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These pre-WW1 Haenel rifles, models 1900 and 1909, are not copies of Mannlicher- Schoenauers, but independent parallel developments , both based on The original German M88 "commission" action. The bolt of both the Mannlicher –Schoenauers and the Haenels is not Schoenauer's, but Louis Schlegelmilch's. The magazine with it's intricate leverwork follower was patented by Haenel to avoid patent infringement on Mauser's W-spring design.
Louis Schlegelmilch was the head gunsmith of the Prussian Spandau arsenal. He designed the turn bolt action now usually associated with "Mannlicher". The Steyr factory got an order for several hundred thousand M88 military rifles for the German armies and was allowed to use Schlegelmilch's turning bolt for their own export rifles. As the production capacity of the German government arsenals was insufficient, not only Steyr, but Ludwig Loewe, later DWM, Berlin and the Suhl factories of C.G. Haenel and V.C. Schilling got substantial orders for the new M88 commission rifles and carbines too. After 1895 the Mauser stripper clip loading, flush magazine became popular. The protuding Mannlicher magazine with it's dirt catching opening was not competitive any more for any new military rifle. Steyr could not use Mauser's staggered magazine, then state of the art, for patent reasons. Their director Otto Schoenauer designed his own rotary magazine, stripper clip loading too, and fitted it to the basic Schlegelmilch turnbolt action instead of Mannlicher's magazine. So the famous "Mannlicher – Schoenauer" was born.
After 1898 Haenel, Suhl, faced a similar problem. They too were set up to make the obsolescent M88 action with Schlegelmilch's bolt and the now obsolescent Mannlicher magazine. They still exported M88 action military rifles to many corners of the world and made sporting rifles in several grades, but foresaw the demise of Mannlicher's magazine. So Haenel too tried to upgrade their turnbolt rifles to make them competitive again. Like the Steyr factory they added their own, patented flush, stripper clip loading magazine to the basic Schlegelmilch action, added a gas flange, a new ejector and the two –piece "safety" firing pin.
So both the "Mannlicher – Schoenauers" and the Haenels M1900 and 1909 are in fact parallel developments. None retains any Mannlicher design feature

Excellent information!

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