I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (lit. Community of interest of the dye industry). The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I. During its heyday IG Farben was the fourth-largest company in the world, after General Motors, U.S. Steel and Standard Oil. During the planning of the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, IG Farben cooperated closely with Nazi officials and directed which chemical plants should be secured and delivered to IG Farben.^[1]

Founding members[link]

IG Farben was founded on December 25, 1925, as a merger of the following six companies:^[2]

• BASF
• Bayer
• Hoechst (including Cassella and Chemische Fabrik Kalle)
• Agfa
• Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron
• Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler Ter Meer

History[link]

Predecessors of IG Farben[link]

At the beginning of the 20th century the German chemical industry dominated the world market for synthetic dyes. The three major firms BASF, Bayer and Hoechst produced several hundred different dyes, along with the five smaller firms Agfa, Cassella, Chemische Fabrik Kalle, Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron and Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler-ter Meer concentrated on high-quality specialty dyes. In 1913 these eight firms produced almost 90 percent of the world supply of dyestuffs and sold about 80 percent of their production abroad.^[3] The three major firms had also integrated upstream into the production of essential raw materials and they began to expand into other areas of chemistry such as pharmaceuticals, photographic film, agricultural chemicals and electrochemicals. Contrary to other industries the founders and their families had little influence on the top-level decision-making of the leading German chemical firms, which was in the hands of professional salaried managers. Because of this unique situation the economic historian Alfred Chandler called the German dye companies "the world's first truly managerial industrial enterprises".^[4]

Indigo production at BASF in 1890

With the world market for synthetic dyes and other chemical products dominated by the German industry, German firms competed vigorously for market shares. Although cartels were attempted they lasted at most for a few years. Others argued for the formation of a profit pool or Interessen-Gemeinschaft (abbr. IG, lit. Community of interest).^[5] In contrast, the chairman of Bayer, Carl Duisberg, argued for a merger. During a trip to the United States in the spring of 1903 he had visited several of the large American trusts such as Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, International Paper and Alcoa.^[6] In 1904, after having returned to Germany he proposed a nationwide merger of the producers of dye and pharmaceuticals in a memorandum to Gustav von Brüning, the senior manager at Hoechst.^[7] Hoechst and several pharmaceutical firms refused to join. Instead, Hoechst and Cassella made an alliance based on mutual equity stakes in 1904. This prompted Duisberg and Heinrich von Brunck, chairman of BASF, to accelerate their negotiations. In October 1904 an Interessen-Gemeinschaft between Bayer, BASF and Agfa was formed, also known as the Dreibund or little IG. Profits of the three firms were pooled, with BASF and Bayer getting 43 percent and Agfa 14 percent of all profits.^[8] The two alliances were loosely connected with each other through an agreement between BASF and Hoechst to jointly exploit the patent on the Heumann-Pfleger indigo synthesis.^[9]

Within the Dreibund Bayer and BASF concentrated on dye whereas Agfa increasingly concentrated on photographic film. Although there was some cooperation between the technical staff in production and accounting, there was little cooperation between the firms in other areas. Neither were production or distribution facilities consolidated nor did the commercial staff cooperate.^[10] In 1908 Hoechst and Cassella acquired 88 percent of the shares of Chemische Fabrik Kalle. As Hoechst, Cassella and Kalle were connected by mutual equity shares and were located close to each other in the Frankfurt area, this allowed them to cooperate more successfully than the Dreibund, although they also did not rationalize or consolidate their production facilities.^[10]

Foundation of IG Farben[link]

IG Farben was founded on December 25, 1925 as a merger of the following six companies: BASF (27.4 percent of equity capital), Bayer (27.4 percent), Hoechst including Cassella and Chemische Fabrik Kalle (27.4 percent), Agfa (9.0 percent), Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron (6.9 percent) and Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler Ter Meer (1.9 percent). In 1926 IG Farben had a market capitalization of 1.4 billion Reichsmark and a workforce of 100,000 people, of which 2.6 percent were university educated, 18.2 percent were salaried professionals and 79.2 percent were workers.^[2]

Similar mergers took place in other countries. In the United Kingdom Brunner Mond, Nobel Industries, United Alkali Company and British Dyestuffs merged to Imperial Chemical Industries in September 1926. In France Établissements Poulenc Frères and Société Chimique des Usines du Rhône merged to Rhône-Poulenc in 1928.^[11]

The IG Farben Building, headquarters for the conglomerate in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, was completed in 1931.

