Simply the Best
janice
ever read in all the years I have researched the net. It is old, out-of print
but my goodness it provides such insight into our recent history and
the influences on modern globalisation..
You needn't fear, it is not about right or left politics [it never is] but
the tortured and the torturer; the powerful and the powerless, the pharaoh
and the enslaved.
This article has huge implications for those wanting to understand the
underlying mechanisms of globalisation. This is how I see it anyway.
You are free to disagree, but I wont bother answering those who are
afraid of what they read and launch ad hominem attack against me. I
didnt write it, it was written in 1947 but I certainly appreciate what it
means for all of us. .
Janice
I.G. FARBEN
[German: "Farben" = "color" "die" "paint"]
The following are some gleanings from my reading of Richard Sasuly's 1947 book
IG Farben . I can't remember where I first read that Sasuly's book had been a
major source for Gravity's Rainbow (it may have been Weisenburger) but obviously
much of IG Farben found its way into GR (sometimes almost verbatim). I haven't
had time to really write it all out, so it appears here just as I pulled it from
the book, the numbers in parentheses indicating the page numbers on this
long-out-of-print book.
While hunting down the book in the San Francisco Bay Area (where I live), one
book dealer didn't have the book, but knew Sasuly and gave me his home number
(he's also a Bay Area resident). I gave him a call and had a long and
fascinating conversation with him. He'd heard of Pynchon, but not of GR. (And
he'd long run out of copies of IG Farben.)
Anyway, I hope what follows provides a modicum of enlightenment. -- TW
Interessen Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft "community of
interests of dye industries, incorporated" - "community of interests" = "cartel"
"Germany's greatest corporation and the kingpin of the German war effort." (8)
"at the center of the network of international cartels which control a
bewildering array of products from oil to rubber to dyes to nitrogen to
explosives to aluminum to nickel to synthetic silks."
"had a share, generally the lion's share, in the control of more than three
hundred and eighty other German firms"
"IG Farben world organization included more than five hundred firms abroad."
"had its own mines for coal, magnesite, gypsum, and salt. It had its own coke
ovens and was a heavy investor in steel firms." (9)
"had its own house banks and patent and research firms, not only all over
Germany but scattered through all the main business centers of the world." (9)
IG's most important achievement was in finding substitutes for critical raw
materials. (83)
Industry and the Right Wing
In 1933 - alliance of the Nazi Party, organized Big Business, the German General
Staff, and important sections of the government bureaucracy. Robt Brady,
American economist, described Nazi state:
"a dictatorship of monopoly capitalism. Its 'fascism' is that of business
enterprise organized on a monopoly basis, and in full command of all the
military, police, legal and propaganda power of the state." (128)
"Hitler was pushed to the top, without support of a majority of the people, by a
coalition of the heavy industry leaders and Junker militarists." (14)
Hitler raised tariffs on gasoline to aid IG. In Hitler's Germany, there was no
organized labor movement--only a dwindling underground which had ceased to be a
factor. No longer any problems of wages and working conditions. Wages stayed low
after 1933. 60-hour work week became common; the result was a jump in industrial
accident rate (almost doubled between 1932 and 1938).
There was a sudden emergence of new fortunes during both WWI and WWII, as in all
wars.
Old privileges for Big Business were flourishing without check in Nazi Germany
during WWII. The local paper, the Frankfurter Zeitung, was owned by Jews and was
anti-Nazi. IG took it over, ran it as a "cloaked syndicate" headed by a
Professor Brunner.
"The operations of the cartel work against the interests of people. . .all over
the world" (28)
Pre-World War I
Strides in Organic Chemistry Facilitate Synthesis Dyestuffs from Coal Tar
Derivaties
Justus von Liebig (b. 1803) - one of the first German pioneers in what became
industrial chemistry (21)
Studied with Gay-Lussac in Paris - no chemistry in Germany
Returned to Germany in 1824 and taught other Germans to be chemists
Bulk of his work was in organic chemistry
One of Liebig's pupils, August Wilhelm von Hofmann, "cut the beginning trail
which led, through the making of dyestuffs, to IG Farben." (22)
A great teacher - led his students into the field of coal tar. Research led and
inspired by him built IG.
