Bittorf Family, Suhl

At the present time vey little is known about the Bittorf family of gunmakers in Suhl. It seems that a first generation of the family in Suhl to work as gunmakers consisted of the Büchsenmachers August Bittof at 144 Gothaer Strasse (Referance 1913), Ferdinand Bittorf at 4 Hohe Röder (1913) and the Büchsenmachermeister Robert Bittorf at 56 Schmiedefelder Strasse (1913).

The second generation consists of the Büchsenmacher Karl (Max) Bittorf who was located at 19 Röderfeld Strasse in Suhl, the Büchsenmacher Richard Bittorf at 59 Schmiedefeder in 1950 and Alfred Bittorf who was located at Rosenstraße 64 and Duisburger Straße 128 in Düsseldorf. The main subject of this page is Karl (Max) Bittorf who specialized in high end hunting and target guns. He shows up in referance’s as early as 1930 and as late as 1950. In 1947 and 1950 he was a member of the Buhag gunmakers in Suhl. If any viewer has biographical information on the Bittorf’s please pass it along and I will add it to this page.

Following is an invoice courtesy of Axel Pantermühl in Germany for gun no. 2124 dated July 14, 1952.

Following are images of some of his known high end hunting guns.

I wish to thank Polyzos Stelios of Greece for sending me the following 2 sets of images of his Bittorf gun and for bringing Karl Bittorf to my attention. It is interesting that his gun uses the Franz Jäger hammer blocking safety on the left side.

The gun is a 16 gauge which was proofed in June 1940 serial no. 645.

The following images of a 16 gauge Karl Bittorf over-under with two barrels is courtesy of the Rock island Auction Co. It was proofed in Feb. 1943. The second set of barrels is a combination 16 gauge and 8x57mm. It was sold on Sept. 10, 2016 for $8,625.

The Following set of images are courtesy of Leroy Merz and Gunsinternational. It is a single shot stalking rifle with two interchangable barrels, serial no. 243, the original barrel was in 8 x 46.5 mm and was sleeved to 22 Hornet and originally proofed in August 1928. The other barrel in 7x57mm was proofed in June 1935.

Following are images of another Stalking rifle by Karl Bittorf with Franz Jäger’s hammer blocking safety and the Kersten double bolt lock up.

Following are images of a Double side by side rifle in 8 x 65 mm proofed in March of 1933 serial no. 394. They come from a collector in Ukraine.

Below is a combination over-under gun serial no. 2173 proofed in April 1957. It is chambered for 20 gauge and 22 Savage H.P., courtesy of Dorleac & Dorleac.