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Gerat Potsdam: Mauser Copies the Sten Gun (Ad-free)
🕑 Added 2025-06-02 12:00:02 +0000 UTCIn the fall of 1944, the Mauser company was given a contract to develop drawings of a direct copy of the British Sten gun (code named Gerät Potsdam), and to manufacture 10,000 of them. In fact, they were to make two different sets of drawings; one suitable for large factory use (like their own) and one for use with distributed small shops making parts for final assembly elsewhere (which is how much of British Sten production was done). The contract was fulfilled and 9972 guns in total were produced and accepted by the German military in November and December of 1944.
Why would Germany was a copy of the Sten? Well, they actually had a decent number of them. The Allies were air-dropping Stens all over Europe, and a lot of those drops were captured by German troops, not the resistance fighters they were intended for. By the end of the war the Germans were in desperate need of arms, and the Sten was both simple and already in some German use with the Volkssturm…so it actually was not a totally unreasonable idea to produce more of them.
Today, the Potsdam is an extremely rare gun to find. The two visible identifying features are the magazine well and barrel shroud, which are both made with a folded and spot welded seam. The barrels are also identifiable as they have 6 groove rifling, which the British did not use in the Sten.
Before the Potsdam production was finished, Mauser began working on further plans to simplify the design. That would be the Gerät Neumunster, aka the MP 3008. For that part of the story, see my video on the MP 3008:
Comments
Clifton Ballad
Ok, as a complete and total welding nerd, the hate on HK is absolutely necessary and the hate for the welding on this gun is not. HK is a modern company with all of the advances available to them and they are not under war time constraints. Every one of the welds on an HK should be flawless, and they are not. At All. This gun and the ones like it were very likely welded with SMAW/Stick welding, and that is a rough way to do welds like that. The fact they look as good as they do is testament to the skill of the welders who were working on them. The other option would be Oxy Acetylene welding, but I feel like that late in the war, electricity was easier to get than acetylene... Short, small stick welds on fairly thin material such as these is far from easy, even with modern materials. With the war time limits and lack of technology those welds are even more impressive.
WayneWiiki
simplify a STEN. ouch. I thought I've worked for some unrealistic bosses..