Taught in England first, then in 1864 went to teach in Germany.
One of his British students, William Henry Perkin, created the first synthetic
dye, mauve.
Coal tar was left over in the process of using coal to reduce iron from its ores
in the blast furnaces. Evil smelling and hard to get rid of. To get rid of it,
chemists had to first boil it off. It boiled off at different temperatures. When
the varieties of coal tar by-products were isolated, they yielded a huge variety
of further substances. Perkin's discovery, based on teaching of Liebig and
Hofmann, enabled coal tars to be turned to the supplying of dyes for textiles.
England could import dyes from its colonies. German had coal, but no empire.
In late 19th century, Germans invented many synthetic dyes, including Tyrian
purple. (23)
Carl Duisberg "great apostle of cartels in the chemical field" (26). leader of
the IG in 1906.
Was head of Elberfelder works at Leverkusen
Set up cartel "to maintain prices under the complete control of a small top
group; to eliminate competition and gain the security of blocked-off markets; to
concentrate control and make some gains in efficiency through larger scale
production" (27)
Wanted the consolidation of a world empire in chemicals (27)
Began pushing for cartelization in 1900
Germany set up a special patent system in 1877 to protect its chemical industry
from foreign competitors.
History of IG Farben
1863 Hoechst chemical works (Hoechster Farbwerke) - 5 workers
1865 Ludwigshafen works (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik)- 30 employees - 11,000
by 1914 (30 miles from French frontier)
1870 Bismarck forms one German state
1880 English patents filed in Germany were pirated by the Germans in collusion
with their own Patent Office. (36)
German producers wouldn't issue licenses to British, so they had to import
German products.
1903-13 Germans used price-cutting against American companies; also, "full-line
forcing" - to get one product you had to purchase entire line
1900 Duisberg pushes for cartelization
1904 The 6 major German chemical companies organized into two major
rings/cartels:
(1) Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik, the Bayer Co. of Leverkusen (Duisberg's),
AGFA Co. of Berlin;
(2) Hoechst works (on outskirts of Frankfurt-on-the-Main), Leopold Cassella &
Company, and Kalle & Co. of Biebrich
Quota system setup, profits were pooled and divided according to an agreed-upon
formula
At this time, IG came into common usage to describe the German dye cartel. The
most advanced specimen of cartel organization
1916 The two cartels organized into a single IG
Griesheim-Elektron and Farbwerk Muehlheim were added
The science of chemistry came of age during WWI
1925 The separate firms are merged into a single corporation - IG
Farbenindustrie, Inc.
World War I
In WWI the British won by the age-old principle of blockade: oil and rubber were
essential for war and Germany had no natural supplies of either. In WWII they
made their own, from coal which they had in abundance. "Used all the craft and
arts of organic chemistry [the chemistry of carbon and its compounds] to
transform it into the things they needed."
During WWI, the Germans had monopolies on certain medicines and anesthetics, and
they ceased exporting them during the WWI.
WWI demonstrated "IG's tremendous power as a war-maker and its great share in
the direction of Germany." (32)
BETWEEN THE WARS
Americans (through Alien Property Custodian) discovered German firms were
sending information back to Germany, and spreading German propaganda. (37)
Walter Rathenau
Was the coordinator of the German economy during WWI
Son of the founder of the giant electric concern A.E.G. (German Gen'l Elec Co) -
he became chairman of the trust
He created cartels one at a time. First iron and steel, then metals, then
chemicals and then leather and rubber.
Steel's major producers already in cartels, so cartelization was easy. Chemicals
even easier because in 1916 the complete IG was formed.
Hermann Schmitz was one of his chief aides. Schmitz succeeded Carl Bosch as
president of IG and was still the #1 man at end of WWII.
