Carl Walther

Carl Wilhelm Freund Walther (22 November 1858 – 9 July 1915) was a German gunsmith from Zella-Mehlis, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who in 1886 founded the firm of Carl Walther GmbH, generally known as Walther.

Carl Walther's father, August Theodor Albert Walther, was a brass and iron caster. His mother, Rosalie Wilhelmine Amalie Pistor, came from the gunsmith family of Pistor, and was the daughter of William Pistor. Carl Walther studied under gunsmith Willibald Barthelmes, and later under Albin Schneider. He worked for the Jopp company in Zella-Mehlis, making Mauser rifles. In the fall of 1886 he opened his own gunshop in Zella-Mehlis and soon hired additional workmen to meet the demand for the sporting rifles he made. In 1888, he married Minna Georgine Pickert, the daughter of the revolver manufacturer Christian Friedrich Pickert, and they had five sons.[1] In 1903, after three of his sons entered the firm, the focus turned to the production of pistols.[2] In 1908 Carl Walther together with Fritz Walther, his eldest son, designed and produced the first usable German self-loading pistol.[3] Fritz Walther took over the management of the firm after his father's death in 1915.