Origins Steyr has been on the "
iron road" to the nearby
Erzberg mine since the days of the
Styrian Otakar dukes and their
Babenberg successors in the 12th and 13th century, and has been known as an industrial site for forging weapons. The privilege of iron and steel production, particularly for
knives, was renewed by the
Habsburg duke
Albert of Austria in 1287. After the
Thirty Years' War, thousands of
muskets,
pistols, and
carbines were produced annually for the
Habsburg Imperial Army. In 1821, Leopold Werndl (1797–1855), a
blacksmith in Steyr, began
manufacturing iron parts for weapons. After his father's death, 24-year-old
Josef Werndl (1831–1889) took over his factory. On April 16, 1864, he founded the
Josef und Franz Werndl & Comp. Waffenfabrik und Sägemühle in Oberletten (Josef and Franz Werndl & Partners Weapons Factory and Sawmill in Oberletten), from which later emerged the
Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft (ŒWG, Austrian Arms-Manufacturing Company), a stock company (
AG) since 1869, of which in the future
Steyr Arms firearm production was a part. In 1912
Bodencreditanstalt bank became a
majority shareholder.
World War I Werndl's cooperation with
engineer Ferdinand Mannlicher (1848–1904), who had
patented an advanced
repeating rifle in use by the
Austro-Hungarian Army, made ŒWG one of the largest weapon manufacturers in Europe. At the beginning of
World War I, with more than 15,000 employees, production output was 4,000 weapons per day. The company introduced the world's first machine pistol, the
Steyr Repetierpistole M1912/P16, during World War I; it was a machine pistol version of the
Steyr M1912 pistol, and was manufactured as product model
Repetierpistole M1912/P16. It used a 16-round fixed magazine loaded via 8 round stripper clips, a detachable shoulder stock and a rather large exposed semi-auto/full-auto selector switch on the right side of the frame above the trigger (down = semi & up = full). It fired the
9×23mm Steyr cartridge, with a full-auto rate-of-fire of about 800 to 1,000 rounds per minute (RPM). It weighed about 2.6 pounds. Introduced in 1916, it is considered one of the world's first full-auto capable pistols. Only 960 M1912/P16 were made.
Aftermath of World War I After the war, weapons production in Steyr was all but entirely prohibited according to the 1919
Treaty of Saint-Germain, and the company faced
bankruptcy. To survive, the ŒWG converted their
machinery to concentrate on producing
Steyr automobiles under chief designers
Hans Ledwinka and
Ferdinand Porsche, as well as
bicycles (colloquially called
Waffenräder (weapon bicycles)). In 1926 the company changed its name to
Steyr-Werke, in 1934 to
Steyr Daimler Puch. The production of
Steyr Daimler Puch weapons continued in cooperation with
Patronenfabrik Solothurn AG at
Zuchwil in neutral
Switzerland.
World War II After the Austrian
Anschluss to
Nazi Germany in 1938, the Steyr factories were incorporated into the
Reichswerke Hermann Göring industrial conglomerate and the outbreak of
World War II provided a brief revival in weapons production. Like many other companies,
Steyr Daimler Puch relied also on
forced labour, employing from the
Steyr-Münichholz subcamp of
KZ Mauthausen.
Since 1950s During the 1950s the
Mannlicher–Schönauer full stock rifle, designed in 1900, experienced a renaissance. Simultaneously, the re-emergence of the
Austrian Armed Forces in the second republican state was the base for new military weapons production. In 1989, after the partial dissolution of the
Steyr Daimler Puch conglomerate, the weapon division was named
Steyr Mannlicher in honour of the great
Austro-Hungarian engineer
Ferdinand Mannlicher. The name remained in place until 2019, now
Steyr Arms. The trade mark
Mannlicher is traditionally known for
hunting weapons such as the Mannlicher-Schönauer repeating rifle. The company continues to produce hunting weapons.
The AUG In the 1970s, Steyr developed an innovative assault rifle, the StG 77. A
bullpup design, the StG 77 extensively utilized synthetic materials, and integrated fixed optics. The export version became the
Steyr AUG—
Armee Universal Gewehr (Universal Army Rifle), eventually used by the armed forces of over 24 countries. It has been prominently featured in films such as
Octopussy,
Commando, and
Die Hard. ==Products==