Collecting is one of mankind's primal instincts. In contrast to other primal instincts that have atrophied over time, it is still anchored in every human being.
It is still practiced today in a wide variety of ways. Privately owned collections play a particularly important role in the presentation of cultural and historical contexts.

Contents and overview
 Collecting weapons - Weapons legislation
o Collecting weapons with a system
o Examples of a culturally and historically significant weapons collection:
o Expert opinion for submission when applying for a weapons collection

Preservers of cultural heritage are also collectors of weapons and ammunition. Collectors regard weapons and ammunition primarily as technical and historical evidence and only secondarily or in connection with their collecting activities as objects for shooting.
Weapons and ammunition collectors cover specialist areas such as "culture", "history" and even "research". You can document this through specialist articles, specialist books, specialist lectures and exhibitions. In addition to weapons and ammunition, collectors are often particularly interested in the technical solutions associated with them and documented by them, as well as ethical and moral circumstances.
Collectors are therefore not only interested in the items they collect, but also in the historical epoch they represent, the state of the art or political developments.

Collecting weapons - Weapons legislation

The general requirements for weapons and ammunition licenses in §§ 4 to 8 WaffG also apply to collectors: This refers to reliability, suitability, minimum age, expertise and need.

Proof of a need (Section 8 WaffG) is provided if, compared to the interests of public safety or order.
1. particularly recognizable personal or economic interests, above all as a ... collector of weapons or ammunition, ... and
2. the suitability and necessity of the weapons or ammunition for the purpose applied for are credibly demonstrated.
With regard to the acquisition and possession of firearms or ammunition by firearms or ammunition collectors, § 17 WaffG specifically states:
(1) A need to acquire and possess firearms or ammunition is recognized for persons who can credibly demonstrate that they require firearms or ammunition for a culturally and historically significant collection (firearms collectors, ammunition collectors); a scientific or technical collection is also culturally and historically significant.
(2) Permission to acquire firearms or ammunition is generally granted for an unlimited period. It may be subject to the condition that a list of the stock of firearms be submitted to the authorities at certain intervals.
(3) Permission to acquire and possess firearms or ammunition shall also be granted to an heir, legatee or beneficiary by condition (acquirer as a result of an inheritance) who continues an existing collection of the deceased within the meaning of paragraph 1.

The characteristic of a collection is not already fulfilled by the mere accumulation of weapons or ammunition. An undefined, merely global collection objective is also not sufficient. What is required is a specific theme and corresponding systematization that creates an orderly whole from the individual items.

Collecting weapons with a system

According to this legal requirement, weapons collectors are persons who wish to create a new collection of weapons of cultural and historical significance or expand and complete an existing collection.

Collection by manufacturer and weapon type, here: Self-loading pistols from the Beretta company.
Weapons collections as defined by the legislator are multiple or numerous weapons that have been brought together or are to be brought together or preserved for historical, scientific or technical reasons.

A collection must represent more than the sum of its individual components. It must be arranged according to an individual systematization. A collection is considered to be of cultural-historical significance if it has "historical-cultural significance", i.e. if it contains more than just a minor contribution to the documentation of human creativity.

The necessary thematization and systematization of the collection items must have the effect of identifying the collected objects as a collection. A scientific-technical collection can also receive the title "culturally and historically significant".

Examples of a culturally and historically significant weapons collection:

• Long and short weapons from J.G. Landmann Jagd- und Sportwaffen-Fabrikation and Landmann Waffenfabrik GmbH
• Short and long weapons made by Carl Walther Zella-Mehlis / Ulm (Donau)
• Mauser long and short weapons / Oberndorf
  Regulated long and short weapons used in German armies and police formations from 1871 to 1945
• Short and long weapons made by Heckler & Koch