GLOCK was founded by Mr. Gaston Glock, an engineer, in 1963 in Deutsch-Wagram, near Vienna to specialize in the manufacture of plastic and steel components. In the early 1980s, the Austrian military decided to acquire a new duty pistol asking numerous famous local and foreign weapon manufacturers for their bids. Due to GLOCK's excellent reputation with previous military contracts, GLOCK was also invited to bid on this new contract. This was a new challenge for the company, since pistols were not in its product line at that time. The result was a breakthrough in firearms technology. With its polymer frame, the GLOCK pistol was considerably light in weight had the highest magazine capacity of any other pistol in its class. The pistol did not have any external safety lever, hammer, decocker, or any other operation controls which must be deactivated prior to making the weapon ready to shoot. In this way, the pistol was faster, simpler and safer to use than any other pistol. The new pistol concept allowed the shooter to concentrate on tactical considerations, rather than manipulation of levers or hammers on the pistol. In short, the pistol combined two different systems – it considered the advantages of the double-action revolver (simple to operate, reliable) and those of the auto-loading pistol (maximum firepower, fast reloading). This was the birth of the well-known Safe-Action system. By merely pulling the trigger to the rear, the three independent safeties (trigger safety, firing pin safety and drop safety) are automatically deactivated and re-activated when the trigger is released. In 1985, an important milestone was achieved with the establishment of GLOCK, Inc., in Smyrna, Georgia, to address the firearms market in the United States. The so-called "wonder-nine" GLOCK 17 met with immediate approval and overwhelming acceptance in the law enforcement and civilian markets. The success of the GLOCK pistol made it necessary to open a second subsidiary in Hong Kong in 1988 to address the Asian and Australian markets. Consequently, the production capacity was enlarged by a second factory in Ferlach/Carinthia in Austria. As the ballistically powerful .40 calibre gained popularity in the United States, GLOCK recognized the importance of this calibre and presented the GLOCK 22 and GLOCK 23 in 1990.

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