The small German town of Oberndorf am Neckar is famous for one thing: weapons. Heckler and Koch and Mauser both are headquartered there and have been for over a century. The strange thing about Mauser’s factory is what it was originally- an Augustinian monastery.
The monastery, built in 1264, was abandoned by the 19th century as Augustinian monks were kicked out by the Duke of Wurttemburg in 1806 at the orders of Napoleon himself. In 1811, King Frederick I said that the monestary would be converted into a weapons factory since there were plenty of resources around the Black Forest town. One worker, Franz Mauser, continued to work there with his 13 children well into the mid-19th century. Wilhelm and Paul Mauser, two of Franz’s sons, began experimenting with different rifles. The two produced the M71 Mauser rifle after the Franco-Prussian War as the French Chassepot had a devastating affect on German troops. Over 99,000 rifles were ordered by the Kingdom of Wurttemburg and later 120,000 were purchased by the Serbs.
To the Sound of the Guns 