Rathenau forced non-cartel industries to organize. Supplies of raw materials
rigidly controlled, prices fixed, production quotas established.
Designated particular plants for specific jobs.
Envisioned a permanent completely cartelized State.
Took responsible posts in the new Weimar Republic. First, was Minister for
Reconstruction, then Foreign Minister. Became target for the terrorist gangs
that were forerunners of Hitler's Storm Troops -seen as example of civilians who
wouldn't let the German army win WWI and was assassinated.
Hugo Stinnes
"swashbuckling industrial pirate" who had grandiose visions of getting a corner
on the whole of Germany."
Family had been prominent in coal industry of Ruhr for several generations.
1890s Started buying a group of coal mines; formed German-Luxembourg Mining and
Smelting Co.
early 1900s Capital of 75M marks - controlled a chain of mines and steel works
throughout the Rhineland and Westphalia.
Started Rhenish-Westphalian Electric Works - furnished gas, water, electricity
for 25 Ruhr communities.
During WWI he was a leader in Rathenau's Raw Material Bureau in Berlin. Directed
taking over mining and steel making in occupied portions of France and Belgium;
directed removal of machinery; responsible for sending thousands of workers from
occupied territories to work in German industry.
After WWI, acquisitions greatly increased. Empire finally included more than
1500 different firms. Swallowed up hotels, restaurants, newspapers, lumber
mills, forests, steamship lines and shipyards. Interests in Austria, Sweden,
Denmark, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Dutch East Indies.
1921 - In the fall Rathenau put together the "trust to end all trusts":
Siemens-Rheinelbe-Schuchert Union. Rheinelbe Union was merger of major coal and
iron concerns. Siemens-Schuchert was the only rival of German GE Co (AEG) in
electrical field; a great horizontal trust [included many firms in same field],
but didn't supply its own fuel and raw materials. The merger took care of
weaknesses, horizontal and vertical - a self-sufficient empire - biggest ever.
Saw need for political control: Bought newspapers to control public opinion,
then lumber mills and paper-pulp works and printing houses. Supported monarchist
and ultra-nationalist groups. Greatly swayed votes in 1921 municipal elections.
Held out longest against surrendering in WWI. After the war, had agents in all
Central European countries, and owned newspapers in Prague, Budapest and Vienna.
Harangued German labor to abandon its 8-hour day and sweat out a daily ten
hours.
Died in 1924. "Stinnes empire turned out to be the Stinnes bubble." (45)
Holdings broke up after his death because they were too unweildy and dispersed
for his sons to handle.
The Inflation
Made possible the growth of Stinnes into a colossus.
Dealt a fatal blow to small businesses and the German middle class.
Started in 1914 when Reichsbank suspended conversion of notes to gold. Volume of
notes in one month jumped 2 billion marks. Before inflation was over there were
93 trillion marks in circulation. At the beginning of 1924, US$ = 6K marks.
Inflation enabled Germany to wipe out of all internal debt. Brought tremendous
gains to IG and Ruhr steel magnates. "They could produce goods, meet current
costs of production in worthless currency, and sell cheaply abroad; German
foreign trade was thereby quickly reestablished. And they could pay off all
debts and meet all taxes (based on the old price level) virtually for nothing.
German industry emerged from the inflation greatly strengthened." (46)
"Industrialists profited to an even greater extent through the wiping out of
insurance policies, mortgage bonds, and fixed incomes generally." (47)
Inflation was started by Germany's heavy borrowing to finance WWI. Only 6% of
cost of WWI was met by taxation. Unfunded debt reached 39 billion marks.
Workers' wages could not keep pace with prices.
"[Industrialists] had one and all made a calculated, co-ordinated effort to ruin
the credit of their country in order to secure discharge from their war
obligations. Stinnes was openly held by the mass of the German people to have
played in this matter especially for his own hand, and to have been responsible
for the fall of the mark and resultant position in Germany." (47)
Stinnes in 1922 to German Economic Council: "If you gentlement charge me, and
the men who think as I do, with opposing stabilization of the mark at any price,
you are absolutely right." (47-48)
Industrialists purchased foreign currency with loans made from the Reichbank,
drove the mark still further down, and paid off the loans for a fraction of the
original value. The more conservative business groups ran off their own currency
(Notgeld) with no backing.
