"… you cannot enter eternity on soft pillows …"
(c) Nautilus Pompilius
It is enough to have an article mentioning the Kalashnikov assault rifle, as no later than in the tenth commentary to it, the name of a "talented" or even "brilliant" German designer will be mentioned, "anticipating an entire era", "laying the foundations", "predetermining", etc. etc. Moreover, the role of this genius is not limited to "anticipation." The vast majority of such commentators attribute to him no less than the authorship of the AK-47. The arguments, of course, are indisputable - the external resemblance of the AK-47 to the Stg-44 and, especially, the fact in the biography, according to which this "talented designer" worked at the same plant with the original author.
An amazing thing: a man became famous due to weapons that he did not develop. The head of ERMA Berthold Geipel, using the development of Heinrich Volmer, put into production the MP-40 submachine gun, but it is called and is still called "Schmeisser". It is known who developed the AK-47 assault rifle, but the "tops" stubbornly attributes the authorship of this weapon to Schmeisser. Nevertheless, on the basis of these two paradoxes, the glory of the "great" German gunsmith is based. Not a single Schmeisser design was produced in quantities of more than several tens of thousands, with the exception of the Sturmgewer, which reached 420,000 by the end of the war. German weapons thought had undoubtedly remarkable successes in the form of the Walter P-38 pistol, the Volmer MP-40 submachine gun, the Gruner MG-42 machine gun, the Mauser 98 rifles and carbines, and others. That's just about Gruner, Stange, Volmer, Walter, no one speaks in superlatives. And their names are not known to everyone, but to those who are interested in the history of weapons.
Part one. Theodor Bergman and Louis Schmeisser
Where history is not wrong is that Hugo Schmeisser was indeed a "hereditary" gunsmith. His father Louis Schmeisser, according to the recollections of his contemporaries, was a modest man, benevolent and even cordial. Striving for enrichment was not an end in itself. Like any creative person, he was more interested in the practical implementation of his creative ideas. For these purposes, he organized his own workshop. But no matter how ingenious the invention may be, it will remain on paper and will not bring glory to its author until it is released in mass circulation on the market. And this requires not only production capacity and working capital, we need engineers and technologists to develop tooling and technical processes. We need businessmen. In general, if a designer has an entrepreneurial streak capable of not only inventing, but also organizing production, then firms appear that have the inventor's trademark - Mauser, Walter. But if not, then you need to at least be able to negotiate with people like Theodor Bergman. In this case, the designer will be able to see his work on the shelves, but under the trademark of the company that produced it. This was exactly the interaction of two famous people for their time, but the insinuations around the name "Schmeisser" begin precisely with their relationship. Here is a typical picture:
“In 1902-1903, the Schmeisser father and son developed a successful Mars self-loading pistol … This pistol received a patent by the name of the company's owner, Bergman, which, in turn, discourages its real creator, Louis Schmeisser, but there is nothing he can do., Bergman makes it clear that he is just an employee, albeit one of the irreplaceable. It is at this time that Hugo realizes how greedily, cynically and most importantly without any remorse Bergman appropriated other people's inventions, earning a name for himself by someone else's labor. Despite the fact that the samples of weapons developed by Louis Schmeisser were accepted into service in Denmark, Belgium and Spain, he himself was not officially considered its developer and was practically unknown to anyone, remaining in the shadow of the “great Bergman”. This greatly affected the pride of Schmeisser Sr. Bergman doesn't mind."
A. Ruchko "Hugo Schmeisser - from Bergman to Kalashnikov"
I understand that I want to elevate the Schmeissers, these proletarians of mental labor, but why casually dirty a worthy person, calling his actions greedy, cynical and shameless? Theodor Bergman was a renowned entrepreneur. His talent consisted primarily in the fact that he knew how to determine the advanced directions in mechanical engineering, he knew how to select personnel and, most importantly, to organize production in new, still being mastered areas. Bergman was one of the first to master the production of pneumatic weapons and even himself was its designer. Organized the production of the first vending machines. In 1894 he mastered the production of the first "self-propelled carriages", engaged in the production of racing cars and aircraft engines. At home, he is called the fourth number in the German auto industry. Having mastered the automotive industry, Theodor Bergman is fond of a new idea - an automatic weapon. He sells his car production, which after a while becomes known under the brand name "Benz" and begins to closely deal with automatic pistols.
Unlike the current "effective managers" who are equally successful in managing the trade network and the Ministry of Defense, Theodor Bergman not only held weapons in his hands, but also engaged in design, was an excellent engineer, perfectly and thoroughly versed in the field of mechanical engineering in which he had to work. Well, and to whom it is best to apply the epithets "greed", "impudence" and "cynicism", we will soon find out.
In 1884, Bergman, together with Louis Schmeisser, began to develop automatic weapons. In 1887, Bergman opens an arms branch of his company in Suhl and appoints him as technical director of Louis Schmeisser. In 1891, the Schmeisser family suffers a misfortune - the wife of Louis dies. Children are left without a mother, and a child, deprived of maternal affection and attention from a father engaged in production, grows up, as a rule, selfish. As adults, such people continue to suffer from lack of attention from others.
