“In truth”: Szöllösi-Janze, “Losing the War,” and Rathenau, “Germany’s Provisions.”
“Things at Oppau, however,”: For sharing of plans with other IG companies, see Szöllösi-Janze, “Losing the War”; and BASF UA G61101.
“‘Following a heavy bombardment’”: LeFebure, The Riddle of the Rhine.
“The use of poison gas”: See Stoltenberg, Fritz Haber, and Szöllösi-Janze, Fritz Haber. For the Fulda manifesto, see Gratzer, The Undergrowth of Science: Delusion, Self-Deception, and Human Frailty. For Bauer’s role, see Bauer, Der Grosse Krieg in Feld und Heimat. See also Haber, The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War.
“Chlorine gas”: Haber, The Poisonous Cloud; and Harris and Paxman, A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Gas and Germ Warfare.
“Their discretion”: Hague Convention quoted in SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons.
“In April 1915”: Szöllösi-Janze, “Losing the War”; LeFebure, The Riddle of the Rhine; and Cornwell, Hitler’s Scientists.
“The results”: LeFebure, The Riddle of the Rhine.
“‘How well it works’”: Max Bauer papers, March 15, 1915, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz. Also cited in Borkin, The Crime.
“‘I made no secret’”: Martinez, Der Gaskrieg: 1914/18. Entwicklung, Herstellung und Ensatz chemischer Kampstoff.
“It was a telling point”: John French quoted in Carter, Chemical and Biological Defence at Porton Down, 1916–2000. For public response in the UK and France, see LeFebure, The Riddle of the Rhine. For French air force raid on Ludwigshafen, see Abelshauser et al., German Industry, and Geschichte der Ammoniaksynthese, in BASF UA G1101. On the establishment of Porton Down, see Carter, Chemical and Biological. On subsidies for Leuna (footnote), see BASF UA, C110 (1916).
“The German chemists”: Stoltenberg, Fritz Haber; and Szöllösi-Janze, Fritz Haber.
“Arguably, Duisberg”: For UK government revocation of Aspirin trademark, see Lancet, Feb. 5, 1815. For Aspro: Jeffreys, Aspirin; Grenville-Smith and Barrie, Aspro: How a Family Business Grew Up; and Morgan, Apothecary’s Venture: The Scientific Quest of the International Nicholas Organisation.
“Duisberg looked to his own country”: Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; and, for Bauer quotation, Max Bauer papers, July 24, 1915, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz.
“Nevertheless Duisberg knew”: See Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Abelshauser et al., German Industry; Flechtner, Carl Duisberg; Plumpe, Die IG Farbenindustrie AG: Wirtschaft, Technik und Politik 1904–1945; and BASF UA, C10 (1914-16).
“In these circumstances”: Flechtner, Carl Duisberg; Plumpe, Die IG Farbenindustrie; and BASF UA, C10 (1914-16).
“When he raised”: Ibid.
“Flushed with this”: For correspondence on Duisberg’s meeting with Hindenburg, see Max Bauer papers, Sept. 10, 1916, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz. See also Plumpe, Die IG Farbenindustrie.
“The following week”: Feldman, Arms, Industry, and Labor in Germany, 1914–1918.
“In November 1916”: Ibid. and Borkin, The Crime. For BASF and POW labor, see BASF UA Engere Kommission des AR, Sitzung (April 16, 1915; Oct. 25, 1915; May 2, 1916).
“In the meantime”: Feldman, Arms, Industry, and Labor.
Ibid.
“It is hard to figure”: Duisberg, Meine Lebenserinnerungen and Abhandlungen, Vorträge und Reden aus den Jahren 1882–1921; Duisberg, Nurein Sohn.
“When fighting”: For deficiencies of Allied and American chemical industries in 1914 and the effect of the blockade, see Haynes, American Chemical Industry, vol. 2.
“Meanwhile”: Ibid.
Ambruster, Treason’s Peace: German Dyes and American Dupes.
“Bayer’s U.S. production lines were on the verge”: Pharmazeutische Konferenz 169/5, vol. 3, April 11, 1915, Bayer Archives, Leverkusen.
“Great Phenol Plot”: Jeffreys, Aspirin; Ambruster, Treason’s Peace; Mann and Plummer, The Aspirin Wars. Also “Aspirin and Espionage,” Journal of the American Medical Association, April 1919.
“Hugo Schweitzer”: Ibid. and Dr. Hugo Schweitzer, entry 195 and entry 199, Records of the Office of Alien Property, Record Group 131, U.S. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Dyestuffs Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 66th Congress, hearings held on June 18, 1919 (U.S. Library of Congress). See also Jones, The German Secret Service in America, 1914–18.
