On 28 May 1864, Siegmund Oppenheim and his technically skilled brother-in-law Siegmund Seeligmann laid the foundations of what was later to become VSM. The company named S. Oppenheim & Co. began working in small production rooms in Hanover-Hainholz.

More than 160 years later, VSM's headquarters and production is still at this location. While the company started operations in open countryside in 1864, the city of Hanover has now grown around the plant. This makes VSM one of the few inner-city industrial enterprises in the Lower Saxony state capital of Hanover.

In addition to the location, VSM has also remained loyal to its own products. Back then, small-scale production and manual processes were used to manufacture glass and flint paper. The basic principle applies today as it did back then: A backing is coated with a bonding agent and covered with an abrasive material. Of course, both the materials used and the production processes have changed significantly over the past 160 years.

Today abrasives continue to be VSM's main product.