Part two. About patents
There are patents and there are patents. A patent makes sense if it cannot be circumvented by another engineering solution, or such circumvention is significantly more expensive. For example, the hole at the tip of a needle in a Singer sewing machine, or a hole in the blade of a Spyderco folding knife. But when a patent is obtained for the location of the recoil spring under the barrel, if it can be placed above, behind, and around the barrel, then it is not a patent. It's vanity, and the patent author is a patent troll.
Andrey Malakhov's program “Let them talk” has lost a lot due to the untimely death of Louis Schmeiser and Theodor Bergman. The story of how the damned capitalist Bergman pinches the talent of an unrecognized genius, attributing to himself all his inventions, and poor Louis Schmeisser all in tears leaves to work and invent for another company, would surely enter the treasury of his plots. Let's turn better to two arguments and two facts.
Argument one: if Bergman patented something from inventions made personally by Louis Schmeisser, then the price of these patents was zero. A frankly failed model of the 1894/96 pistol. This weapon was designed without any understanding of the physics of the process in automatic equipment with a free shutter, therefore it was unreliable and inconvenient. Other models were more reliable, but could not boast of large circulations. The more successful model "Mars" took part in the competition for the supply of the Kaiser's army in the period from 1902 to 1904, but lost to Luger. As engineers, Bergman and Schmeisser could not help but understand that the models of Browning, Mauser, Luger have much better prospects in the market than the developments of Schmeisser. Little consolation was the order for an experimental batch of "Mars" from Spain. But then Bergman suffered another blow. He entered into a contract for the production of pistols with a subcontractor, which after a while banally "threw" him, after which Bergman sold the license for the production of "Mars" to the Belgians and on this he decided to quit with pistols for now.
Bergman is no stranger. What is Schmeisser like? Ten years of work, and everything is down the drain? True, there is also a machine gun, on which Schmeisser and Bergman have been working since 1901. But the designer is already 57 years old. For the beginning of the twentieth century, this is the term. His most capable son, Hugo, is already a mature enough and independent engineer, ready to take responsibility for the development of new weapons. Therefore, it is quite logical that Louis Schmeisser went to refine his retirement experience in Frankfurt, where he was given the opportunity to continue to deal with pistols, and his son took his place.
Argument two: So Bergman is "greedy and cynical …" Presumably, Louis Schmeisser was treated differently at Rheinmetall. But, nevertheless, Schmeisser's pistols were successfully patented and produced, but now under the Dreise trademark. By the way, the same ones are far from technical perfection, but with much more tangible commercial success.
Fact one (at the level of rumors). They say that in addition to everything, Bergman's son falls head over heels in love with Schmeisser's daughter, and Bergman denies him nepotism. Schmeisser was upset and left Bergman. I don’t know, I didn’t hold a candle. But in any case, the argument is more weighty than the offense for attributing patents.
The second fact
Louis Schmeisser leaves for the city of Erfurt to the Rheinmetall company. His family remains in Suhl, and Schmeisser's son Hugo becomes the technical director of Bergman, who is involved in the development that his father began. Dad made room for his son and kept the technical continuity at the enterprise. Bergman produced weapons under his own trademark. And everyone was happy.
Remark 1
In 1907, 19-year-old Louis Stange enters Louis Schmeisser's apprenticeship. Planting a tree, building a house and raising sons is the lot of every man. Having your own students is the pinnacle of the achievements of a creative person. But it is not given to everyone. Stange became a worthy student and an accomplished designer, and after the death of Louis Schmeisser, he became his successor at Rheinmetal. Thus, Luis Schmeisser raised two technical directors - his son, who works for Bergman, and Luis Stange, who works for Rheinmetall, the future developer of the first single MG-34 machine gun and the FG-42 automatic rifle.
Remark 2
A year after the birth of Hugo Schmeisser, in the German village of Altdorf, in the family of German peasants Volmer, a fourth child was born, who was named Heinrich. The boy grew up, was educated at a vocational school and got a job as a mechanic. He studied at Sunday school for four years and finally entered the design department of a machine tool company. He made his first invention in 1908. It was a saw setter. Further, the patent, its own firm. By the beginning of the First World War, Volmer already had a respectable enterprise that produced saw sharpeners and setters, parts for machine guns, and propellers for airplanes. As you can see, we have before us a rare case when a designer and an entrepreneur are combined in one person. Looking ahead, I will say that Volmer's firm still exists.
Part three. The birth of submachine guns
The analysis of the hostilities of the first year of the First World War forced the best staff minds of the belligerent countries to strain: the need to create light automatic weapons for a cartridge less powerful than a rifle cartridge became obvious. In Russia, Colonel Fedorov came up with the idea of creating a machine gun with a rifle cartridge of reduced power, which he implemented in his machine gun in 1916. In Germany and Italy, the understanding of the need for a cartridge of reduced power may have come later, but for now they decided to limit themselves to automatic fire with a pistol cartridge. Moreover, the Italians and the Germans approached the problem from completely different positions. In Italy, they approached the decision from a defensive position. Major Abel Revelli developed in 1915 a heavy double-barreled machine gun for a pistol cartridge for defensive fire, which after a while quite logically transformed into the first full-fledged Beretta M1918 submachine gun.
