Zella-Mehlis was a town renowned for its gunsmith heritage where practically everyone worked on guns or their components either in small home workshops or larger factories. Many famous gun factories could be found in Zella-Mehlis such as Walther, J.G. Anschutz and Schützen Rifles. At the end of WWII, the Russian occupiers blew up the Walther and other factories that produced guns for the war. All that is left today is the Schilling Company which dates back three generations along with the Ziegenhahn Company which moved to Zella-Mehlis from Suhl after the German reunification.
The design is concentric in that the barrel is contained within the piston and mainspring rather than being separate from the air chamber, i.e. above or in front of the piston chamber as found on Webley and Scott or Haenels. This allows for a more compact and streamlined pistol and has been the basis of the British pistols the Acvoke (1946-1956) of Accles & Shelvoke and the Thunderbolt Junior (1947-1949). The Acvoke being an almost identical but larger version of the Tell II. Other pistols have also copied the concentric design but have not been a fully identical copy of the Tell II as have the Acvoke and Thunderbolt Junior. The barrel is smooth-bored and fires .177 pellets. The sights are fixed and consist of a ball foresight and a notch rear sight. The grips are wood and chequered.The top of the piston chamber is marked “D.R.G.M. Tell II D.R.P”. Either side of the “Tell II” is the factory logo stamp comprising the letters W, W and V for Venuswaffenwerke. “D.R.G.M.” stands for Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster, meaning that the design or function of an item was officially registered inside all of the German states whilst “D.R.P.” stands for Deutsches Reichspatent.