HK’s First Handgun, the Fab Four
Reborn from the ashes of Mauser in 1949, Hecker & Koch started off as a simple machine shop and factory in an old fire station that made tools and bicycles before moving into the firearms trade a few years later. It came easy as the H in HK was Theodor Koch and the K, Edmund Heckler, both former Mauser engineers. Left out of the initals but no less an important founder was Alex Seidel, the inventor of the HSc pistol for Mauser.
While the company’s first rifle, the G3, was wildly successful, and their first sub gun, the MP5 amplified this, their first production handgun, the HSc-inspired HK4, was a little different and is often forgotten.
More in my column at Guns.com.