The origin of this rifle can be traced back to the final years of World War II when Mauser engineers at the Light Weapon Development Group (Abteilung 37) at Oberndorf am Neckar designed the MKb Gerät 06 (Maschinenkarabiner Gerät 06 or "machine carbine device 06") prototype assault rifle chambered for the intermediate 7.92×33mm Kurz cartridge, first with the Gerät 06 model using a roller-locked mechanism which was unique for being gas operated, as opposed to recoil operation, originally adapted from the MG 42 machine gun, but with a fixed barrel and conventional gas-actuated piston rod.

[2] After observing bolt-bounce during firing trials of the roller locked Gerät 03 prototype semi-automatic rifle Dr. Karl Maier, one of Mauser's scientists at the time,[3] realized that with careful attention to the mechanical ratios, the gas system could be omitted.

Though appearing simple, developing the roller-delayed blowback firearm action was a hard technical and personal effort, as German engineering, mathematical and other scientists had to work together on a like-it-or-not basis led by Ott-Helmuth von Lossnitzer, the director of Mauser Werke's Weapons Research Institute and Weapons Development Group.

In December 1943 Maier came up with an equation that engineers used to change the angles in the receiver to 45° and 27° on the locking piece relative to the longitudinal axis solving the bolt-bounce problem.

This layout places both the center of gravity and the position of the shoulder stock nearly in line with the longitudinal axis of the barrel bore, a feature increasing controllability by reducing muzzle rise during burst or automatic fire.

[6] The elevated sight line over the bore axis layout was also adopted from these designs as it helps to extend the "battle zero" range.

Like the Sturmgewehr 44 the weapon made extensive use of (for the 1940s) advanced cost-saving pressed and stamped steel components rather than machined parts.

Germany eventually purchased the licence for the CETME design and manufactured the Heckler & Koch G3 as well as an entire line of weapons built on the same system, one of the most famous being the MP5.