On Bayer’s attempts at corporate camouflage, see Jeffreys, Aspirin; and Ambruster, Treason’s Peace.
“Bayer and Company”: New York World, Aug. 15-19, 1915. For Thomas Edison’s announcement, see Haynes, American Chemical Industry.
“It was all too late”: Ibid. See also Aims and Purposes of the Chemical Foundation Inc and the Reasons for Its Organisation. As Told by A. Mitchell Palmer, United States Attorney General and Former Alien Property Custodian in His Report to Congress, and by Francis P. Garvan, Alien Property Custodian, in an Address to the National Cotton Manufacturers Association, New York, 1919. For further background on Francis Garvan, see Jeffreys, The Bureau: Inside the Modern FBI.
“They called it the turnip winter”: Gilbert, The First World War; Hardach, The First World War, 1914-1918.
“For those running”: For details on the Patriotic Auxiliary Service Law and subsequent labor unrest, see Breunig, Soziale Verhältnisse der Arbetiterschaft.
“In March 1918”: Gilbert, The First World War; and Hardach, The First World War. For Ludendorff’s appeal to Duisberg, see Manchester, The Arms of Krupp.
4. The Birth of a Colossus
“On the afternoon”: This description of events at Carl Duisberg’s house in November 1924 is based on various sources, including Duisberg, Nur ein Sohn; Duisberg, Meine Lebenserinnerungen; Mann and Plummer, The Aspirin Wars; Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900-1930; and photographs of the house in the Bayer, Leverkusen archives.
“Germany’s defeat”: See Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900-1930. For BASF’s 1917–18 sales, see Abelshauser et al., German Industry.
“The uncertainty wasn’t helped”: Quotation from New York Times, Dec. 24, 1918. Duisberg at Leverkusen: Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones.
“There was little”: See BASF correspondence with Auswärtige Amt in Bundesarchiv, Lichterfelde, R85; and Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930. Quotation from Morris, “War Gases in Germany.”
“One of the things”: McConnell, “The Production of Nitrogenous Compounds Synthetically in the U.S. and Germany,” and Meinzer, 125 Jahre BASF. Also BASF UA, A862/4.
“Then it did”: Kolata, Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It, and Collier, The Plague of the Spanish Lady.
“Ironically”: Jeffreys, Aspirin.
Postwar Germany and the founding of the Weimar Republic: Drawn from various sources, including Evans, The Coming; Kolb, The Weimar Republic; and Bessel, Germany after the First World War.
“During one such”: For the Kapp putsch: Bessel, Germany after the First World War. For the VKPD revolt and BASF’s response, see BASF UA C113, Engere Kommission des AR, 54, Sitzung 29–3, and Streller and Masalsky, Geschichte des VEB Leuna-Werke.
“Against such a politically”: On the run-up to the peace conference, see Evans, The Coming; Kolb, The Weimar Republic; Bessel, Germany; Luckau, The German Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference; and Temperley, A History of the Peace Conference of Paris.
“Carl Bosch was”: Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
Seizure of Bayer’s assets: Jeffreys, Aspirin.
“He did his best”: Bosch, Geschäftsstelle für die Friedensverhadlungen. See also Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
“Bosch and his colleagues”: Ibid. and Luckau, The German Delegation.
Versailles Treaty: Temperley, A History of the Peace Conference of Paris.
“For the companies”: Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930.
Bosch’s dea
l with the French (including footnote and quotation): Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie; and Borkin, The Crime.
“In those bleak days”: On Belgian tariffs, see Michels, Cartels, Combines, and Trusts in Post-War Germany.
“Carl Duisberg was one”: Jeffreys, Aspirin.
“Things were even worse”: See Records of the Office of Alien Property, 131, U.S. National Archives. On Sterling Products and its purchase of Bayer, see Hiebert, Our Policy Is People, Their Health Our Business; Drug and Chemical Markets, Dec. 18, 1918; Mann and Plummer, The Aspirin Wars; and Reimer, “Bayer & Company in the United States: German Dyes, Drugs, and Cartels in the Progressive Era.” For quotation, see Document 3310, Department of Justice [DOJ] Central Files, Case 60/21/56, Sterling Products, Inc., Record Group 60, U.S. National Archives (hereafter identified as DOJ Sterling, followed by document number).
“Weiss had a major”: For the state of Rensselaer after sale, see DOJ Sterling 3257.
“Help was very difficult”: Korthaus, Pharmazeutische Geschäft in Südamerika währen des Krieges. Correspondence between Möller and Mann in Bayer Leverkusen Archives 9/A.7 and DOJ Sterling 2495.
