Post-WW2, in GDR times, the communist had amalgamated all the Suhl factories into the “Ernst-Thaelmann-Werke , ETW”(named after a commie “martyr”). To streamline production they greatly reduced designs o jus one type each for side by sides and drillings, retaining some more for over-unders. All s-s guns were made at the former Simson factory, all o-us at the former Gebrueder Merkel factory and drillings by the “Fortuna”, former Sauer & Sohn factory. So s-ss were usually marked “Simson”, o-us “Merkel”. But the GDR export organization had put any name a local market desired on the guns they sold abroad. As mebers of the Simson family, the former owners, were still alive and owned the trademark, the ETW could not sell “Simson” guns in some countries. So they simply marked s-ss “Merkel” to make them legal. It’s little wonder that a post-war Simson looks exactly like a Merkel of the same vintage: both were made by the same men on the same machines at the same factory and differ in branding only.