Trademark ? on safety of a Menz rifle

[Steve Whitley]

Does anyone recognize this "K Co." marking which appears on the forward side of a wing safety of an early DSM produced by August Menz? I wonder if this could not be possibly from Kettner, who was across the street from Menz at this time.

Steve

DSM Menz safety marking.jpg

[Axel E]

Unlikely, neither Franz Kettner, Köln and Suhl, nor Eduard Kettner, Köln and Suhl too, competing companies of two branches of a family, but not with "&Co". Maybe a parts subcontractor. I would rather suspect either
Kerner & Co. OHG, Lutterothstr. 7, Suhl, founded by Ernst Kerner, but they used the tm "Eko" usually,
or
Kerner & Co. Gmbh, Rimbachstr.28-29, Suhl, Rudolf Kerner, metal wares factory,
or
Kessler & Co OHG, Daniel and Otto K., Suhl, "gun factory",
or
Kiess & Co, Schleusinger Str.36, Fritz Kiess, "gun factory"
These are the K.. & Co. companies listed by Pape & Kellner in the Suhl + Zella –Mehlis guntrade. Köln, Cologne in French and English, was spelled Cöln pre-WW1, but Köln in the 1930s.

[Steve Whitley]

Thank you Axel! That gives me a point of beginning, and I will see if I can find evidence of this mark used by one of those firms. One of the latter three would seem most likely at this point. Interestingly, I have had one example of a DSM marked with the Auerhahn and "E.K.O." of Ernst Kerner. It was evidently purchased by Kerner to supply a customer's request, and at a time after both Menz and the Suhl consortium had moved on from producing the training rifles, as he bought it from Weihrauch in Zella-Mehlis. Weihrauch had been the assembly point for the consortium DSMs there, as Haenel had been for the Suhl consortium DSMs. Many thanks again!
Steve