Otto Ambros, whose curriculum vitae included responsibility for the location, planning, and running of IG Auschwitz, the creation of Nazi Germany’s secret chemical weapons program, a Knight’s Cross from Adolf Hitler, and a conviction for slavery and mass murder, went on to have a glittering career as chairman or member of the boards of Chemie Grünenthal, Pintsch Bamag AG, Knoll AG, Telefunken GmbH, Berliner Handelsgesellschaft, Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoff-werke, and numerous other businesses. He also became a consultant to the U.S. chemical and asbestos firm W. R. Grace and an “adviser” on chemical matters to the German government in Bonn.
Fritz ter Meer, whose commanding presence dominated the dock at Nuremberg and who was the only man to be convicted on two counts, followed Hörlein and Mann back to Leverkusen. After a brief interval he was elected to the board of Bayer AG and in 1955 he became chairman of the company, a post he held for the next eight years. He was also the chairman of Th. Goldschmidt AG, deputy chairman of the Commerzbank association, and a board member of Waggonfabrik Uerdingen AG, the Düsseldorfer Waggonfabrik AG, and United Industrial Enterprises. He, too, became an adviser to the German government, on synthetic fuel issues.
The other men sought more modest appointments back with their old employers or left the industry altogether. Georg von Schnitzler, for example, was occasionally featured in the society pages of some of the glossier European magazines, but he seems to have stayed away from most of his former colleagues. Christian Schneider, meanwhile, seems to have made a good living as a consultant to European chemical businesses, passing on his knowledge of high-pressure chemistry to anyone who was interested. But wherever they ended up, none of the former IG defendants appear to have suffered either physically or financially from their experiences at Nuremberg or at Landsberg. Nor, apart from von Schnitzler, who had at least made something of a confession to American investigators, did any of them ever express a public word of apology.
On February 6, 1959, the members of IG Farben’s wartime Vorstand gathered in Ludwigshafen for a glittering reunion dinner hosted by BASF’s Carl Wurster—the last such event to be held. Given the inclement weather, their advanced years, and the distances that some of them had to travel, it was a good turnout: Krauch, ter Meer, Gajewski, Ambros, Ilgner, Schneider, Bütefisch, Kühne, Jaehne, and Wilhelm Mann. Many had brought their wives and Carl Bosch’s widow had been invited in honor of her husband. Wurster sat at the head of the table, as befitted his position as chairman of the fastest-growing company in the new Germany, and dispensed wine and comradeship and good cheer throughout the evening.
But as the candles burned lower and the men lit up their cigars and poured out the brandy, what did they find to talk about? Did they congratulate one another for having survived the Nazi regime and the ordeal of Nuremberg or exchange anecdotes about their time at Landsberg? Did they look back fondly to the days when the business they once ran was a mighty corporate colossus that crushed all commercial opposition, or did they perhaps wax optimistic about the great times ahead? Or did they, now that they were among friends and safe from prying eyes, raise a glass to the memory of thousands of starving, beaten, half-dead wretches who had once dragged iron girders across an icebound Polish construction site on their behalf?
We shall never know, of course. But somehow it seems unlikely.
POSTSCRIPT
New York Times
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
At its zenith during World War II, IG Farben was the world’s largest chemical company and a sinister symbol of Nazi industrial might. On Monday, the company, notorious for producing poison gas and consuming slave labor during the war, announced that it will file for bankruptcy.
That news may seem to come after the fact, given that Farben was dismantled by the Allies in 1952—its factories split among Bayer, BASF, and other German chemical companies.…
But IG Farben lived on as a trust—a legal entity fought over by court-appointed administrators and Holocaust survivors, who thought that its few remaining assets could still be sold to pay restitution.
Now, in the wake of a failed real estate deal, Farben’s administrators said the company would be dissolved, with the proceeds going to repay bank loans rather than Nazi-era victims or their families.
NOTES
Prologue
My description of the opening days of the IG Farben trial is based on a-variety of sources. The most important (from which all of General Taylor’s quotes in this prologue are drawn) is the official trial transcript, contained in volumes 7 and 8 of Trials of the War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. Citations of this source are shortened to NMT. Readers interested in seeing some of these documents for themselves can find them online at www.mazal.org. Additional documents used by the prosecution but not included in the NMT volumes were later copied onto microfilm and can be found under National Archives Record Group 238 T301, Records of the Office of the United States Chief Counsel for War Crimes, Nuremberg. This source is cited as NI, followed by the appropriate reel number. Other Nuremberg trial documents are designated separately whenever necessary.
