Gewehr

Gewehr is the German word for a long-barreled firearm such as a rifle or shotgun.^[1] The word is also used extensive in German to form compound words that describe specific types of service weapons, such as scharfschützengewehr (sniper rifle), sturmgewehr (assault rifle) and maschinengewehr (machine gun).

Prior to the 1840s, rifled guns were not widespread, and firearms are smoothbore muzzleloaders termed Büchse, a term that are still used in German hunting jargons today. Etymologically, the word "gewehr" is related to "fighting" or "guarding", and so became the standard term for military-type weapons.^[2] The term "Gewehr" can be encountered in the context of 19th and 20th century military history for nonspecific rifles from German-speaking countries, e.g. in arms trade, in particular for types produced before German unification in 1871.

Specific types, sorted chronologically from 1841 to 1997 and with designer given, are:

• Gewehr 41 (Dreyse, 1841)
• Gewehr 71 (Mauser, 1871)
• Gewehr 88 (state committee, 1888)
• Gewehr 98 (Mauser, 1898)
• T-Gewehr (Mauser, 1918)
• Gewehr 41 (Walther, 1941)
• Gewehr 43 (Walther, 1943)
• Sturmgewehr 44 (CITEFA/Schmeisser, 1944)
• Gewehr 36 (Heckler & Koch, 1997)

See also

• German military rifles