The Spahn company was established by Heinrich Spahn on 4 February 1956. Mr Spahn, born in 1922, grew up in Frankfurt am Main as the son of a postal worker and, immediately after graduating early from secondary school during World War II, was drafted and sent to the front. Held as a prisoner of war first in England and then in Canada, it wasn't until nearly the end of the forties that he returned to Germany. Once back, he headed to Munich, where a traineeship at Siemens awaited him. Because of his language skills, his subsequent job at Siemens' headquarters led him to travel abroad on numerous occasions, including a long period spent in Karachi, Pakistan. Upon returning to Munich, he met his future wife Ingrid Hartmann, who was studying music in the city.
When he was given the choice to go either to Australia for Siemens to build up the business there, or to Hamburg to work independently as the son-in-law of Walter Hartmann, he decided in favour of his wife and chose the latter, establishing the Heinrich Spahn company. More companies were soon to be founded: SOCOMAL in France (1960), Richter in Austria (1961) and CUPROMET (1966), which was established together with an Italian partner, now called Europa Metalli. Richter and SOCOMAL were dedicated to marketing Hartmann brand aluminium windows, doors and façade systems, while the parent company and CUPROMET in Germany acted as representatives for Italian manufacturers of semi-finished goods made of nonferrous metals. Mr Spahn stepped down in 1991, handing the reins of the company to his son Roland Spahn, who still runs the company today.
In 1991, CUPROMET was sold to the Italian partner company, which is now Europe's largest producer of semi-finished goods made of copper and copper alloys and which has restructured its sales in the individual European countries. Richter met a similar fate, and following the acquisition of Hartmann's systems business by the German manufacturer Hueck, was merged with the purchaser's Austrian subsidiary. SOCOMAL has remained a subsidiary of Heinrich Spahn and today has about 30 employees selling Hueck systems in France and Portugal. In 2009, the parent company itself relocated from Hamburg to neighbouring Ahrensburg and continues to work closely with southern European manufacturers, especially those in Italy and Romania, in the area of semi-finished goods made of hard aluminium alloys.