The most interesting, if sometimes confusing, eyewitness account of the trial is Josiah DuBois’s, The Devil’s Chemists: 24 Conspirators of the International Farben Cartel Who Manufacture Wars. I was also able to draw, however, on the memories of some others who were there, including prosecution attorney Belle Mayer Zeck (sadly, now deceased) and David Gordon, who observed from the public gallery. For background I have also drawn on Telford Taylor’s Final Report to the Secretary of the Army on the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials under Control Council Law No. 10 and U.S. Group Control Council, Finance Division, Elimination of German Resources for War: Report on the Investigation of IG Farbenindustrie (declassified), November 1945. Other useful sources describing life at Nuremberg through the years of the war crimes trials were Taylor’s The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir; D. A. Sprecher’s Inside the Nuremberg Trial: A Prosecutor’s Comprehensive Account, vols. 1 and 2, and A. Tusa and J. Tusa’s The Nuremberg Trial. Sporadic coverage of the IG Farben trial also can be found in the Times (London) and the New York Times. My impressions of what the atmosphere must have been like were enhanced by a visit to Nuremberg and by careful perusal of the trial footage, now kept at the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, under War Crimes Trials: IG Farben Case, Story Numbers RG60: 2432/2916/2915/2431/2914, etc.
1. From Perkins Purple to Duisberg’s Drugs
“By the middle of the nineteenth century”: There is vast body of writing and research on the subject of chemistry during and after the Industrial Revolution but the sources I found most relevant to this section were Brock, The History of Chemistry and The Norton History of Chemistry; Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry; Haber, The Chemical Industry during the Nineteenth Century; Dorner, Early Dye History and the Introduction of Synthetic Dyes before the 1870s; and Warner, Landmarks in Industrial History.
“William Henry Perkin”: Boulton, “William Henry Perkin”; Chemical Society, The Life and Works of Professor William Henry Perkin; Garfield, Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World; and Travis, The Rainbow Makers: The Origins of the Synthetic Dyestuff Industry in Western Europe.
“August Wilhelm von Hofmann”: Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry; Haber, The Chemical Industry during the Nineteenth Century; Jeffreys, Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug; Benfey, “August Wilhelm Hofmann: A Centennial Tribute.”
“One of these was”: For more about quinine, see Duran-Reynals, The Fever Bark Tree: The Pageant of Quinine, and Klein, “The Fever Bark Tree.”
For William Perkin’s experiments and the commercial development and success of mauveine, see Meth-Cohn and Smith, “What Did W. H. Perkin Actually Make When He Oxidised Aniline to Obtain Mauveine?”; Boulton, William Henry Perkin; Garfield, Mauve; Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry; and Chem
ical Society, The Life and Works.
“‘If your discovery’”: R. Pullar to W. Perkin, June 12, 1856, Kirkpatrick Collection, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester. Also quoted in Journal of the Chemical Society 69, part 1 (1896).
“Traditionally, dyes could”: See Travis, The Rainbow Makers, and Leggett, Ancient and Medieval Dyes.
“The train and body”: Illustrated London News, Jan. 30, 1858. For examples of “mauve mania” and how it was reported, see Dickens, “Perkin’s Purple”; Gentlewoman’s Quarterly, Sussex, Aug. 7, 1859; and Punch, Aug. 7 and 21, Sept. 18 and 25, and Nov. 20, 1858.
“If August von Hofmann’s appointment”: Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry; Haber, The Chemical Industry during the Nineteenth Century; Leaback, “What Hofmann Left Behind.”
“One of the most significant”: Ibid.
“German textile manufacturers had long resented”: For the spread of synthetic dye works across Germany and the rest of Europe between 1860 and 1876, see Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry.
“There were some exceptions”: Biographical details and foundation of BASF from Schröter, Friedrich Englehorn. Ein Unternehmer-Porträt des 19 Jahrunderts; Abelshauser et al., German Industry and Global Enterprise; and Meinzer, 125 Jahre BASF: Stationen ihrer Geschichte. Also see BASF Unternehmensarchiv (UA) de BASG AG Ludwigshafen: A 11/1/6, A11/1/9, A 12/1/6.
