THE MASCHINENPISTOLE 38 was designed by a team from the Ermawerke factory, which was owned by Besthold Giepel.

In 1938 the German Army, although having several other submachinegun designs on its books, decided to get Besthold Giepel to produce a submachinegun to it's own specification. The MP38 was the result.

It had several innovative features including:

• no furniture (wood)
• a folding stock; and
• a spring-retracted firing pin.

However, the design was not suited to mass production. Consequently it was redesigned to take advantage of welding and stamping manufacturing techniques and became the MP40. It replaced the MP38 as the standard German submachinegun.

The MP38/MP40 is commonly, though incorrectly, referred to as the Schmeisser. Although Hugo Schmeisser was responsible of other submachinguns such as the MP 18 and MP 28, he had nothing to do with the design of this weapon.