the Gewehr 98 rifle was personally praised by Kaiser Wilhelm II on April 5, 1898. Mauser lost his left eye in 1901 as a result of a cartridge explosion during a test firing of the self-loading C98. Mauser also designed the 7.65×53mm Mauser (1889) and 7×57mm Mauser (1892) rifle cartridges. These cartridges were high-performance service cartridge designs compared to other contemporary smokeless powder service cartridges such as the 8mm Lebel (1886), 8×50mmR Mannlicher (1890) and .303 British (1891). Entry into politics Mauser was a member of the German Reichstag for the National Liberal Party from 1898 to 1903, a party that appeared in the Kingdom of Württemberg as a German party. In the Reichstag, he represents the 8th district of Württemberg (Freudenstadt, Horb, Oberndorf, and Sulz). He was nominated as a candidate thanks to an alliance of the Conservatives, the Farmers' Federation, and the National Liberals and after his election to the Reichstag he joined the Group of National Liberals as a guest. Death Peter Paul von Mauser died on 29 May 1914. Awards from the Association of German Engineers (1912) Designs Rifles Mauser Model 1871 Mauser Model 1889 Mauser Model 1893 Swedish Mauser Gewehr 98 Handguns Mauser C78 "Zig-Zag" (1878) Mauser C96 (1896) Cartridges 7.65×53mm Mauser (1889) 7×57mm Mauser (1892) Literature Paul Gehring (1941), Wilhelm (1834–1882) und Paul Mauser (1838–1914): Erfinder und Fabrikanten von Gewehren und sonstigen Handfeuerwaffen. In: Hermann Haering und Otto Hohenstatt (Hrsg.), Schwäbische Lebensbilder, Bd. 2. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, P. 314–339. Wolfgang Seel: Mauser, Paul von. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, , P. 448 f. References External links Paul-mauser-archive.com 1838 births 1914 deaths People from Oberndorf am Neckar People from the Kingdom of Württemberg German Roman Catholics National Liberal Party (Germany) politicians Members of the 10th Reichstag of the German Empire Firearm designers Ballistics experts Gunsmiths 19th-century German inventors 19th-century German businesspeople 20th-century German businesspeople