“It was not a happy”: Wiederschrift über die Besprechung am Montag, den 22 September 1919 mit William Weiss et al., Bayer Leverkusen Archives.
“Thus began”: Jeffreys, Aspirin.
“‘Everywhere in the whole world’”: Bericht uber die Konferenz mit Herrn Weiss aus New York vom 8 April 1920, Bayer Leverkusen Archives.
“It says a great deal”: For Weiss’s first visit to Leverkusen, see DOJ Sterling 1499 and DOJ Sterling 3795
“Eventually, of course”: Contract between Farbenfabriken Bayer and Winthrop Chemical Company, April 9, 1923, Exhibit A, U.S. v Alba; Contract between Farbenfabriken Bayer and the Bayer Company, April 9, 1923, Exhibit A, U.S. v The Bayer Company et al. (Washington: Trade Cases, 1941).
“Unquestionably”: Ibid.
DuPont’s approach to Carl Bosch: See Hearings before Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry, U.S. Senate, 73rd Congress, parts 39 and 11.
“DuPont was forced”: See New York Times, Feb. 21, 1921.
“As might be”: Hearings before Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry, U.S. Senate, 73rd Congress, part 39.
“The British watched”: Travis, “High Pressure Industrial Chemistry.”
“On the morning”: See BASF UA A832/1 and Explosionsunglück Oppau, BASF UA A382 9/II/5. See also Times, Sept. 23 and 24, 1921, and Manchester Guardian, Sept. 25, 1921.
“The explosion was”: For financial effects, see BASF UA, Sitzung des AR, Oct. 4, 1921, and Dec. 13, 1921.
“‘The very material’”: Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
“Inevitably, there were rumors” Ibid. and New York Times, Oct. 31, 1921.
“Although the absolute cause”: Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930, and Abelshauser et al., German Industry.
“As BASF’s lawyers”: Hayes, “Carl Bosch and Carl Krauch. Chemistry and the Political Economy of Germany 1925–1945.”
“Krauch rose”: Ibid. and Borkin, The Crime.
On the beginnings of hyperinflation and defaulting on reparations, see Evans, The Coming; Kolb, The Weimar Republic; and Bessel, Germany.
“The German chemical industry’s plants”: Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
On French legal proceedings against Bosch and others, see Frankfurter Zeitung, Aug. 12, 1923.
“The wider financial consequences”: Evans, The Coming; Kolb, The Weimar Republic; and Bessel, Germany.
The Munich Revolt: Ibid. and Kershaw, Hitler, 1899–1936.
“Germany’s chemical industry”: Michels, Cartels, Combines, and Trusts.
On Duisberg’s changing attitude toward merger, see Duisberg, Nur ein Sohn; Duisberg, Meine Lebenserinnerungen; Mann and Plummer, The Aspirin Wars; Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; and Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930.
“Carl Bosch felt otherwise”: Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie. Also see correspondence and memoranda in BASF UA, C10 and A20.
Creation of IG Farben and arguments between Bosch and Duisberg: Ibid. and Duisberg, Nur ein Sohn; Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930; Michels, Cartels, Combines, and Trusts; Hayes, Industry and Ideology: IG Farben in the Nazi Era.
“It would be over a year”: Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
“On December 2, 1925”: Signed copy of IG Farbenindustrie contract in BASF UA, A21/2.
5. Bosch’s Plan
“There were plenty of positives”: IG Farben contract, BASF UA, A21/2.
“That whole was”: Figures drawn from Stocking and Watkins, Cartels in Action; Michels, Cartels, Combines, and Trusts; Tammen, “Die I. G. Farben Industrie Aktiengesellschaft 1925–1933”; and Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930.
“Finding a management recipe”: See affidavit by Fritz ter Meer, NI 5186/38 and NI 9487/78. For further details on work groups, see Abelshauser, German Industry.
“By 1931, however”: See affidavit by Ernst Struss, “Die Betriebsgemein-schaften und die Entwicklung der IG Farben,” NI 9487/78, and Hayes, Industry and Ideology.
“Given their disparate”: Ibid. Also NI 5169/38 and NI 10043/82. For formation of NW7, see affidavit by K. Krüger, NMT, vol. 7, p. 440, and Sasuly, IG Farben.
“IG Farben’s Aufsichtsrat”: See affidavit by Fritz ter Meer, NI 5186/38, and affidavit by Carl Krauch, NI 6120/46.
