MGRM Group history

In 1856, Cohen entrusted his business interests to his son-in-law Ralph Merton, who had emigrated from London to Frankfurt.

MG developed and flourished in the generally favorable climate of the late period of the Gründerjahre--the period, beginning in 1871, of rapid industrial expansion in Germany.

Cohen had also been involved in silver trading, but abandoned this line in 1872, leaving the way open for the founding of the Deutsche Goldund Silber-Scheideanstalt (Degussa).

The company was founded on May 17, 1881, by the Anglo-German merchant Wilhelm Merton and his two partners, Leo Ellinger and Zachary Hochschild, with a share capital of 2 million marks.

From 1889, these ores were analyzed and tested by the specially created technical department.

By 1906, the year of its 25th anniversary, MG was a steadily growing, prosperous concern, involved in many sectors, and active internationally in trading and engineering technology, in the fields of mining and metallurgy.

In the middle of World War I, on December 15, 1916, Wilhelm Merton died suddenly on a business trip to Berlin.

In the field of metal working, the Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke AG (VDM) was founded in 1930 through mergers and partnerships.

During the reign of the Merton brothers, a four-man central committee had been formed in 1932 from among the board members and invested with extended powers.

Alfred Merton had emigrated in 1933 for political reasons.

In 1938 the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi Party) succeeded in establishing R. W. Avieny, the choice of Gauleiter (or regional Nazi administrator) Sprenger, on the board of MG. He also became a member of the central committee, together with R. Kissel and F. Traudes.

The death in 1939 of the then-chairman of the supervisory board, Ernst Busemann, brought about the appointment of Carl Lüer, president of the board of trade of the Rhein-Main-Wirtschaftsraum, the regional economic council.

In March 1944 the MG head office was severely damaged by bombing which killed some two dozen employees.

After Frankfurt had been taken by United States troops in April 1945, the latter established their administrative headquarters in the MG complex.

Merton remained chairman until his death in 1960.

In these years of strong economic growth, MG saw its work force climb to 30,000 in 1961, expanded its business in the transport sector, and became involved in exploratory navigation.

The year 1978 saw the founding of Metallgesellschaft of Australia (Pty) Ltd., followed by Metallgesellschaft Corporation in the United States in 1978.

Kuwait Petroleum Company became an MG shareholder in 1980-81 with a 20 percent holding.

Doctor Dietrich Natus, from LURGI, succeeded Ratjen as chairman of the board of directors in 1984.

MG's weaknesses in its core metals operations, however, had been exacerbated by the flood of cheap imported metals that began to flow from Eastern Europe following the end of the Cold War in 1989.

In 1990, MG employees were given the opportunity for the first time to buy staff shares in the company.

Schmitz quickly pulled the plug on the derivatives strategy turning paper losses into real ones--MG subsequently posted a 1992/93 fiscal year loss of DM 1.97 billion ($1.06 billion United States). The company's debt then stood at $4.9 billion (United States).

MG suffered another huge loss--DM 2.63 billion--in fiscal 1993/94.

With an objective to provide support in the multifarious process of physical Rehabilitation , MGRM Medicare Private Limited was established in 1994.

1995 - Manufacturing started.

In the first International Conference on Trauma and Critical Care in India (in 1996 in New Delhi), MGRM introduced a wide range of physical rehabilitation Splints and aids, hitherto seen only in international medical books and research journals.

1997: MGRM’s Human Life Cycle Approach and research recognized by Johnson & Johnson

1998: Chemist/dealer/distributor survey in the National Capital Territory that caters to 25 million population.

2001-06: Core research in Human Life Cycle Approach to disaster management

2007: Invitation to be an Expert Member in the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of India.

2008: Invitation to become a Steering Member in NDMA.