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The concern of IG Farben is one of the largest industrial enterprises in the world, embracing a numerous subsidiary firms engaged in many aspects of chemicals, mining, non-ferrous metallurgy and manufacturing. If was formed in 1925 through the amalgamation of six of Germany’s leading dyestuffs and chemical firms: Aktiengesellschaft fur Anilinfabrikaten, Berlin-Lichtenberg; Badische Anilin und Soda-fabrik AG, Ludwigshafen am Rhein; Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron, Frankfurt am Main; Chemische Fabriken vormals Weiler-ter Meer, Uerdingen; Farbenfabriken vormals Friedrich Bayer und Compagnie., Leverkusen and Farbwerke Hoechst AG vormals Meister Lucius und Brüning, Höchst. In the following years two other chemical and dyestuffs manufacturers - Leopold Cassela und Compagnie GmbH, Frankfurt am Main and Kalle und Compagnie AG, Biebrich, joined the consortium.

The concern operates dozens of plants across Germany, either directly or through a network of subsidiaries and affiliates. Among other items it produces synthetic dyes, pharmaceuticals, petro-chemicals and derivatives, paints, finishes, plastics, explosives, and fertilizers.


Subsidiary companies of the concern include:

In Germany

Bunawerke AG, Schoppau (synthetic elastomers)
Carbidwerke Deutsch-Matrei AG, Wien (carbide products)
Chemische Fabriken und Asphaltwerke Works AG, Mannheim (finishes and additives)
Deutsche Braunkohlengesellschaft AG, Breslau (lignite mining)
Deutsche Celluloidfabrik AG, Eilenburg (celluloid and photographic materials)
Deutsche Erdöl AG, Hannover (mineral oil)
Deutsche Gasolin AG, Berlin (oil refining, marketing and sales)
Deutsche Magnesit AG, München (electro-metals)
Deutsche Molybdänwerke Auguste Viktoria AG, Breslau (specialty metals)
Dynamit AG, Hamburg (explosives and fertilizers)
Eilenburger Chemiewerk AG, Eilenburg (chemicals)
Elektrochemia Südosteuropäische Handelsgesellschaft mbH, Wien (import-export)
Elektrochemische Werke AG, Werke Bitterfeld (chemicals, plastics, electro-metals)
Elektrochemische Werke AG, Werke München (electro-metals)
Filmfabrik Wolfen AG, Bitterfeld (photographic materials)
Kölnische Gummifäden-Fabriken AG, Köln-Deutz (elastomers)
Rheinische Gummi- und Celluloid-Fabrik AG, Mannheim (elastomers and plastics)
Stickstoff-Werk Krefeld AG, Krefeld (nitrates and fertilizers)
Westfälische Leichtmetallwerke AG, Nachrodt (electro-metals)


Affiliated companies of the concern include:

In Germany

Braunkohle Benzin AG, Magdeburg (synthetic petroleum)
Donau Chemie AG, Wien (paints, finishes and colorants)
Duisburger Kupferhuette AG, Duisburg (light metals)
Erdöl - und Köhleverwertungs AG, Berlin (fuels marketing and storage)
Hydrierwerke Pölitz AG, Pölitz (synthetic petroleum)
Mitteldeutsche Sprengstoffwerke AG, Langelsheim (nitrates and fertilizers)
Naphthaindustrie und Tankanlagen AG, Berlin (fuels marketing and storage)
Phenolchemie GmbH, Gladbeck (phenolics)
Textilosewerke und Kunstweberei Claviez AG, Mannheim (synthetic fibres)
Titangesellschaft mbH, Leverkusen (minerals sales and trading)
Wacker Chemie AG, München (chemicals and pharmaceuticals)
Westfälisch-Anhaltische Sprengstoff AG, Berlin (explosives)

Abroad

American IG Chemical Corporation, New York (chemicals, dyes, fertilizers)
Chemische Werke Durand und Huguenin AG, Basle (dyes and colorants)

This firm came into existence in 1927 through the merger of the Chemischen Produkten-Fabrik Pommerensdorf, which had been founded in 1857 to manufacture fertilizer and other agricultural chemicals, and the Chemischen Fabrik Milch of Oranienburg. The principal products of the firm are ammonia superphosphate, sulfuric acid, calcium Glauber's salt, hydrochloric acid, and washing soda. In 1920 the branch factory in Danzig was organised as a separate subsidiary, while a sales office was organised in Berlin, opening in 1927.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Chemische Fabriken AG, Berlin (sales and marketing)
Chemische Industrie AG, Danzig-Schellmühl (fertilizers and chemicals)

