Waffenfabrik Bern

The Swiss federal arms factory, founded at Bern in 1871 and the maker of every service rifle the country issued for more than a century. Its output is unusual on this site in that almost none of it was exported: a militia system in which every serving man keeps his rifle at home produces a domestic market large enough to justify a state factory and a standard of finish that a competitive export market would not pay for. The works were later absorbed into the federal defence group now called RUAG.