[3] In 1886, fifteen years after their defeat by German forces in the Franco-Prussian War, the French Army introduced the new Lebel magazine rifle firing an 8 mm high-velocity projectile propelled by the new smokeless powder.

This made Germany's rifle, the Mauser Model 1871, obsolete due to its large and slow 11 mm round propelled by black powder.

In response the German Army's Rifle Testing Commission developed the Gewehr 88 which was adopted for service in 1888.

It has a receiver with a "split bridge" (i.e., the bolt passes through the receiver and locks in front of the rear bridge); a rotating bolt head; and the characteristic Mannlicher-style "packet loading" or "en-bloc" system in which cartridges are loaded into a steel carrier (an en bloc clip) which is inserted into the magazine, where it holds the cartridges in alignment over a spring.

As shots are fired the clip remains in place until the last round is chambered, at which point it drops through a hole in the bottom of the rifle.

To settle a patent infringement claim by Steyr-Mannlicher, Germany contracted the Austro-Hungarian company to be one of the manufacturers of Gewehr 88s, and Mannlicher together with Otto Schönauer derived from the Mauser-Schlegelmilch design a whole family of turn-bolt actions, the last of which was serially produced until 1970s.

[3][4] Part of the production run was exported to China (see lower) or Latin America (for example Brazil army use them in War of Canudos in 1896–1897).

The commission rifle saw field service with Germany's colonial expansion, including in China during the Boxer Rebellion (with the Gewehr 88s and the unlicensed Hanyang 88 copies also being used by the opposing Chinese troops),[5] and served as a front line weapon for German troops during World War I until 1915 when the supply of Gewehr 98s increased.

Many Gewehr 88 rifles stayed in active service in second-line units, reserves, and in armies allied with the Germans through and well past World War I.

[9] At the beginning of World War II some Gewehr 88 rifles were still in use, by second line units or paramilitary organizations (or partisans) in Poland[10] and Yugoslavia.

China first bought Gewehr 88 rifles for the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895 and after that started production of the unlicensed Hanyang 88 copy.

[14] The rifle was adopted during a period of rapid development in firearms technology, and marked Germany's shift to a smokeless powder.

Examples of these usually show first-class workmanship and special features such as folding sights and altered bolt handles.

In 1903, the Germany Army adopted a new service cartridge that fired lighter bullets measuring 8.20 mm (.323 in) in diameter.

Some 88's were sold to various nations or armed groups, or captured in combat and therefore a wide variety of markings can be found such as Bulgarian stars, English proofs, Turkish crescents and symbols, Polish eagles etc.

Although the packet loading system proved to be a design shortcoming, it is not uncommon to encounter a Gewehr 88 today which still retains it.

Additionally, both the ejector and the extractor that are attached to the bolt head are prone to falling out if care is not taken during disassembly and reassembly.