“alizarin red”: Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930 and The Chemical Industry during the Nineteenth Century; Travis, The Rainbow Makers; Abelshauser et al., German Industry and Global Enterprise.
Biographical details on Carl Duisberg’s early life, education, and appointment at Farbenfabriken Bayer: Duisberg, Meine Lebenserinnerungen; Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Armstrong, “Chemical Industry and Carl Duisberg”; Flechtner, Carl Duisberg: Vom Chemiker zum Wirtschaftsfuhrer; and Jeffreys, Aspirin.
Letter to Rumpff quoted in Duisberg, Nur ein Sohn, and Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones.
Discovery of antipyrine and Antifebrine: Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Issekutz, Die Geschichte der Arzneimittelforschung; and McTavish, “The German Pharmaceutical Industry, 1880–1920: A Case Study of Aspirin.”
Development of Bayer drugs Phenacetin, Sulfonal, and Trional: Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Schadewaldt and Alstaedter, History of Pharmacological Research at Bayer; Jeffreys, Aspirin; Armstrong, “Chemical Industry and Carl Duisberg”; and McTavish, “What’s in a Name? Aspirin and the American Medical Association.”
“When Carl Rumpff died”: Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Schadewaldt and Alstaedter, History of Pharmacological Research at Bayer; and Mann and Plummer, The Aspirin Wars.
“In less than six years”: Jeffreys, Aspirin; Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestone; and Autographensammlung Duisberg, Bayer Archives, Leverkusen.
Development of indigo: Reinhardt and Travis, Heinrich Caro; Nagel, Fuschin, Alizarin, Indigo. Der Beginn eines Weltunternehmens; and Abelshauser et al., German Industry and Global Enterprise.
“None of this mattered”: Details of BASF’s accomplishments listed in Badische Anilin-und Soda-Fabrik Ludwigshafen am Rhein, BASF UA, A/11 (1900).
On the development of aspirin, see Jeffreys, Aspirin. For biographical details of Hoffmann, Dreser, and Eichengrün, see Jeffreys, Aspirin, and Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Schadewaldt and Alstaedter, History of Pharmacological Research at Bayer. I was also assisted by information provided to me by Arthur Eichengrün’s grandson Ernst. On discrepancies over Eichengrün’s role, see his own accounts: “50 Jahre Aspirin” and “Pharmaceutisch-wissenschafliche Abteiling.”
“‘find new ways’”: Quoted in Schadewaldt and Alstaedter, History of Pharmacological Research at Bayer.
heroin: See both Eichengrün articles, above, and Bulletin of Narcotics, April 1953.
“Aspirin was launched”: Eichengrün articles, above, and Dreser, “Pharmakologisches über Aspirin-Acetylsalicylsäure.”
“By the dawn of the new century”: Brock, The Norton History of Chemistry; Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry; Haber, The Chemical Industry during the Nineteenth Century; and Abelhauser et al., German Industry and Global Enterprise.
“‘We have forfeited our heritage’”: Daily Telegraph, July 9, 1906.
“In the meanwhile”: Heinrich Brunck’s remarks cited in Garfield, Mauve; Carl Duisberg’s quote from Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists, July 1906.
2. The Golden Years
“As the new century”: Data on early success of aspirin from Witthauer; Wohlgemut; and Wohr. Also see promotional leaflets for Aspirin, 1899, Bayer Archives, Leverkusen.
On aspirin patents, see UK Letters Patent No. 27,088 (1898) and U.S. Patent No. 644,077 (Feb. 27, 1900).
Jeffreys, Aspirin.
On the attitude of medical authorities toward advertising, see McTavish, “What’s in a Name?”
Duisberg’s visit to America and purchase of Rensselaer: Flechtner, Carl Duisberg; Jeffreys, Aspirin; and Duisberg, Meine Lebenserinnerungen.
“Before returning to Germany”: Ibid. and Flechtner, Carl Duisberg. Duisberg’s speech to New York Chemical Society, May 13, 1903, reproduced in Popular Science Monthly, May 1903.
“Six months later”: Memorandum reproduced in Duisberg, Abhandlungen, Vorträge und Reden aus den Jahren 1882-1921. Also in BASF UA, A16/2/3.
“Duisberg was deeply puzzled”: Duisberg, Meine Lebenserinnerungen.
