1950
Even before the positive effects of the currency reform in Germany ushered in the economic revival, Max and Rudolf Anschütz decided to resume their former activities as gunsmith and weapons manufacturers. When the ban on the production of air rifles and pistols in the American occupation zone was lifted in 1950, nothing stood in the way of this plan. In the meantime, the two brothers had each saved up 6,000 marks to found the new company. Alber Röver, former managing director of the Anschütz sales organization in Berlin, contributed another 8,000 marks as the third equal partner. Together they founded J. G. ANSCHÜTZ GmbH Ulm-Donau on October 1, 1950. In order to be able to use the initials J. G. again, Jürgen Georg Anschütz, second son of Max Anschütz, joined the company with 500 Marks from his father's share.
The opening balance sheet of J. G. ANSCHÜTZ GmbH shows 20,000 Marks in share capital, October 1, 1950.
Extracts from the opening balance sheet, October 1, 1950
The city of Ulm - 80% of which was destroyed during the war - offered industrial sites to companies willing to settle there. The former free imperial city wanted to break away from its centuries-old status as a garrison town and promote industrialization. Ultimately, it was a fortunate coincidence that three former arms manufacturers from Thuringia - ANSCHÜTZ, Krieghoff and Walther - were able to move into the Danube bastion in Ulm, a historic barracks and fortress, and resume their former production activities. Part of the new beginning was also a new logo, which was very similar in shape to the last logo of the Germaniawaffenfabrik.
The first logo of J. G. ANSCHÜTZ GmbH. It was used until 1955.
In 1950, 20-year-old Dieter Anschütz began a precision mechanic's apprenticeshipgauge at Zeiss-Opton.
While his father and uncle began to rebuild the ANSCHÜTZ company, the then 20-year-old Dieter Anschütz started his apprenticeship as a gauge mechanic at Zeiss-Opton. The Zeiss company had also been evacuated from Jena in East Germany to the West to escape the Soviet army in 1945 and built up a comprehensive production facility for industrial and photographic optics in Oberkochen in Baden-Württemberg in the 1950s. There, Dieter Anschütz learned the necessary knowledge and skills to assemble even the smallest individual parts into a functioning lens with great diligence and ambition as well as the typical ANSCHÜTZ precision. He was later able to use the knowledge and technical understanding he had acquired in his parents' company.
Shortly after the new company was founded, the first price list was published. Thanks to the excellent reputation that ANSCHÜTZ had gained in Zella-Mehlis, the first orders were quickly received in Ulm and the company began to grow.
The cover of the first price list and the first business letter of J. G. ANSCHÜTZ GmbH, October 1950
Zimmerstutzen model 1383 Z, cal. 4mm, with long rifled barrel. It was manufactured from 1950 and was the first rifle produced by ANSCHÜTZ after the war.
With the sale of the Donaubastion to the long-established Ulm-based commercial vehicle manufacturer Magirus-Deutz, which at that time produced trucks, buses and fire engines in Ulm, the time had come to say goodbye to the city area on January 1, 1954. ANSCHÜTZ moved into a new factory building erected by the city of Ulm in the industrial area Donautal. The factory building had already been planned and approved in 1951/52 and completed in 1953.
Plant manager Hermann Wild (right) at the first lid milling machine. Together with Rudolf Anschütz, he works on the prototype of the receiver of the later legendary Match 54, ca. 1952
Rudolf Anschütz presents the first Match54 to his brother Max, 1953
