10mm BERGMANN M.1901

Research notes

Theodor Bergman (1850 – 1931) was a German industrialist who had a keen interest in firearms and developed a line of pistols during the late 1890’s to early 1900’s, although his business dealings were more toward bicycles and the then newly developed automobile. It is therefore that most of his designs were manufactured under licence. One of his designs was the “Pistole Kal. 10mm Bergmann”. From www.forgottenweapons.com it mentions that the British Government showed an interest in the Bergmann pistol for their 1901 pistol trials, but it was only in 1902 that Bergmann delivered pistols for testing. It seemed that the first pistols were 9mm and 10mm side-locking designs of the 1897 designs from German designer Louis Schmeisser. At that stage, the British were still focused on the .455-inch bore and the Bergmann entries were not successful. (Erlmeier, Brandt Ref. 145).