This firm was founded in July 1788 by Wolfgang Caspar Fikentscher and was the first chemical plant in Germany. Its first products were chemical preparations for the glassmaking and porcelain-manufacturing industries. In 1890, the descendants of Fikentscher sold the factory to the brothers Curt and Oscar Bruno Bernard Tropitzsch, who expanded the firm’s interests to include various mercury preparations and the manufacture of pesticides and herbicides. The firm was incorporated as a joint-stock enterprise in 1931, and the current corporate style adopted at that time. In 1938 it formed a subsidiary to exploit patents for the manufacture of polyvinyl and polyethylene products for commercial applications.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Gesellschaft zur Verwertung chemischer Erzeugnisse mbH, Werke Hirschhagen (polyethylene products)
Gesellschaft zur Verwertung chemischer Erzeugnisse mbH, Werke Lichtenau (polyvinyl products)
Gesellschaft zur Verwertung chemischer Erzeugnisse mbH, Werke Tanne (polyethylene products)

In 1873 Doctor Heinrich Byk founded in Berlin a chemical factory to produce aniline dyes for the textile industry; in the years following the works expanded into the growing realm of pharmaceuticals. In 1915 the concern merged with the dye and chemical factory Farb und Gerbstoffwerken Paul Gulden, which had been founded in 1901. The combined firm was able to weather the financial uncertainties of the immediate postwar period but came under the increasing control of the Disconto-Gesellschaft, and subsequently the Deutsche Bank.

With the return to economic stability in the 1920s the firm was able embark on a strategy of growth through acquisition. In 1922 it acquired the Chemische Fabrik Eisenbüttel, a manufacturer of glycerin and benzine derivatives. In 1928 the Chemische Fabrik Budenheim was acquired through exchange of shares; the Budenheim works was a major supplier of phosphate chemicals to a wide variety of industries. The acquisition of the Dresden-based Chemische Fabrik Helfenberg in 1933 marked a significant expansion in the concern’s horizons, as Helfenberg operated several factories engaged in the manufacture of wallpaper as well as the production of proprietary pharmaceuticals.


The works of the firm include:

Chemischewerke Budenheim, Budenheim (phosphates and industrial chemicals)
Chemischewerke Eisenbüttel, Eisenbüttel (petrochemicals)
Chemischewerke Helfenberg, Dresden-Weissig (pharmaceutical research and manufacture)
Farbstoffwerke Gulden, Berlin (dyes, paints and adhesives)
Pharmazeutischefabrik Byk, Berlin (pharmaceutical research and manufacture)
Tapetenfabrik Coswig, Brockwitz (wallpaper and allied products)
Tapetenfabrik Porz, Urbach (wallpaper and allied products)


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Chemische Gesellschaft Rhenania AG, Wevelinghoven (dyes for wallpaper and allied products)

This firm was founded in 1922 by Doctor Max Schaidhauf to carry out the investigation and development of new materials using electric smelting and processing techniques. It has since expanded into the manufacture of carbide and nitride compounds for the metallurgical and chemical industry, including boron carbide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride and tungsten carbide.

The metallurgist and chemical pioneer Carl Auer founded this firm in 1898 to undertake the manufacture of synthetic ignition flints for patent cigarette lighters and other rare-earth metallurgical products. The factory is located in Althofen in Carniola. From 1916 the firm undertook the manufacture of specialist ferroalloys including ferrovanadium, ferromolybdenum, ferrosilicon and ferrotungsten. The firm has also devised industrial procedures for the separation and concentration of rare earths, including neodymium, praseodymium, ytterbium and lutetium. It has licensed its technology to other German firms as well as to firms abroad.

In 1851 Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering opened an apothecary workshop in Berlin, which is regarded as the founding point of the concern; it was converted to a joint stock company in 1871. The firm’s growth in the succeeding decades was quite strong. By 1913 it employed more than twelve hundred workers at its production facilities in Berlin-Charlottenburg and in Weimar; more than one thousand workers were employed in the concern’s two branch factories in Russia, and a third branch factory had been organised in Great Britain. Its principal products in this period were pharmaceuticals, photographic materials and disinfectants. While the firm’s home factories made important gains during the period of the Great War the branch factories in Russia and in Great Britain were lost.

