The German government awarded Heckler & Koch the tender and by 1959 declared the G3 the standard rifle of the Bundeswehr. In 1956, Heckler & Koch responded to the West German government's tender for a new infantry rifle for theВ Bundeswehr (German Federal Army) with the proposal of theВ G3 battle rifle which was based on the SpanishВ CETME rifle. Initially the new company manufactured machine tools, bicycle andВ sewing machine parts, gauges and other precision parts. changed its name and was registered officially as Heckler & Koch GmbH. On December 28, 1949, the Engineering Office Heckler & Co. In 1948, three former Mauser engineers,В Edmund Heckler, Theodor Koch, and Alex Seidel, saved what they could from the factory and used what they salvaged to start a machine tool plant in the vacant factory that became known as the Engineering Office Heckler & Co. All factory records were destroyed on orders of the local French Army commander. The factory had been emptied by the French after World War II as provisional compensation for war damage they had suffered.With the fall of Germany at the end of World War II,В Oberndorf came under French control, and the entireВ Waffenfabrik Mauser AG factory was dismantled by French occupying forces. The company was established in the old Mauser arms factory in Oberndorf. Heckler & Koch was founded in 1949 by Alex Seidel, Edmund Heckler and Theodor Koch.

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