Bananafish & Babylon Berlin Vibe Check: The Ortgies Pistol
By Chris Eger
The Deutsche Werke-made Ortgies pistols are a curious installment in gun culture that survives today. (All Photos: Guns.com)
An obscure product of the 1920s, the German-made Ortgies pistol is an interesting design that never really caught on– except with collectors.
German merchant Henrich Ortgies (pronounced Ort-geese) took out at least 11 patents for his self-loading pistols, designs reportedly purchased from former FN and future Walther employee Karl August Brauning. The guns, pocketable semi-autos in .25ACP, .32ACP and .380, were first offered under the Ortgies banner in small numbers just after World War I ended and then, around 1920, the brand and patents were sold to government-subsidized Deutsche Werke A. G. who kept marketing for as long as they could.
Ortgies filed almost a dozen patents for straight-blowback self-loading pistols between 1916 and 1921 and cashed in by selling it all to Deutsche Werke.
DW-made Ortgies was produced in two formats, a 6+1 vest-pocket version in .25 ACP with a fixed 2.75-inch barrel, and a pocket model in either .32 ACP (8+1) or .380 (7+1) with a similarly fixed 3.25-inch barrel. Both models used simple fixed sights and wooden grip panels, although the markings and panel medallions varied widely across production with Ed Buffaloe over
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