In 1922 the concern absorbed the pharmaceutical firm of Spindler in Leipzig, and in 1924 obtained control of the Oberschlesische Kokswerke und Chemische Fabriken; in 1937 this subsidiary in turn absorbed the chemical manufacturing of Kahlbaum and was restyled as Schering-Kahlbaum AG in recognition of the international prominence of the Schering name.


Subsidiaries of the firm include:

Schering-Kahlbaum AG, Breslau (collieries, coal tar derivatives, agricultural chemicals)

In 1906 Ludwig Scherk opened the Berlin-Lichterfeld branch of the Frankfurt-based cosmetics firm Albersheim/Khasana; in 1911 he struck out on his own, launching his own line of high-quality perfumes, powders and toilet-articles under the brand name “Mystikum”. In the 1920s the firm developed a network of foreign branches, most importantly in the United States, where a branch factory was opened in 1923. A new factory in Berlin-Südende was constructed in 1924 and by 1926 the firm had established no fewer than fifty-three branches or agencies around the world; at that time more than four hundred workers were employed in the Berlin facility alone. In the 1930s the firm expanded its product line to include shaving soaps, hand creams and colognes.

This concern was established in 1871 at Bückgen bei Großräschen in Lusatia to exploit brown coal resources and manufacture oxygen. It subsequently erected a factory for the production of briquettes and a brickyard to make use of the spoil generated from the mining of its coal.

Following the upheaval of the Great War the firm came under the control of the Bankhauses Petschek und Compagnie.

In 1903 Doctor Alexander Wacker founded an enterprise for the manufacture of acetylene, Consortium für elektrochemische Industrie GmbH, in Nürnberg. The new organisation controlled three factories and a development laboratory, and it quickly found new uses for its primary product, calcium carbide, in the manufacture of the industrial solvents trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene. In 1913 the concern pioneered the industrial production of acetaldehyde and acetic acid.

In 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the Great War, the concern opened new works at Burghausen and all production was concentrated there. The concern expanded its activities under the pressure of the world war; in 1915 a facility for the manufacture of acetone and other materials - Elektrochemischen Werke Breslau, was established, while in 1916 a new facility for the production of trichloroethylene was built. In 1918 the headquarters of the concern, with its development laboratory, relocated from Nürnberg to München.

The firm survived the financial distress that followed the Great War in relatively good condition. In 1924 it acquired the Salzbergwerk Stetten, and in 1926 it absorbed the Ferrowerk Mückenberg and entered the market for producing specialty metals and ferroalloys. In 1938 a factory for the production of polyvinylchloride was established at Mückenberg, and manufacture of the same material was begun at Burghausen.


Subsidiaries of the concern include:

Chemowerkes Mückenberg AG, Mückenberg (plastics)
Elektrochemischen Werke Breslau AG, Tschechnitz (industrial chemicals)
Ferrowerk Mückenberg AG, Mückenberg (ferroalloys)
Salzbergwerk Stetten AG, Stetten (salt mining)

In the 1890s the introduction of smokeless powders for infantry weapons led the administration of the Imperial and Royal Army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to establish a powder factory under its own control. It acquired from the firm of Dynamit Nobel its works at Blumau-Neurißhof and it was placed under the control of the Betriebsinspektion as the Blumauer Pulverfabrik. In 1894 it was expanded by the construction of facilities for the manufacture of nitroglycerin and nitric acid. By 1900 it had begun the production of artillery propellant and shell filling explosives, and had become the largest powder works in the Hapsburg monarchy.

At the end of the Great War the Allied control authorities permitted the continued existence of the works to supply the needs of the military forces of the Austrian republic; many of the facilities constructed during the war were dismantled while others were decommissioned. Following the reunion of the Austrian provinces the facilities at Blumau, formerly state assets, were organised as a joint-stock company in which the Reichsbank held only a one-third interest. Of the remaining shares one third were taken up by the IG Farben and the remaining third were assigned to a financial trust set up to support former employees of the enterprise.

From 1934 the works were reactivated for the manufacture of propellant powder for delivery to the Defence Ministry under direct contract and to other ammunition manufacturing facilities throughout the nation, as well as exporting propellants to abroad to friendly nations.

