Collector guides · Hand-built in Germany

Korth: a collector’s guide

How Korth went from a Ratzeburg workshop to the Lollar factory, what separates the classic revolvers from today’s guns, and what to check before you buy one.

Updated 2026-09-29

From Ratzeburg to Lollar

Willi Korth started in 1954 in a basement workshop, making blank-firing revolvers, and later moved the business to Ratzeburg in northern Germany. Cartridge revolvers followed in the 1960s, including a .38 Special revolver for police use.

The company changed hands several times. Willi Korth handed it over in the early 1980s, it went bankrupt in 1999, and Freylinger of Luxembourg bought it in 2000. The Ratzeburg works closed in 2008 and production restarted in Lollar, Hesse, in 2009. For a collector that split matters: the roll mark tells you which era a gun comes from.

The classic revolvers

The revolvers that made the name were sold as the Combat, Sport and Target. They were built slowly and in small numbers by a handful of gunsmiths, which is why so few come up for sale.

The .357 Magnum models could be supplied with an extra 9×19mm cylinder, fitted and timed to that individual revolver. A spare cylinder that belongs to the gun adds to its value; one that came from another gun does not.

The pistols

Korth announced its Semi-Automatic pistol in 1982 in 9mm; versions in .40 S&W and .357 SIG came later, once those cartridges existed. Sources disagree on when series production began, and numbers were always small.

The PRS followed in 2015: a roller-delayed pistol with a fixed barrel on a 1911-type frame, chambered in .45 ACP.

The Nighthawk era

Since 2016 Nighthawk Custom has been Korth’s exclusive US importer. It is an import partnership, not an ownership change. The first imports were the Mongoose, the Super Sport and the Sky Hawk, a 9mm that needs no moon clips. The NXR in .44 Magnum was shown in 2020 and the eight-shot NXS in .357 in 2021.

Current Nighthawk-imported models run from roughly $3,700 to $9,000. The reason is labour: a 2022 report on the Lollar factory counted 27 employees and two to three months to build a single revolver, with most production going to the United States.

Before you buy: checklist

Establish where and when it was made: guns from the original Ratzeburg works (up to 2008) and from Lollar (2009 on) are different eras to collectors.
If a 9mm cylinder is included, confirm it is the matching cylinder fitted to that revolver.
A gun imported since 2016 should carry importer markings; check they fit the seller’s account of where it came from.
Ask for the box, papers and any factory documents. With production this small, any “rare variant” claim needs paperwork behind it.
Look closely at the finish: softened edges and blurred markings are the usual signs of a refinish.
Get sharp photographs of every marking and serial number before you agree a price.

Buying one on GunMister

GunMister is a classified-advertising site: sellers set their own prices and you deal with them directly. Ask the seller for close-up photographs of the markings and serial numbers before you agree a price, and complete the transfer as the law requires, through a licensed dealer where one is needed. See what is listed now in the Korth collection.