“Dreibund”: BASF UA, A16/2/15; Duisberg, Meine Lebenserinnerungen; Brunck, Lebenserinnerungen, in BASF UA, W1 Lothar Brunck; Abelshauser et al., German Industry and Global Enterprise; and Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones.
“In May of the following year”: Farbenfabriken vormals Friedrich Bayer & Co v. Chemische Fabrik von Heyden.
“‘Big foreign syndicates’”: Telegraph, May 12, 1907.
“Mersey Chemical Works”: BASF UA Engere Kommission des AR, 29, Sitzung (April 7, 1908), Sitzung (April 1, 1910); Reinhardt and Travis Heinrich Caro.
“broader malaise in international relations”: Ferguson, The Pity of War.
“The events that led to this breakthrough”: Sir William Crookes’s speech can be found in Science, vol. 8, Oct. 28, 1898. For further details about the speech and its impact, see Fournier d’Albe, The Life of Sir William Crookes, and Farber, The Evolution of Chemistry: A History of Its Ideas, Methods, and Materials.
“Justus von Liebig”: Quoted in Brock, The History of Chemistry
“Of course, this lust for fertilizer”: The best study on this I’ve found is Vaclav Smil’s Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production.
“By 1903”: Ibid. See also Kiefer, “Chemistry Chronicles: Capturing Nitrogen Out of the Air.” For BASF’s relationship with the Norwegians, see BASF UA Engere Kommission des AR, Sitzung (Dec. 20, 1905) and BASF UA, C10, Vorstand an Aufsichstrat (Sept. 26, 1911).
“It would fall to a German scientist”: Biographical details of Fritz Haber drawn from Stoltenberg, Fritz Haber: Chemiker, Nobelpreisträger, Deutscher, Jude; Szöllösi-Janze, Fritz Haber 1868–1934: Eine Biographie; and Cornwell, Hitler’s Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil’s Pact.
“The nitrogen problem”: Ibid. and Smil, Enriching the Earth.
“For much of the previous year”: On Carl Bosch, see Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie: Carl Bosch, Leben und Werke.
“Thus it was”: Stoltenberg, Fritz Haber.
“Over the next three and a half years”: See Stoltenberg, Fritz Haber; Szöllösi-Janze, Fritz Haber; Smil, Enriching the Earth; Abelshauser et al., German Industry; Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie; Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900–1930; and Bosch’s Nobel Prize lecture of 1931.
“For much of its comparatively brief existence”: Assessment of value of German chemical exports from Hayes, Industry and Ideology: IG Farben in the Nazi Era.
“At a local level”: Employment contracts: BASF UA, C6
0. Averages and attitude toward employees: Abelshauser et al., German Industry; Verg, Plumpe, and Schultheis, Milestones; Hoechst Archiv 112/3, Hayes, Industry and Ideology.
“At the same time”: Ibid.
“As early as 1884”: BASF UA, C622.
“By the turn of the century”: Political turmoil and strikes: Breunig, Soziale Verhältnisse der Arbetiterschaft und sozialistische Arbeiterbewegung in Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1868–1909; Abelshauser et al., German Industry; and Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry.
“German society at large”: Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich; Falter, “How Likely Were Workers to Vote for the NSDAP?”; Manchester, The Arms of Krupp.
“So what shape”: Beer, The Emergence of the German Dye Industry.
3. The Chemists’ War
“It was supposed to be a brief”: Tuchman, The Guns of August, and Davies, Europe: A History.
“An astute industrialist”: Kessler, Walter Rathenau: His Life and Work. For Rathenau’s own assessment, see Rathenau, “Germany’s Provisions for Raw Materials.” See also Borkin, The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben.
“At first, few”: On military indifference to Rathenau’s warning, see Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie.
“Rathenau’s first act”: Ibid. Also Stoltenberg, Fritz Haber; and Szöllösi-Janze, Fritz Haber.
“At his first encounter”: Holdermann, Im Banne der Chemie; and Szöllösi-Janze, “Losing the War but Gaining Ground.”
Details of the deal with the War Ministry and quotation from the board: BASF UA Engere Kommission des AR, 42, Sitzung (Oct. 20, 1914).
“In truth”: Szöllösi-Janze, “Losing the War,” and Rathenau, “Germany’s Provisions.”
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