This firm was founded in 1828 by Carl Christian Wagenmann, to exploit several patents he held for the production of various chemicals. The factory, which would eventually cover an area of 325,000 square meters, was established in Liesing, south of Vienna. The firm rapidly took a leading position in the chemicals industry of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, providing the raw materials for diverse products as matches, pyrotechnics and munitions. In 1911 it acquired the assets of the Holzverkohlungsindustrie AG. The firm suffered severe disruption in the wake of the Great War, and its postwar recovery adversely impacted by the loss of many of its former markets and sources for raw materials. Nevertheless, by 1926 it had managed to reach equilibrium due primarily by support from the Wiener Bankverein.

Among the products manufactured by the firm are sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, Glauber’s salt, Epsom salt, citric acid, alumina hydrate, alumina nitrate, superphosphates and other artificial fertilizers and other industrial chemicals. The present work force amounts to more than eight hundred employees.

This firm was founded in 1852 by the pyrotechnician Louis Kleinknecht, who established in Meimsheim a workshop for the production of pyrotechnic articles and fireworks. The workshop was taken over by Wilhelm Fischer in 1883 and moved to larger facilities in the town of Cleebronn near Heilbronn. It remained a small firm, employing some fifty workers, until the Great War, when it expanded its activities to supply signal flares and other pyrotechnic materials to the Government. To accommodate the increasing demand the firm was converted to a joint stock company, which allowed additional capital to be raised; production increased to a daily output of 25,000 signal cartridges; and the number of employees increased to more than five hundred.

Postwar reductions brought great distress to the firm, which took several years to overcome; however, by 1926 it had recovered sufficiently to become the core of a group of pyrotechnic firms. That year it acquired the Berliner Kunstfeuerwerkerei Deichmann, a manufacture of specialty fireworks. In 1930 the firm resumed the manufacture of signal materials for the Heer and the Kriegsmarine, and in 1934 it acquired the Orion-Metallwerke to assure a supply of cartridge cases. By 1940 employment had increased to more than six hundred.

Located in Moosbierbaum in the province of Niederösterreich, this enterprise was formed in 1913 as a subsidiary of the Skoda Works as the Pulverfabrik Skodawerke Wetzler AG expressly for the manufacture of small arms propellant. It fulfilled this role through to the close of the Great War. The return of peace brought significant changes for the firm – production at the existing facilities turned to basic chemical products such as hydrochloric, sulphuric and phosphoric acids and saltpeter. Artificial fertilizers (superphosphates) were also developed and manufactured. The firm also operated under lease the ammonium sulphate factories of the Wiener Gaswerke Simmering and Gaswerke Leopoldau.

Control of the firm passed in 1934 from the Skoda Works to the Wiener Bankverein and with access to the wider German market the firm embarked upon further expansion, both to its existing facilities and the construction of additional works at the Moosbierbaum complex. Between 1935 and 1938 an oil refinery with a capacity of 12,500 tonnes per month was constructed, and this effort was followed by the construction of a synthetic oil plant of 7,500 tons per month capacity using the Bergius hydrogenation process. This facility is expected to be complete in the latter portion of 1942.

Formed in 1889 as the Aktiengesellschaft für Bergbau und Tiefbohrung, this firm, based in Goslar, is the dominant force in the mining, processing and sale of potash and potash products in Western Europe. The growth in the use of phosphate fertilizers stimulated increased exploitation of the North German potash district and many enterprises were founded to exploit them; under the leadership of the Silesian industrialist Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck the concern would outpace and acquire its rivals over the years.

In 1892 the concern began test drillings at Salzdetfurth, near Hildesheim, which were followed up with construction of shafts to a depth of seven hundred meters to mine the rich deposits of potash thus discovered. In 1899 the concern moved its headquarters to Salzdetfurth and the concern adopted its present title. The mining and distribution of phosphate products was highly cartelized at this time, and the concern operated with others to control production and maintain high prices. This delayed the exploitation of potash resources in Alsace-Lorraine; while the concern had organised the Deutsche Kaliwerke AG in 1913 to being production, little could be accomplished before the territory was returned to France at the close of the Great War.

