The initial kits (1933-34)

 

Soldiers during the Reichswehr autumn maneuvers in the Frankfurt an der Oder area, 1930 
Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-10351 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

 There is evidence of the Reichswehr carrying out tests with a new weapons cleaning equipment as early as 1933. References to the new cleaning equipment already appear in a privately published manual by Eisenschmidt as early as April 1934.

 On June 7, 1934, the patent dated March 7, 1934 DRP 1302335 for a Behälter zur Afbewahrung von Reinigungsgeräten für Handwaffen, Maschinengewehre und dergleichen [container for storing cleaning utensils for hand weapons, machine guns and similars] by engineer Gustav Appel was published. 

Illustration accompanying patent DRP 1302325 of March 7, 1934 by Gustav Appel.
German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) 

 Very little information is available on the first cleaning kits manufactured, both on those manufactured before their official introduction as Reinigungsgerät 34 in September 1934 and on the examples manufactured immediately afterwards until 1935, when large-scale production began, with very few kits from what we can denomine as "initial manufacture" having survived to this day.

 These kits from initial manufacturing do not have any markings that allow easy identification, although some peculiar characteristics can be observed in the can that allow their correct identification, differentiating them from those of later manufacture. 

 These peculiarities are:

• The slot punched in the lid, where the closing latch acts, is oval-shaped, being very similar to the one that appears in the drawing of the Behälter patent.

• The outer line of the side seam, on the body of the can, is centered with respect to the side.

An empty can from the initial production run.
Note the oval shape of the latch recess, very similar to the one shown in the patent drawing.
The side seam of the can would undergo some minor modification from 1935 onwards.

 Some of the initial production cans observed have G.APPEL markings on their lid while others lack any manufacturer's markings. Furthermore, some of them have been observed with markings of the Deutsche Reichpost  (DRP) [more info here] as well as the S.A. (Ch.d.A.W.), which gives us an idea that, in addition to the Reichswehr, other government units and paramilitary organisations made use of the new cleaning equipment at a very early stage.

An initially manufactured can that does not show any type of markings.

 It seems that these initial manufacture cans were used until early 1935 as evidenced by the existence of kits that use this type of can marked with the G.APPEL logo and the year 1935.

German personnel cleaning their rifles with at least 3 cleaning kits over the table.
 Everything indicates that these are initial manufacture cleaning kits (see enlargement below).

Enlargement of the red frame above, rotated.
Note the oval shape of the indentation.