These men were probably very capable but uninspired old civil Perhaps then it is understandable that the need to employ restless workers was the driving factor behind the ÖWA and not the usual free market process a pistol design looking for a maker.Īpparently, the leadership, desperate to make some sort of product, turned to their staff of engineers and designers for help. This was theĮnvironment that lead to the creation of our pistol, and the only pistol to arise from this enterprise. It became important to find a means to gainfully employ these people to help fend off political and economic unrest. Which leaders feared would lead to socialism or communism. At the war’s end the factories lay idle and the unemployed workers were a hotbed for organized labor, Workers, all involved in state-directed military production. By WWI it had expanded into a large complex of buildings with eighteen factories filled with nearly 20,000
It is an impressive series of brick structures made in the Romantic style. The arsenal was built in the southside of Vienna after the uprisings of 1848 to ensure a Oesterreichische Werke Anstalt (ÖWA) translates to Austrian Works Arsenal.
We will conclude with aĭetailed list of variations by serial number. This approach will provide new insight based on empirical data. These sources will be compared and analyzed against a census table composed by this author. This article will cover the background and design of the ÖWA pistol as well as the variations and changes made during the course of manufacture, and it will attempt to clear up mistakes that were established inĮarly sources and continue to persist today. In the post war world, the ÖWA was an obsolete design at its very birth. The difference in stories lies with the design while the Ortgies was truly an innovative and modern pistol that belonged In the end the pistols areĭumped at rock bottom prices, in this case even after the pistol was updated to correct some complaints. State-owned military arsenal found itself idle in a defeated post-WWI country and transformed into a commercial enterprise making high quality pistols that found few buyers in a cash strapped market. In many ways the story is the Austrian parallel to the German Ortgies. What is available is often repeated across the internet and is often incorrect. Information on the pistol is scant for the English-speaking collector. While not ultra-scarce, it isn’t readily found either and There is an odd and fascinating little pocket pistol known as the ÖWA in 6.35 mm that makes a great addition to any collection of mouse guns.