Hirsch Family Collection, Halberstadt

In 1780 the Rabbi Naphtali Hirsch Gumprecht Göttingen moved to Halberstadt to attend the city's "Klaus" (an institution for Talmudic study). His eldest son was Aron Gumprecht Göttingen, born in Halberstadt in 1783. Following the Napoleonic edict that required Jews to select surnames in 1808, Aron chose the name "Hirsch."

In 1805 Aron Hirsch (1783-1842) founded a metal business, taking advantage of existing copper and silver mines in the nearby Harz mountains. Eventually, his son Joseph (1809-1871) and other relatives joined the new family business “Aron Hirsch & Sohn,” which expanded to trade in copper, tin, zinc, and lead, as well as in alloys and chemicals. By the mid-1800s Halberstadt had become a center of the metal trade in Europe. Throughout his life, Joseph Hirsch was not only active in the Jewish community of Halberstadt, but he also initiated charitable institutions city-wide. He befriended Halberstadt's well-known rabbi Benjamin Hirsch Auerbach, whose children, Julie and Selig married Joseph Hirsch’s children Benjamin and Rosa. In 1863, Joseph Hirsch's brother Gustav (1822-1898) extended the firm to include the brass works (Messingwerke) near Eberswald in Prussia, close to the Finow Canal.

Following Joseph Hirsch's death in 1871, his eldest son Benjamin took over the firm's leadership. Benjamin Hirsch (1840-1911) was instrumental in expanding the firm's international connections to London, New York and Australia, and he acquired the mines of Tetiutse near Vladivostock in Russia. As his father before him, Benjamin Hirsch was head of the Jewish community in Halberstadt, and he helped found the local B'nai B'rith Lodge and bestowed aid to many other Jewish philanthropies.

In 1906 the firm created the Hirsch, Kupfer und Messingwerke AG in Berlin, specializing in alloys from the brass and copper works near Eberswald and Ilsenburg. The metal trade continued under the name Aron Hirsch & Sohn, and was still administrated from the parent firm in Halberstadt. Following the death of Benjamin Hirsch in 1911, his nephew Aron (1858-1941; son of Benjamin's brother Siegmund, 1831-1877) took over the leadership of Hirsch, Kupfer und Messingwerke AG in Berlin, passing on the leadership to his own son, Siegmund after World War I. In 1938, following the liquidation of Hirsch, Kupfer und Messingwerke AG in 1932, Siegmund Hirsch went to Egypt, where he established the Egyptian Copper Works, which contributed to the development of the steel, copper and aluminum industries there. The final head of Aron Hirsch & Sohn in Halberstadt was Benjamin Hirsch's youngest son Emil (1870-1938). In 1938 Emil Hirsch went to Amsterdam, where he died.