Location: Gaggenau, Germany

Theodor Bergmann was a successful industrialist, designer and sometimes inventor, with a deep interest in firearms. Based in Gaggenau, Germany, his first automatic pistol patent dates from 1892. By 1894, he had prototype pistols refined with the help of Louis Schmeisser, being evaluated by various governments. When his designs went into commercial production in 1896, however, they were actually manufactured by the firm of V. Charles Schilling in Suhl, the heart of German arms manufacture. Later he licensed manufacture of his "Mars" pistol to Anciens Establishment Pieper ("Bayard"). After WWI, affiliated with Lignose firm producing a line of .25-caliber pocket pistols first under Bergmann name, but later marketed as Lignose. Still later, several pistol designs from August Menz firm were marketed under "Bergmann Erben" trademark, though it's doubtful if Bergmann's firm actually had much part in their production or sale.