But the German generals proceeded from the attacking positions. They implemented the idea of small assault teams to solve the "positional deadlock" paradox. Such groups had to launch an attack from a close position, similar to boarding combat. And for such a fight, the best weapons were blunderbuss with a barrel bell, shooting buckshot. This made it possible to compensate for the time for accurate aiming and gave a chance to hit more than one target with one shot. But you will not storm the trenches with blunderbuss at the beginning of the progressive 20th century. Therefore, the search for new weapons began. The use of a pistol cartridge was obvious, but the question of weapons arose. The existing automatic pistols had two drawbacks - a small magazine volume and a lack of automatic fire. And so the German General Staff in 1915 is developing a terms of reference for weapons, which, by the totality of indicators, could already be called a submachine gun.
I deliberately decided to digress a little from the topic in order to show the very evolution of the appearance of a separate class of weapons. As you can see, the emergence of the class of submachine guns was preceded by collective thought and analysis, and not the insight of the "ingenious designer" (loner). The idea of automatic fire with a pistol cartridge was born with the pistol cartridge itself. Actually, the authors of the idea of weapons were unknown officers of the German General Staff, who were able to competently and clearly, in modern terms, "set a task" for the designers. A well-written technical task or problem statement is a half-solved problem. The task of the designer is to find the optimal solution from the huge number of technical, physical, technological and economic contradictions that arise at the stage of weapon design.
On the topic of new weapons, according to the technical assignment of the German Armaments Directorate, work began: Hugo Schmeisser at Bergman, Louis Stange at Rheinmetall, Andreas Schwarzlose and the designers of DMW (Luger). As a result, the order went to Bergman, and the MP-18 received the palm of the serial submachine gun. Although there was also an Italian Beretta M1918, and one could argue about the palm tree …
The MP-18 used two patents issued to Bergman: the use of a return spring as a combat spring and its use as a receiver latch. Like the vast majority of mechanical engineering products, the MP-18 was a compilation of parts from other designs and systems: a pistol cartridge, a wooden stock, a barrel and a magazine from Luger, the principle of automation is the recoil of a free breechblock. Even the protective cover on the barrel was “elegantly” “borrowed” from machine guns. And that's it! And if we talk about the "genius" of Schmeisser's design, one cannot fail to mention the absence of a safety lock for the bolt in the forward position. Thanks to this simplification, a shot from the MP-18 could be fired using the method of Comrade Sukhov. The shutter was put on a safety catch in the rear (combat) position, designed in the form of a figured cutout in the bolt casing familiar to everyone from the prototype of the usual window latch.
And what about Stange? He did not pursue the glory of the "first" and calmly brought his product to mind. In the end, his MP-19 was more functional than the MP-18: it had a fire translator, a more reliable fuse, and a hinged bolt cover. Of course, a simpler product by Hugo Schmeisser managed to get to the trough. Still, most analysts consider the Steyr-Solothurn S1-100, based on the MP-19, to be the best submachine gun of the 1930s. This is for the attention of those who like to measure ratings, championships and pipisek length.
Now let's compare the Rheinmetall-Borsig MP-19:
and Bergman MP-18 (pictured MP-28):
It would be surprising to find a lot in common between them, if you do not know that behind the backs of Luis Stange and Hugo Schmeisser looms the shadow of Luis Schmeisser!
We completely forgot about Volmer! During the First World War, Heinrich Vollmer seriously began to deal with weapons. His first military development - body armor - was presented before the war, in 1912. But in 1916, he presented a design for a magazine-fed light machine gun. This development interested the arms commission, and Volmer was awarded a contract to develop a similar power unit for the MG 08 and MG 08/15 machine guns, as well as for the MG 18 TUF heavy machine gun. In 1918, he created a rather original development - a hose-fed drum magazine for Schmeisser's MP-18.
The problem of the "positional deadlock" was brilliantly solved by the Russian general Aleksey Brusilov, and without any submachine guns. But before a respite is declared in the Forest of Compiegne for summing up the results of the First World War and the foundations for the Second are laid, let us state one small fact that is directly related to our topic. What had Hugo Schmeisser and Heinrich Vollmer achieved by 1918?
By this time, both had reached the age of Jesus Christ, that is, the age when the creative abilities of the individual are fully revealed. And in general, we come to the conclusion that the work of Hugo Schmeisser is not very diverse. All of his developments are related to weapons, and a large number of works are based on the development of his father. The advent of submachine guns is a matter of time, not scientific foresight or ingenious insight. But the work of Heinrich Vollmer simply shines with variety - here there are weapons, and agriculture, and mechanical engineering. Moreover, Heinrich Vollmer created his own production and was completely independent from Theodor Bergman!
Intermission. (To be continued.)
