War, destruction, the start of rebuilding

Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the death chambers as of September 1941, was developed in the World War for delousing soldiers' quarters, for example. In 1922, the Degussa subsidiary Degesch – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung – acquired a process that made it possible to retain the gas in cotton wool-like pellets. As soon as these came into contact with air, the end product Zyklon B was released. Here again, it cannot be proved that Degussa directors were aware that the product was being used for mass extermination purposes in the concentration camps. After the war, Dr. Gerhard Peters, who was director of Degesch from 1939 on, was sentenced to prison but later acquitted in a 1955 retrial. The directors of the erstwhile Degussa and other predecessors of the present-day companies were never charged, and they have always denied knowledge of the Nazi crimes.

Read more about this time in the comprehensive description on Degussa's history in the NS-era.

Röhm & Haas GmbH purchased an 86,000 m2 site in Worms and started construction of a raw material plant to manufacture the initial products required for PLEXIGLAS® production at the Darmstadt works. Steady progress was made initially on the construction work, but it then suffered severely as a result of allied forces bombing raids in 1943 and 1944. It ultimately came to a complete halt. The factory remained a construction site and the planned production never started. In 1946 the site and the buildings on it were taken over by the French occupation forces. It was only on the release of the plants in 1955 that production was able to proceed at the Worms’s factory.

Only two years after the start of production in Marl, some 2,000 new employees and their families had already arrived at the Chemische Werke Hüls site. They predominantly came from I.G. Farben-Werk Ludwigshafen. Providing for such numbers under wartime conditions was a problem. The management consequently arranged for two farming companies to provide for the work force.

After the heavy bomb damage at Essen in May of that year, Goldschmidt AG decided to transfer production essential to the war effort. It built a production facility in Ammendorf near Halle for glue film, thermit and emulsifiers. An additional works was planned for Reichenbach/Silesia. However, the almost completed plants at Reichenbach were occupied by the Red Army in February 1945, before they had produced anything.

The Marl chemical works of Chemische Werke Hüls GmbH was also subjected to heavy allied bombing. However, it was initially possible to continue with Buna production.

The production of the pyrogenic silicic acid AEROSIL® commenced at the Degussa works, Rheinfelden, with a capacity of ten tons per month. It was manufactured by Degussa chemist Harry Kloepfer in 1942. Because of its physical/chemical properties, AEROSIL® is used in such varied sectors as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, the paint and varnish industry, in the manufacture of polymers, resins and adhesives, in the tire and rubber industries, as well as in anti-foaming components in mineral oils. Today it is one of the most successful products of Evonik’s Chemicals Business Area.

The devastating air attack on Frankfurt am Main on the evening of March 22 caused an abrupt break in production at the Degussa works in the Frankfurt city center. The main administration building, on today's Frankfurt site, was also severely affected. The departments which had become homeless overnight were transferred to Wächtersbach, other locations in Frankfurt, or moved to less-affected outlying areas. All research was transferred to Constance, returning only in 1949. For security reasons, the accounts department and all accounting documentation had already been transferred to Idstein in the Taunus area in 1943.

Heavy air attacks in September of that year brought production at Röhm & Haas GmbH in Darmstadt to a standstill. Following further, smaller air raids, 80 percent of the factory was destroyed.

Following Germany's occupation by allied forces, production at all the former Degussa factories came to a standstill. The active oxygen chemicals plant in Rheinfelden, near the Swiss border, which was so important to the company, was left intact, but the hydrogen peroxide plant was lost in accordance with the regulations for dismantling of plant. Apart from the destruction and losing all international assets and all factories and branches located in Central and East Germany, Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheideanstalt also lost a large part of its stocks of precious metals.

The works belonging to Chemische Werke Hüls GmbH in Marl, which had been severely damaged in bombing raids in 1943, was threatened by the possibility of detonation before the arrival of American troops. However, this was prevented. Soon after the end of hostilities, Buna production – now in the British occupation zone – was given special authorization to continue. At the same time, it became clear that in order to continue, the company had to create a new production base. A new department was set up to meet this need. The “Technical applications department” provided advice during conversion to peacetime production and sounded out the market.

The overall damage to the plants of Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoff-Werke AG was relatively slight at the end of the war. SKW was placed under trust administration after the war. The company remained under US control until 1949. Production had already started up again by the end of 1945. SKW subsequently built up a product program focusing on specialty chemicals. The targeted sectors were the pharmaceutical industry, agricultural chemicals and varnishes, paints and polymers.

There was a break in production at all Goldschmidt factories at the end of the war due to damage or shortage of materials. The original works in Essen was 85 percent destroyed; reconstruction essentially amounted to new construction. Nevertheless, some basic production of hair creams did start up again as early as 1945, and these were sold from the premises. The Mannheim-Rheinau works remained relatively intact, although there were communication problems with Essen, since Mannheim was in the French zone. Ammendorf near Halle was also only slightly damaged, but in 1946 it was expropriated into the future GDR without compensation, as were Goldschmidt's other interests.

Otto Röhm, son of the co-founder Dr. Otto Röhm, returned to Germany from Switzerland and joined the Röhm & Haas GmbH management in June. In October the company obtained permission from the US military government to start production. In 1946 OROPON® and BURNUS® production started up again. Then in 1947 production of PLEXIGLAS® also started, at in small quantities. The branch at Mittenwalde near Berlin was lost due to the occupation and then dismantled by the Soviet occupation forces. The French occupation forces confiscated the factory at Worms in 1946. Röhm & Haas GmbH also lost its foreign interests.

Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoff-Werke AG recommenced production of carbide (at the Hart factory) and calcium cyanamide. Experiments into the granulation of calcium cyanamide began at the Trostberg works, and a plant was built to produce palletized calcium cyanamide (PERLKA®). The advantage of palletized calcium cyanamide, which is still manufactured today, is that its application to fields is less labor-intensive and creates less dust.

Chemische Werke Hüls AG began construction of a PVC plant at the Marl works based on the emulsion method. It went into operation in 1949. The plan was to push ahead with conversion to civilian production. However, realignment of the product range could not prevent significant job losses.

A period of extensive modernization and rationalization began at Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoff-Werke AG's plants, which continued up to the end of the 1950s. All the kilns in the lime works at Saal were replaced. The long-serving steam locomotives were replaced by diesels. In the carbide factory at Hart modern production plants replaced the furnaces, which were over 30 years old. Previously unused carbide furnace gas was now passed via a new suction facility to Schalchen and Trostberg for further processing. The capacity for calcium cyanamide production was significantly increased.

Degussa started production of methionine at the works in Constance, using the sulfate method. The amino acid, methionine, was initially intended for use in human medicine and for effective treatment of the widespread nutritional disorders in Germany. It also soon found another broad area of use as an animal feed additive to improve the quality of protein in animal feed. Today, methionine is manufactured at the Wesseling works near Cologne, in Antwerp, Belgium, and Mobile, Alabama.

Control of the Süddeutsche Kalkstickstoff-Werke AG passed from the American occupation forces to the Bavarian Regional Office for the Administration of Resources and Redevelopment, which allowed SKW total freedom of operation. A year later this control ended on the orders of the military government and SKW's authority was fully restored. In 1951 the last prohibitions and restrictions imposed by the Allied High Commission were lifted.