In 1938 the company had 218,000 employees.^[12]

IG Farben factory in Monowitz (near Auschwitz) 1941
50°02′10″N 19°16′32″E / 50.036094°N 19.275534°E / 50.036094; 19.275534 (Site of Buna Werke plant approximately 10km or 6.2 miles from Auschwitz)

World War II Overview[link]

During the planning of the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, IG Farben cooperated closely with Nazi officials and directed which chemical plants should be secured and delivered to IG Farben.^[1]

In 1941, an investigation exposed a "marriage" cartel between John D. Rockefeller's United States-based Standard Oil Co. and I.G. Farben.^{[13][14][15][16]} It also brought new evidence concerning complex price and marketing agreements between DuPont,^{[citation needed]} a major investor in and producer of leaded gasoline, United States Industrial Alcohol Company and its subsidiary, Cuba Distilling Co. The investigation was eventually dropped, like dozens of others in many different kinds of industries, due to the need to enlist industry support in the war effort.^{[citation needed][original research?]} However, the top directors of many oil companies agreed to resign, and oil industry stocks in molasses companies were sold off as part of a compromise worked out.^[17][18][19]

Zyklon B labels

IG Farben held the patent for the pesticide Zyklon B^[20] (used in Holocaust gas chambers), and owned 42.2 percent (in shares) of Degesch (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung) which manufactured it. IG Farben also had managers in Degesch's Managing Committee. Of the 24 directors of IG Farben indicted in the so-called IG Farben Trial (1947–1948) before a U.S. military tribunal at the subsequent Nuremberg Trials, 13 were sentenced to prison terms between one and eight years. Some of those indicted in the trial were subsequently made leaders of the post-war companies that split off from IG Farben, including those who were sentenced at Nuremberg.^{[citation needed]}

Some of the people who served prison sentences but later became leaders in post war-companies include:

• Hermann Schmitz, who became a member of the supervisory board for the Deutsche Bank in Berlin and honorary chairman of the supervisory board of Rheinische Stahlwerke AG ^[21]
• Georg von Schnitzler,serving as president of the Deutsch-Ibero-Amerikanische Gesellschaft ^[22]
• Fritz ter Meer, becoming chairman of the supervisory board of Bayer AG and a supervisory board member of several firms ^[23]
• Otto Ambros, holding seats on supervisory boards Chemie Grünenthal (being active during the Contergan scandal), Feldmühle, and Telefunken, and working as an economic consultant in Mannheim ^[24]
• Heinrich Bütefisch, becoming a member of the supervisory boards for Deutsche Gasolin AG, Feldmühle, and Papier- und Zellstoffwerke AG, and consulting with Ruhrchemie AG Oberhausen and subsequently joining its supervisory board. ^[25]
• Max Ilgner, becoming the chairman of the executive board of a chemistry firm in Zug ^[26]
• Heinrich Oster, becoming a member of the supervisory board of Gelsenberg AG. ^[27]

Some of the people who were acquitted and later became leaders in post war-companies include:

• Fritz Gajewski, becoming chairman of the board of Dynamit Nobel. ^[28]
• Christian Schneider (chemist), becoming a member of the supervisory boards of Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoff-Werke AG Trostberg and Rheinauer Holzhydrolyse-GmbH, Mannheim ^[29]
• Hans Kühne, taking a position at Bayer Elberfeld. ^[30]
• Carl Lautenschläger, becoming a research associate at Bayer Elberfeld. ^[31]
• Wilhelm Rudolf Mann, resuming his position as head of pharmaceutical sales at Bayer. He also presided over the GfK, Society for Consumer Research, and the Foreign Trade Committee of the BDI, Federation of German Industry. ^[32]
• Carl Wurster, resuming his position of chairman of the managing board, and was the major force behind the reestablishment of BASF. After retiring, he continued to be active as a member and chairman of supervisory boards in companies such as Bosch, Degussa (later being acquired by RAG ^[33]), and Allianz. ^[34]
• Heinrich Gattineau, becoming a member of the board and supervisory council of WASAG Chemie-AG, and Mitteldeutsche Sprengstoff-Werke GmbH ^[35]

