.

The competition was widely expected to be won by Heckler and Koch which has supplied previous service rifles to the German military, including the most recent two, the G3 and the G36.

[13] On 9 October 2020, the German Federal Ministry of Defence withdrew their intended award decision, seemingly leaving the potential remaining G36 replacements as either the HK416, HK433 or MK 556 after concluding a reentered evaluation phase.

[14][15] In 2021 the Jaeger NXT straight-pull rifle was introduced that differs from conventional bolt-action mechanisms in that the manipulation required from the user in order to chamber and extract a cartridge predominantly consists of a linear motion only.