The MP 36 (''Maschinenpistole 36'') was a

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

designed in 1936 and produced by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

during World War II. It was a select-fire

9×19mm Parabellum The 9×19mm Parabellum (also known as 9mm Luger, 9mm NATO or simply 9mm) is a Rim (firearms)#Rimless, rimless, Centerfire ammunition, centerfire, tapered cartridge (firearms), firearms cartridge. Originally designed by Austrian firearm designer ...

submachine gun with a wooden body and a steel folding stock.

History

In January 1938, the German ''

Heereswaffenamt (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr and then Wehrmacht The ''Wehr ...

'' requested a lightweight, compact, rapid firing

9mm This is a list of firearm cartridges that have bullets in the to caliber In guns, particularly firearms, but not #As a measurement of length, artillery, where a different definition may apply, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviate ...

weapon for paratroopers and armored crews. The result was the MP 38, a revolutionary submachine gun design which later became the

MP 40 The MP 40 () is a submachine gun chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. Developed in Nazi Germany, it saw extensive service in the Axis powers , Axis forces during World War II. Designed in 1938 by Heinrich Vollmer with inspiration ...

. However, the MP 38 was produced extraordinarily quickly because Erma-Werke had already produced a prototype submachine gun, the MP 36, before they were even approached to produce one. The MP 36 was virtually unheard-of even at the time and very few are known to exist. Few were captured by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

. The models that were captured mysteriously didn't use their own

magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

, instead using MP 40 magazines. Also, the weapons only had one set of markings; they simply read "ERMA ERFURT EMP-36 (Erma Maschinenpistole 1936)". The MP 36 was never likely to have been mass-produced.

Design

This submachine gun was a selective-fire,

submachine gun, which had a wooden body and a steel folding stock. The weapon had only one set of markings, which read "ERMA ERFURT EMP-36 (Erma Maschinenpistole 1936)". Nothing else is known afterwards about the design.

Variants

MP 40

Users

* : Limited

References