Ruins of the synthetic petrol plant (Hydrierwerke Pölitz – Aktiengeselschaft) in Police, Poland
53°33′32″N 14°33′09″E / 53.558887°N 14.552432°E / 53.558887; 14.552432 (Site of Hydrierwerke Pölitz AG synthetic fuel plant)

Facilities during World War II[link]

IG Farben facilities were bombing targets of the Oil Campaign of World War II, and up to 1941, there were 5 Nazi Germany Buna plants that produced Buna N by the Lebedev process.^[36]:15

Dwory

The Buna Chemical Plant at Dwory was under construction by 1943,^[37] after a March 2, 1942 contract with "IG Farbenindustrie AG Auschwitz."^[38] The Buna Werke plant, which produced synthetic oil and rubber (from coal), was the beginning of SS activity and camps near Auschwitz III-Monowitz during the Holocaust.^{[citation needed]} At its peak in 1944, this factory made use of 83,000 slave laborers.^[39] Today, the plant operates as "Dwory S.A." ^[40]

Frankfurt

In addition to the "cavernous" IG Farben building at Frankfurt, a Hoechst AG chemical factory in Frankfurt was bombed by the RAF on September 26, 1944.

Ludwigshafen and Oppau

The I.G. Farbenindustrie, A. G., Works, Ludwigshafen and Oppau had several chemical plants.

Pölitz, North Germany (today Police, Poland)

In 1937, IG Farben, Rhenania-Ossag, and Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft founded the Hydrierwerke Pölitz AG synthetic fuel plant.^[41]:193ff By 1943, the plant produced 15% of Nazi Germany's synthetic fuels, 577,000 tons.^[41]:196

Waldenburg

An IG Farben plant was at Waldenburg^[42]:6

Break-up and liquidation[link]

Due to the severity of the war crimes committed by IG Farben during World War II, the company was considered to be too corrupt to be allowed to continue to exist. The Soviet Union seized most of IG Farben's assets located in the Soviet occupation zone (see Morgenthau Plan), as part of their reparation payments. The Western Allies however, in 1951, split the company up into its original constituent companies. The four largest quickly bought the smaller ones. Today Agfa, BASF, and Bayer remain, Hoechst having in 1999 demerged its industrial chemical operations to Celanese AG and merged its life-sciences businesses with Rhône-Poulenc's to form Aventis.

Part of Hoechst was afterwards Celanese AG, while another part of the company was sold in 1997 to the chemical spin-off of Sandoz, the Muttenz (Switzerland) based Clariant.

IG Farben was officially put into liquidation in 1952, but this does not mean the company ceased to exist as a legal entity; up to today, it is still in existence as a corporation "in liquidation", meaning that the purpose of the continuing existence of the corporation is being wound up and dissolved in an orderly fashion. As of 2010, its shares are still traded on German markets.^[43] On November 10, 2003, its liquidators filed for insolvency,^[44] but again, this does not affect the existence of the company as a legal person. It had contributed 500,000 DM (£160,000 or €255,646) towards a foundation for former captive labourers under the Nazi regime. The remaining property, worth DM 21 million (£6.7 million or €10.7 million), went to a buyer. During this lengthy period, the holding company had been continually criticized for failing to pay any compensation to the former laborers, which was the stated reason for its continued existence after 1952.^{[citation needed]} The company, in turn, blamed the ongoing legal disputes with the former captive labourers as being the reason it could not be legally dissolved and the remaining assets distributed as reparations. Nevertheless, it refused to join a national compensation fund that was set up in 2001 to pay people who had suffered.^[45] Each year, the company's annual meeting in Frankfurt was the site of demonstrations by hundreds of protesters.^[46]

IG Farben Trial[link]

The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al., also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) after the end of World War II, against leading industrialists of Nazi Germany for their conduct during the Nazi regime. The defendants in this case had all been directors of IG Farben. Of the 24 defendants arraigned, 13 were found guilty. The indictment was filed on May 3, 1947; the trial lasted from August 27, 1947 until July 30, 1948.

