The Haenel Company was founded in 1840 by Carl Gottlieb Haenel. The company originally produced military weapons, then sporting guns and later airguns. The company was sold around 1890 and the Haenel brand name has changed hands many times since then. Haenel airguns were most recently made by Suhler Jagd-und Sportwaffen GmbH, in Suhl, Germany. Waffentechnik in Suhl currently has control. Identity of the company itself and all of the records were lost when the firm was integrated into the communist state-run firearms industry in the late 1940s. Therefore, accurately dating and identifying every Haenel airgun is not always possible.
Haenel guns are all stamped with the Haenel name and model number. The 1926 catalog only lists the Models I, II, III, and IV air rifles and no air pistols. The 1937 catalog lists the Model 10 and IV ER and VR, and four air pistols including the 28R and 50.
The Luger-style Model 28 air pistol and the Model 33 air rifle are Haenel´s most famous models. Designed by Hugo Schmeisser, of sub-machine gun fame, the Model 33 was the basis for the later Haenel 49, 310, 400, 510, LP55R and the Anschütz 275. The Schmiesser brothers worked at the factory for about twenty years.
Haenel had been noted for exceptionally high quality, but standards seemed to almost vanish under the state-owned operation. Quality improved some after the unification of Germany.
The key reference on post-WWII Haenel airguns was compiled by Ernst Dieter (a pseudonym) (2002), a former top engineer at Haenel: Luftgewehre und Luftpistolen nach 1945 aus Suhl und Zella-Mehlis.
For more information and pricing on used Haenel firearms, please refer to the Blue Book of Gun Values (also available online).
Previous manufacturer located in Suhl, Germany. Previously imported by Pilkington Competition Equipment LLC, located in Monteagle, TN, Cape Outfitters, located in Cape Girardeau, MO, and G.S.I., located in Trussville, AL.