Johann Adolf Furrer-Kägi was born on 13 November 1873 in
Zürich,
Switzerland. At an unknown time, before 1921, he had joined the Swiss Army. He rose from a junior officer to the rank of Colonel while in service. Around 1921, Colonel Furrer was appointed as head of the
Waffenfabrik Bern, state small arms factory. He would remain director of the factory up until 1940. In 1933, the Furrer Automatic Cannon was introduced to Swiss Air Force service. In 1941, early in World War II, a review by the Swiss army revealed a lack of submachine guns, with less than 500 in stock. The
Swiss army commissioned
SIG and
W+F Bern, then two of the largest domestic small arms producers in Switzerland, to create new submachine gun prototypes for the Army. Adolf Furrer designed the
Lmg-Pist 41/44 (aka Furrer MP41/44) to be produced by
Waffenfabrik Bern, while
SIG had developed the
MP-41 Neuhausen Submachine Gun. The Swiss Army was to hold tests to determine which design would be adopted. However, Furrer was politically well connected in the
Swiss Army and tried passionately to
persuade the military to choose his design. Ultimately, the submachine gun trials were derailed with no chance for SIG to present their MP-41's capabilities properly and the Swiss Army would adopt the MP41/44. Ultimately, the Furrer MP41/44 was plagued with production problems and reliability issues that would cause a great deal of trouble for the Swiss Army and damage Adolf Furrer's reputation. After World War II, Furrer retired from military service and weapons design. Furrer died in 1958 in
Minusio,
Switzerland at the age of 84. ==Weapons design==