All defendants who were sentenced to prison received early release. Most were quickly restored to their directorships, and some were awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.^[47]

Patents and scientific knowledge[link]

Once Germany had surrendered, the US moved quickly to commercially exploit all German patents and scientific knowledge. (see Industrial plans for Germany)

Konrad Adenauer stated "According to a statement made by an American expert, the patents formerly belonging to IG Farben have given the American chemical industry a lead of at least 10 years. The damage thus caused to the German economy is huge and cannot be assessed in figures. It is extraordinarily regrettable that the new German inventions cannot be protected either, because Germany is not a member of the Patent Union. Britain has declared that it will respect German inventions regardless of what the peace treaty may say. But America has refused to issue such a declaration. German inventors are therefore not in a position to exploit their own inventions. This puts a considerable brake on German economic development."^[48]

Products[link]

Synthetic dyes, Nitrile rubber, Polyurethane, Prontosil, Resochin, Zyklon B, among others.

IG Farben scientists made fundamental contributions to all areas of chemistry. Otto Bayer discovered the polyaddition for the synthesis of polyurethane in 1937.^[49] Several IG Farben scientists were awarded a Nobel Prize. Carl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1931 "in recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods".^[50] Gerhard Domagk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939 "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil".^[51] Kurt Alder was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (together with Otto Diels) in 1950 "for his [their] discovery and development of the diene synthesis".^[52]

IG Farben in fiction[link]

• The Council of the Gods, produced at 1951 by (DEFA director Kurt Maetzig), is an East German film about IG Farben's role in World War II and the subsequent trial.
• IG Farben plays a prominent role in Thomas Pynchon's novel, Gravity's Rainbow, primarily as the manufacturer of the elusive and mysterious plastic product "Imipolex G."
• IG Farben plays a prominent role in Philip K. Dick's alternative history novel The Man in the High Castle.
• IG Farben is the company said to be supporting German terror activities and research of uranium ores in Brazil after World War II in Alfred Hitchcock's film noir Notorious, 1946
• In the Hearts of Iron computer game series by "Paradox Interactive", IG Farben is a "tech team" that excels at developing industrial technologies for Germany.

See also[link]

• IG Farben Building
• IG Farben Trial
• Monowitz concentration camp
• Research Materials: Max Planck Society Archive
• American IG

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Aftalion, Fred; Otto Theodor Benfey (1991), A History of the International Chemical Industry, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 0-8122-8207-8 
• Beer, John Joseph (1981), The Emergence of the German Dye Industry, Manchester, NH: Ayer Company Publishers, ISBN 0-405-13835-0 
• Borkin, Joseph (1978), The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben, New York, London: The Free Press, division of Macmillan Publishing Co., ISBN 0-02-904630-0 
• Borkin, Joseph (1990) (in German), Die unheilige Allianz der IG Farben. Eine Interessengemeinschaft im Dritten Reich, Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag, ISBN 3-593-34251-0 
• Chandler, Alfred DuPont (2004), Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-78995-4 
• Dubois, Jr., Josiah E. (1952), The Devil's Chemists, Boston, United States: The Beacon Press, ASIN B000ENNDV6 
• Hayes, Peter (1987), Industry and Ideology IG Farben in the Nazi Era, Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-32948-5 
• Jeffreys, Diarmuid (2008), Hell's Cartel-IG Farben and the making of Hitlers War Machine, New York: Metropolitan Books-Henry Holt and Company, ISBN 978-0-8050-9143-4 
• Kreikamp, Hans-Dieter (1977), "Die Entflechtung der I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G. und die Gründung der Nachfolgegesellschaften" (in German), Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag) 25 (2): 220–251, http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1977_2.pdf, retrieved 2008-10-27 
• Plumpe, Gottfried (1990) (in German), Die I.G. Farbenindustrie AG: Wirtschaft, Technik und Politik 1904–1945 (Schriften zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte ed.), Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, ISBN 3-428-06892-0 
• Tammen, Helmuth (1978) (in German), Die I.G. Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft (1925-1933): Ein Chemiekonzern in der Weimarer Republik, Berlin: H. Tammen, ISBN 3-88344-001-9 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: IG Farben

• Official homepage of the IG Farben successor BASF
• Official homepage of the IG Farben successor Bayer
• Official homepage of the IG Farben successor Hoechst (now Sanofi-Aventis)
• Stock Market Prices of IG Farben