The Bergmann 1896 Number 2 pistol was a relatively successful compact pocket gun for its day, but quickly became obsolete as semiautomatic handguns developed and improved. Bergman and his chief engineer Schmeisser spent the late 1890s developing and improved version of the Bergmann automatics, pitting into two distinct lines of development. One was the Number 5 (1897) locked breech pistol for military service, which would evolve into the reasonable successful Model 1910. The other was the Number 6 (circa 1899) which would become the Simplex.

The Simplex was a compact simple blowback pistol firing a proprietary 8x18mm cartridge slightly less powerful than the .32 ACP. It used a detachable magazine of 5, 8, or 10 rounds and shared the basic aesthetic lines of the 1897 and 1903 Bergmann pistols, albeit smaller and cheaper. However, the Simplex was in direct competition with the FN/Browning 1900, which was a spectacularly successful and popular design. The Bergmann Simplex was unable to effectively, and only about 4000 were made in total before it was dropped form production.

There are two basic variations of the Simplex, and we have one of each in this video. The early guns have the magazine release located on the front of the magazine well, and the late pattern guns have a more modern style of magazine release button on the side of the frame above the trigger.