Home / Proof Marks / German proof-house marks

German proof-house marks

German proof marks · From the 1890s; most in use 1939-1945.
What it looks like
Small pictorial marks: a fir tree or heart (Zella-Mehlis), a stylised eagle (Suhl), and comparable devices for the other houses.
Where it is on the gun
Usually beside the proof crowns.
Date range
From the 1890s; most in use 1939-1945.

What it tells you

What this mark authorises you to say

Which proof house tested the gun, and therefore which city it passed through. Suhl, Zella-Mehlis, Oberndorf am Neckar, Ferlach, Weipert and Vienna all had recognised houses, and the mark localises a gun to a gunmaking region — useful when the maker’s name is worn away, since Suhl and Zella-Mehlis between them account for a very large share of German sporting arms.

What it does not tell you

What this mark does NOT say

It identifies where the gun was proved, which is not where it was made. A gun built in one town could be sent to another house, and Ferlach and Vienna were in Austria, not Germany, so a Ferlach mark on a "German" gun is not a contradiction.

Sources for this page

Every claim above is attributed. The class of source is shown with each one, because a national proof house and an anonymous forum table are not the same evidence — and on proof marks the difference matters.

Reading marks to identify and date a gun

Proof marks name the test and the era. The serial number, where a maker published a browsable chart, can name the year. The lookup cites the threshold behind every result.

Open the serial number lookup

Other german proof marks

Mark descriptions observed and verified 2026-10-14. Proof marks are stamped by hand on guns up to a century old; a photographed stamp and a description in a book are not the same evidence. If a mark on your gun does not match anything here, that is a real answer — see the notes on unidentified marks.