During the Great War the concern expanded its production to support both the war effort and the intensification of agriculture demanded by the imposition of the Allied blockade. To maintain production of balanced agricultural fertilizers, the firm also invested in plants for the production of ammonia using the Haber-Bosch process. While Germany no longer enjoyed a monopoly of potash production following the conclusion of hostilities it still maintained a seventy percent share of the world’s production; to defend this position the German potash industry underwent a phase of consolidation during which the concern absorbed several of its competitors, including the Kaliwerke Aschersleben, the Burbach-Kaliwerke and the Deutschen Solvay-Werke.

The concern remains one of the nation’s largest industrial enterprises, employing more than thirty thousand workers in its mines, processing plants and internal departments.

As presently constituted, this firm was founded in 1925 in Duisburg to carry on the business originally conducted by the the Lithopone und Permanentweißfabrik Schöningen, a manufacturer of paints and other industrial coatings. In 1883 the chemical engineer Rudolf Sachtleben became director of the works at Schöningen where he replaced toxic white lead with lithopone, the first permanent white pigment. The firm moved its operations to Duisburg in 1892, where production of paints continued. Following the Great War the firm was reorganised and in 1925 became a joint-stock company with an initial capital of twelve million Reichsmarks.

Founded in 1874 to undertake the manufacture of coal tar derivatives, diversifying early in the Twentieth Century into the production of penetrating oils and rust-proof coatings, which are marketed under the trade name "Caramba". In 1907 the firm erected new manufacturing facilities at Duisburg and in 1929 absorbed the rival Deutsche Glühstoff AG. With the expansion of the automotive industry following the Great War the firm has developed a wide variety of products  oils, coatings, varnishes and such  for use in the manufacture and maintenance of motor vehicles. Its products are widely marketed across Europe and exported in high volume to tropical climates, where corrosion is common.

In November 1858 the merchant Julius Vorster and the chemist Hermann Julius Grüneberg founded the Chemische Fabrik Vorster und Grüneberg in the city of Köln. Initially the firm produced potassium saltpeter, used a food preservative and as ingredient in gunpowder, with soda as a byproduct. Prospering through its early years the firm pioneered the production of potash salt in the vicinity of Staßfurt and the development of chemical fertilizers for use in agriculture  including potassium chloride, potassium carbonate and ammonium sulphate. The firm constructed a number of factories in the vicinity of Magdeburg as well as works in Düsseldorf, Essen, Dortmund, Hamburg, Leipzig; works were also constructed in Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia. The firm was converted into a joint stock company in 1892 under its current corporate style.

During the Great War the firm converted many of its facilities to the production of war material and explosives, while others were shut down due to lack of raw materials. With the return of peace the firm was quickly able to regain its premier position as a supplier of agricultural fertilizers. While its factories in Russia were lost as a consequence of the hostilities, it has since entered the market in southeastern Europe and finds nearly a quarter of its sales in that region. The firm presently employs 2,400 workers at its facilities across the nation.

One of largest manufacturers of soaps and detergents in Germany, this firm was founded in 1845 when Michael Maurer and his stepson, Andreas Wirtz, opened a shop for the sale of imported and colonial goods in Stolberg, near Aachen. One of the first ventures of the new partnership was the manufacture of soap; Wirtz investigated this and in 1851 was successful in marketing a soft soap. In 1856, upon the death of Maurer, Andreas Wirtz became sole proprietor of the venture. Through careful research and meticulous record-keeping Wirtz developed new products including shaving and bar soaps, curd soap for household cleaning and perfumed toiletry soaps; by 1860 the firm was marketing thirteen different kinds of bar and liquid soap.

Expanding his distribution network to the larger city of Aachen, Wirtz found a market for industrial detergents and bleaching agents in the textile industry. Over the next ten years the firm concentrated its efforts in this new arena and won new customers across the northern Rhineland, Westphalia, Belgium and the Netherlands. Further expansion of the firms business followed in the 1870s and 1880s, with exports marketed in France and England.

In 1899 the firm introduced its first soap powder for commercial laundries, which in 1913 was marketed under the trade name Dalli. That same year the firm moved its operation to a newly-built factory in Stolberg. The joint stock form was adopted in 1915. In 1938 the firm acquired the luxury soap manufacturer Riva in Wien, and established a third factory in Berlin. It employs more than one thousand workers in its three locations, and continues to manufacture a wide range of soaps, detergents and bleaches for domestic, commercial and industrial use.