Gewehr 88

Model 1888 commission rifle / Gewehr 88
Type	Service rifle
Place of origin	German Empire
Service history
In service	1888–1921 and 1944–1945 (Germany)
Used by	See users
Wars	First Sino-Japanese War, War of Canudos, Second Boer War, Boxer Rebellion, Herero Wars, Maji Maji Rebellion, World War I, Easter Rising, Russian Civil War, German Revolution of 1918–19, Revolutions and interventions in Hungary (1918–20), Greater Poland Uprising (1918–19), Polish–Soviet War, Irish War of Independence, Silesian Uprisings, Turkish War of Independence, Lithuanian Wars of Independence, Sheikh Said rebellion, Ararat rebellion, Chinese Civil War, Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Spanish Civil War, Dersim rebellion, Second Sino-Japanese War, Sudeten German uprising 1938, World War II, Korean War
Production history
Designer	German Rifle Commission
Manufacturer	Ludwig Loewe, Haenel, Steyr-Mannlicher, Imperial Arsenals of Amberg, Danzig, Erfurt, and Spandau, Hanyang Arsenal
Variants	Gewehr 88/05, Gewehr 88/14, Karabiner 88, Hanyang 88 (unlicensed copy)
Specifications
Weight	3.8 kg (8.4 lb)
Length	1,245 mm (49.0 in)
Barrel length	740 mm (29.1 in)
Cartridge	M/88, 7.92×57mm Mauser from Gewehr 88/05 onwards
Action	bolt-action
Feed system	5 round clip in a permanent internal magazine

The Gewehr 88 (commonly called the Model 1888 commission rifle) was a late 19th-century German bolt action rifle, adopted in 1888.

The invention of smokeless powder in the late 19th century immediately rendered all of the large-bore black powder rifles then in use obsolete. To keep pace with the French (who had adopted smokeless powder "small bore" ammunition for their Lebel Model 1886 rifle) the Germans adopted the Gewehr 88 using its own new M/88 cartridge, which was also designed by the German Rifle Commission. The rifle was one of many weapons in the arms race between the Germanic states and France, and with Europe in general. There were also two carbine versions, the Karabiner 88 for mounted troops and the Gewehr 91 for artillery. Later models provided for loading with stripper clips (Gewehr 88/05s and Gewehr 88/14s) and went on to serve in World War I to a limited degree. Unlike many German service rifles before and after, it was not developed by Mauser but the arms commission, and Mauser was one of the few major arms manufacturers in Germany that did not produce Gewehr 88s.

In 1886, fifteen years after their defeat by German forces in the Franco-Prussian War, the French Army introduced the new Lebel magazine rifle firing an 8 mm high-velocity projectile propelled by the new smokeless powder. This made Germany’s rifle, the Mauser Model 1871, obsolete due to its large and slow 11 mm round propelled by black powder. The practical result was that the French rifle had greater accuracy and range, giving French troops a tactical advantage over the German Army. In response the German Army’s Rifle Testing Commission developed the Gewehr 88 which was adopted for service in 1888. For this reason the Gewehr 88 is also known as the "commission rifle," or "reichsgewehr".

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