Walther: A Firearms Innovator

When it comes to firearms that satisfy both function and form, Walther has been a brand to contend with for over 100 years. Although Walther was initially known as a manufacturer of sporting rifles, the company came into its own making combat handguns during the World Wars and the Cold War. The company bounced back from a divided Germany to remain an industry leader that is equally praised by fictitious spies, competition shooters, self-defenders, and military personnel worldwide. Follow along as we explore the past, present, and future of Carl Walther.

Early Beginnings

The story of Carl Walther should have begun with the namesake, himself. But in truth, the origin of Walther begins with a man named Mattias Conrad Pistor. Pistor was the head of the Kassel Armory in the German state of Hesse in 1780. Pistor would go on to produce a dynasty of gunsmiths. Through Pistor’s maternal line, gunsmithing was introduced through marriage to August Theodore Walther. August Walther’s son, Carl went on to build his own shop in the sprawling industrial hub of Zella-Melhis in 1886.

Before the First World War, Carl Walther specialized in the production of sporting rifles, particularly rifles built on the falling-block single-shot Martini action. These rifles enjoyed some popularity, but sporting arms were an increasingly narrow market in an industry that chased military and police contracts. At the urging of Carl’s son, Fritz, Walther introduced their first handgun in 1908 — the Model 4.

The Model 4 is a compact .32 ACP semi-automatic pistol designed for holster carry. At the time, large single-stack .32 ACP pistols like the FN Model 1900 were increasingly popular with European law enforcement. Countries like Belgium and Serbia went so far as to adopt the Model 1900 as their standard issue military pistol. Germany ultimately selected the P08 Luger in 9mm as their new handgun in 1908, but officers could generally buy and carry whatever pistol they desired. The Model 4 fit the bill, as did the smaller .25 ACP Model 1 released the same year as the Model 4.

The German Army contracted for 250,000 Walther Model 4s during the First World War and the family concern expanded. This was a success that Carl Walther would not live to see, as he passed away in 1915. From there, the firm passed to Fritz.

Interwar

The end of the First World War nearly brought Walther to an end. The Armistice brought an end to any potential Army contracts and the Peace of Versailles prevented German industry from producing arms for military purposes. The loss of resource-rich territory and civil unrest put a further damper on productivity. During the Weimar Republic, Walther stayed afloat. Their Model 4 remained in production to satisfy the police market and the company turned back to producing sporting rifles. In 1929, the Model 4 was dropped to make room for the iconic PP.

The Police Pistol, like the Model 4, is a blow-back operated belt-sized .32 ACP pistol. It also borrowed the Model 4’s barrel-mounted recoil spring. But the PP had an exposed hammer and is a double-action pistol with a decocker lever on the left side. Most pistols of the era had to be carried with an empty chamber to prevent accidental discharge. The PP could be carried fully loaded with the hammer down and a long trigger pull for safety. With the hammer cocked, the de-cocker could be thumbed and the hammer safely lowered to the safe position when the user wishes to keep shooting. The PP would become among the most copied pistol designs of the 20th century, but it was immediately followed by the smaller PPK, or Police Pistol Short, in 1931.

After the rise of the Nazis in 1933, the Walther factory was nationalized with the goal of rearmament. Free from the shackles of Versailles, the Wehrmacht sought out a new handgun to replace their aging P08 Lugers. Walther developed a locked-breech 9mm pistol with the same double-action mechanism as the PP. This gun was adopted as the P38 in 1938.

World War II and the Cold War

Although Walther pistols like the PP, PPK, and P38 were the ubiquitous German handguns of the Second World War, the company’s focus during the war years was toward the creation of a self-loading rifle. Walther’s rifle was adopted in 1941 to supplant the older bolt-action Kar. 98 Mauser. The new rifle, adopted as the Gewehr 41, fired the same full-powered 7.92×57 Mauser round and held 10 rounds in a detachable magazine. It had promise, but was deemed too complex and too prone to gas fouling when it was fielded. The Walther rifle was modified to use a short-stroke piston gas system, which solved some of its issues. Over 400,000 of the new Gewehr 43 were built.

Walther also submitted a rifle design in the new intermediate 7.92×33 Kurz cartridge in 1940. The rifle, along with a competing design by Haenel, was field tested in the Soviet Union in 1942. The Haenel rifle was deemed to be better, but the Walther’s closed bolt and hammer-fired action were retained in what would become the STG-44 assault rifle.

In April 1945, the city of Munich surrendered to American forces, and with it, Fritz Walther and the Walther factory came into Allied hands. In the post-war division of Germany, American forces remained in Munich. But Zella-Mehlis and the Walther factory fell into the Soviet zone of occupation that would become East Germany.

For the second time in his life, Fritz Walther had to start over. In 1945, he left home and settled in Ulm with only blueprints to his name. Germany, for the time being, was not allowed to manufacture firearms once again. Fritz set up in Ulm to produce office calculators to generate revenue while he worked on new designs. But in a few short years, arms restrictions were gradually lifted.

Walther began to produce air and rimfire rifles in the early 1950s. In 1957, production of the P38 and Fritz’s other designs resumed just in time for the reconstruction of a West German Army to serve as the bulwark of NATO. In 1966, Fritz Walther passed away, leaving the revived firm in the hands of his son, Karl-Heinz.

Under Karl-Heinz’s leadership, the emphasis on the sporting and competition markets was magnified. For police and martial sales, Walther leaned heavily on their existing PP and P38 pistol designs. In the 1980s, Walther briefly reentered the military rifle sphere with their WA 2000. But by the end of the Cold War, Walther’s share in the pistol market had become competition oriented, with few successes since the release of their aging P38. In 1983, Karl-Heinz died unexpectedly. It would be up to his nephew, Hans Fahr, to helm the company as it entered increasingly uncertain times.

Walther Today

After a decade of difficulties, Umarex acquired a controlling stake in Carl Walther in 1993, severing over a hundred years of Walther family ownership. Umarex is best known for its blank-firing firearms and air rifles, but the new leadership was able to turn around Walther’s fortunes.

In 1996, Walther introduced the P99, a polymer-framed striker-fired pistol that could be set up as a double-action or single-action. The new pistol was also more ergonomic than other first-generation polymer pistols like Glock. The P99 was quietly discontinued in 2022, but the pistol put Walther back in the fighting pistol market. The P99 would go on to evolve into the PPQ and, finally, the PDP.

Walther has also made greater inroads in the rimfire and concealed carry markets. The Walther P22 represented the firm’s first great leap outside the target pistol market. The P22 was an affordable, recreational pistol made for mass appeal. The PPS represents Walther’s entry into the single-stack concealable 9mm handgun market. The unique gas-operated CCP in .380 ACP or 9mm represents an easy-to-manipulate option for new shooters.

Although Carl Walther is joined by numerous other brands in the firearms market, the company enjoys a stellar reputation. Their rifles and target pistols continue to be represented in competition up to the Olympic level, while their fighting handguns continue to be a cut above in the category of innovative ergonomics. It was these dual reputations in these two worlds that defined Walther as both a German firearm giant and a worldwide firearms innovator.