Aurubis

Aurubis names the company ‘Beit, Marcus und Salomon Gold- und Silberscheider’ in the Elbstrasse in Hamburg as its predecessor. It was first mentioned in the Hamburg merchant almanac in 1783, but Marcus Salomon Beit was already given the permission to build a silver parting and smelting furnace in Hamburg in 1770. As time went on, the company did not only smelt coins and precious metal alloys but also silver ores so that a shift of the production towards ore smelting occurred. After 1830 Hamburg ship owners started to ship copper ore on the emigration ships when they returned to Germany from North and South America, and sometimes Australia. In 1846 the ‘Elbkupferwerk’ was founded on the river Elbe's island Steinwerder in cooperation with Johann Cesar Godeffroy and Siegmund Robinow.

The economic recovery led to the foundation of the ‘Elbhütten Affinerie- und Handelsgesellschaft’ in 1856 which merged the Elbkupferwerk with the Beit Gold and Silver Parting company. Delivery and smelting of copper and silver ores were processed in Steinwerder, the Elbstrasse site oversaw the processing by ‘affination’ in smelters and the sale of the products. The annual copper production amounted to 3,000 tonnes. On 28 April 1866 Norddeutsche Affinerie was founded as a stock corporation with participation of Norddeutsche Bank and Allgemeine Deutsche Kreditanstalt.Copper was produced at the ‘Peute’, an industrial area of the Hamburg district Veddel since 1910. The production plants occupy great parts of the industrial area there.

Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, the Jewish members of the management board Richard Merton, Julius Levisohn and Heinrich Wohlwill were forced to step down.:?39? The Norddeutsche Affinerie profited by increased public investment and expanded its business significantly. By 1939, the company provided nearly half the German demand for copper and employed 1450 people.:?37? In the aftermath of the November pogroms, the company took part in processing gold that was extorted from Jewish owners.:?39–40? In 1939, Wilhelm Avieny of Metallgesellschaft and Hermann Schlosser, CEO of Degussa, were appointed to leading positions on the supervisory board of Norddeutsche Affinerie. Both were early supporters of the NSDAP and linked to Nazi politics due to the importance of their respective companies.:?39? During World War II, Norddeutsche Affinerie was an important supplier to the munitions industry and used forced labor to maintain production. At its peak in July 1944, 806 of 1900 employees were forced laborers.:?41?Dr Werner Marnette was CEO was from 1994 to 9 November 2007.

Dr Bernd Drouven was appointed CEO from 2008 to 31 December 2011.

Peter Willbrandt was appointed CEO as of 1 January 2012, followed by Roland Harings since 2019.

Norddeutsche Affinerie took over 91% of the Belgium copper producer Cumerio until 18 February 2008 after a long dispute with the Austrian A-TEC Industries. A squeeze-out completed the acquisition of Cumerio on 15 April 2008.In March 2009, the general meeting of Norddeutsche Affinerie renamed the company Aurubis.