The metals trading firm of Metallgesellschaft AG was founded in 1881 by the Anglo-German merchant Wilhelm Merton and his partners Leo Ellinger and Zachary Hochschild, yet grew from the roots of the long-established merchant house of Philipp Abraham Cohen – established in Hannover some 150 years previously. The firm traded in copper, lead, and zinc, later diversifying into nickel and aluminium. Since the domestic mines could not satisfy the country's metal requirements, the company rapidly developed extensive relations abroad and within a short time Metallgesellschaft was represented in such cities as Basel, Amsterdam, Milan, Brussels, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, and Paris. Within a few years, therefore, a network of subsidiaries spanned the globe. In 1887, the American Metal Company was founded in New York; in 1889, the Companhia de Minerales y Metales in Mexico; and in 1889 the Australian Metal Company.
From 1889, these ores were analyzed and tested by the specially created technical department. This technical department was to be the seed from which grew the largest enterprise that Metallgesellschaft has ever created; from it arose in 1897 the Metallurgische Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft – now known from its cable address as Lurgi GmbH.
The firm developed and flourished in the generally favourable climate of the Gründerjahre, a period of rapid industrial expansion in Germany. However, it was hard hit by the economic consequences of the Great War. Supplies of metals from abroad were disrupted by the Allied blockade of Germany, and the firm’s subsidiaries in Britain, Australia and other nations were seized. To compensate for this loss of business, the firm invested heavily in the construction of several large aluminium works – at Horrem, near Köln; in Berlin-Rummelsburg and in Bitterfeld near Halle.
Following the Great War the firm had three main tasks - overcoming the consequences of inflation; reestablishing ties abroad; and adjusting the firm’s organization to the altered circumstances. Representation abroad was cautiously and gradually reestablished, based in large part on those subsidiaries that were based in neutral nations, such as the United States. Through the acquisition of water transport and land transport companies it created its own transport services. The firm’s interests in light metals were merged with other firms to form the Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke AG.
In recent years the firm has gone from strength to strength and remains a dominant force in the commodity metals trade and, through its numerous subsidiaries, mines, processes and fabricates much of Germany’s metal needs.
Subsidiary companies of the firm include:
In Germany
Lehnkering AG (water transport)
Metallgesellschaft Handel und Beteiligungen Aktiengesellschaft (metals trading)
Montan Transport GmbH (land transport)
Schleppschiffahrtsgesellschaft Unterweser (water transport)
Abroad
Companhia de Minerales y Metales Sociedad Anonima, Mexico (metals trading)
Compania General de Carbones Sociedad Anonima, Iberia (commodity trading)
Metal and Commodity Company Ltd, United Kingdom (metals trading)
Metallgesellschaft do Brasil Limitada, Brazil (metals trading)
MG Metallgesellschaft AG, Switzerland (metals trading)
Affiliated companies of the firm include:
Lurgi GmbH (metallurgical engineering and processes)
Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (metals refining)
Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke AG (light metals manufacture and fabrication)