For details of the Working Committee, see affidavit by Fritz ter Meer, NI 5184/38. For details of the Central Committee, see affidavit by H. Bässler, NI 7366/59. See also Hayes, Industry and Ideology.
“This extraordinary”: see Ter Meer, Die IG Farben Industrie Aktiengesellschaft, and Hayes, Industry and Ideology. For the lack of stockholder objections, see affidavit by Fritz ter Meer, NI 5184/38. For the relationship between Deutsche Länderbank and IG Farben, see Tammen, “Die I.G. Farben,” and Bower, Blind Eye to Murder: Britain, America, and the Purging of Nazi Germany.
“So who were those men”: This portrait of Vorstand members and specific information on Gajewski, Schmitz, von Schnitzler, von Knieriem, Hörlein, Krauch, ter Meer, and Mann have been gleaned from the personal affidavits of IG defendants and witnesses submitted to the court in NMT, with other background from Ter Meer, Die IG Farben; DuBois, The Devil’s Chemists; Hayes, Industry and Ideology; Duisberg, Nur ein Sohn; and Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
“There were plenty of others”: For Carl Bosch’s melancholia and introspection, see Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie. For origins of the term decentralized centralism, see Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930; Abelshauser et al., German Industry; and Hayes, Industry and Ideology. Hayes uses a wonderful German expression, Schwerfälligkeit, roughly translated as “ponderousness,” to describe the consequences of the IG’s overly bureaucratic structure.
“When future historians”: This discussion is best encapsulated in David Strahan’s The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man.
For agreements between ICI and DuPont, and IG Farben’s response, see Coleman, IG Farben and ICI, 1925–53: Strategies for Growth and Survival. See also Bayer Leverkusen 4C9.32, Control Office (CR 107/2/18).
“Bosch may have had his failings”: Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie; and Stranges, “Germany’s Synthetic Fuel Industry.”
For background on Bergius and synthetic fuel, see Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie; and Stranges, “Friedrich Bergius and the Rise of the German Synthetic Fuel Industry.”
“Bosch’s gamble”: Figures from Public Record Office, London (National Archives), “Investment in Large Plant of IG in Millions of RM,” Aug. 18, 1945, FO 1031/233; and Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Economic Study of IG Farbenindustrie AG, Section V, 1945). See also Hughes, “Technological Momentum in History: Hydrogenation in Germany, 1898–1933.”
“The gamble was not”: For an example, see affidavit by Carl Krauch, NI 6524/49.
“There were potential external opponents”: “Einige Überlegungen angel-gentlich der Übertragung des Four Party Agreements auf die Shell,” BASF UA, T75/1. See also Yergin, The Prize, and Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
“Standard’s bosses duly obliged”: Howard, Buna Rubber.
“In March 1926”: Ibid.
“‘This matter’”: Quoted in Wendell, Cartels: Challenge to a Free World.
“A few days later”: Howard, Buna Rubber.
“Bosch had hooked”: Ibid. and Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
“That work had gotten off”: BASF UA, Ludwigshafen, Hochdruckversuche “Kurzes Referat,” Nov. 9, 1942; BASF UA, “Produktion und Gestehkosten Leuna,” June 27, 1947. See also Abelshauser et al., German Industry.
“In the meanwhile”: For the Bergius agreement with Standard, see Borkin, The Crime. Also Hearings before the Committee on Patents, U.S. Senate, 77th Congress, 2nd Session (1942).
“The agreement still”: Ibid.
“Bosch on the other hand”: Affidavit by Carl Krauch, NI 6524/49; Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
Deal with Standard: See Control Office, IG Farbenindustrie AG, U.S. Zone, “Activities of IG Farben in the Oil Industry,” Jan. 14, 1946; Yergin, The Prize; Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie; and Hayes, Industry and Ideology. For agreement on buna: Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie; Hayes, Industry and Ideology; and Borkin, The Crime.
“And then the wheel”: Figures in Stranges, “Germany’s Synthetic Fuel Industry.” For criticism of Bosch’s decision, see affidavit by Carl Krauch, NI 6524/49.
6. Striking the Bargain
“For most of the middle years”: On the IG’s general attitude toward politics, see Flechtner, Carl Duisberg; Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie; Tammen, “Die I.G. Farben”; and Hayes, Industry and Ideology.
“But in Weimar’s fractured”: This overview of the Weimar political scene is drawn from various sources, including Evans, The Coming; Kolb, The Weimar Republic; Bessel, Germany; Falter, “How Likely Were Workers to Vote for the NSDAP?”; Eyck, History of the Weimar Republic, vols. 1 and 2; and Turner, German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler.
Hell's Cartel_IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine Page 47