To survive, the OEWG 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"). At the beginning of World War I, with more than 15,000 employees, production output was 4,000 weapons per day.Īfter the end of the war, weapons production in Steyr was all but entirely prohibited according to the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain, and the company faced bankruptcy. First applied in 1890, the Mannlicher pistol model 1905, and the Steyr pistol M.1912 became milestones in auto-loading pistols technology. Werndl's cooperation with engineer Ferdinand Mannlicher (1848-1904), who had patented an advanced repeating rifle in use by the Austro-Hungarian Army, made OEWG one of the largest weapon manufacturers in Europe. Waffenfabrik und Sägemühle in Oberletten" (Josef and Franz Werndl & Partners Weapons Factory and Sawmill in Oberletten), from which later emerged the "Österreichische Waffenfabriksgesellschaft" (OEWG, Austrian Arms-Manufacturing Company), a stock company ( AG) since 1869, of which the Steyr Mannlicher firearm production was a part. On April 16, 1864, he founded the "Josef und Franz Werndl & Comp. After his father's death, 24-year-old Josef Werndl (1831-1889) took over his factory. In 1821, Leopold Werndl (1797-1855), a blacksmith in Steyr, began manufacturing iron parts for the productions of weapons. After the Thirty Years' War, thousands of muskets, pistols, and carbines were produced annually for the Habsburg Imperial Army.
The privilege of iron and steel production, particularly for knives, was renewed by the Habsburg duke Albert of Austria in 1287. 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 has been known as an industrial site for forging weapons.
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