1923 - objectives of inflation accomplished. In November a new currency
(Rentenmark) was issued and tightly controlled by the Reichbank under Schacht.
The inflation was over.
IG official Paul Haefliger (Summer 1945):
[The cost price of products during the inflation mattered very little] "because
the production price was being paid in continuously inflating currency, whereas,
for instance, the important dyestuff export yielded for the most part stable
money in good foreign currency which when transferred to Germany represented
mark accounts quite out of proportion to production costs, so that on paper big
profits could be shown even with a much smaller dyestuff export volume than
pre-war..."
Out of the pieces of the Stinnes super-trust, Siemens-Rheinelbe-Schuchert, a new
steel trust was formed: Vereinigte Stahlwerke, dominating all German steel
production and European steel cartel as well.
At least one of the German delegates to the Versailles peace conference was an
IG director.
IG given full governmental support after WWI. No taxes, loans. Also,
government-sponsored organization of an over all nitrogen syndicate, under IG
leadership, the Stickstoff Syndikat.
After mark was stabilized in 1923, IG could no longer afford internal
rivalries/competition in sales.
By agreement of all members of the IG, in 1925 all of the other concerns were
absorbed into the Ludwigshafen firm (headed by Bosch), Badische Anilin und Soda
Fabrik, and the name was changed to the IG Farbenindustrie A.G.
1925 - Social Democrats the strongest political group in Weimar Republic, but
super-Junker Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was elected President of the
Republic.
In order to get around the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty, the German
General Staff was organized as a corporation.
Fear of Communism
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - harsh terms - Russia paid huge reparations, lost 32%
of its agricultural land, 34% of its population, 54% of industry and 89% of coal
mines. Germany controlled Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, with puppet
governments in Finland, the Ukraine and Georgia.
After armistice of November 1918, workers took over factories in Germany.
British came in and gave plant managers protection. Lots of armed conflicts and
street fighting. By 1923 all armed conflict had ceased.
"On the extreme Right, there still remained firmly rooted vestiges of feudalism.
This was particularly the case in north-eastern Germany, main center of the
Junker estates. The Junkers had received a reprieve when the debts on their
estates were liquidated during the inflation." (57)
Social Democrats were largest party on the left. As the party in power they had
proclaimed a program of nationization of industry. This made German aristocrats
and business leaders nervous. But nothing happened.
Field Marshal von Hindenburg was President of Germany, the picked candidate of
an alliance of Junkers and industrialists. German Nationalists were most
identified with big business.
By 1930 Germany had strong Left Wing movement, but Hitler made strong showing in
1930 elections, after which 107 brown-shirted Nazis took their places in the
Reichstag on the extreme Right. Brown-shirted Storm Troopers started long series
of street brawls in 1920s, particularly with the Communists. Nazis provided
pageantry and uniforms, and the ritual and discipline of semi-military
organization. Offered foreign excuses for all Germany's troubles. The evil
sprang from the Versailles Treaty and loss of colonies. "To a bewildered and
embittered middle class which came out of the inflation threatened with the loss
of even their respectability, Hitler offered an ancient target for hatred--the
Jew." He also attacked Big Business, but this was spurious and BB wasn't
alarmed.
Nazi power peaked in July 1932, then a reaction set in. Because Naziism's
greatest appeal was to the unstable, support was volatile. Another general
election in November 1932 saw a drastic decline in popularity. With Nazis on the
decline and Communists and Social Democrats on the rise, the industrial and
financial leaders of Germany, with IG in the lead, closed ranks and gave Hitler
their full support. (63) Hitler was presented with the Chancellorship of
Germany.
Hjalmar Schacht, head of the Reichsbank (the central bank of Germany), he who
had stabilized the mark and ended inflation, argued against 8-hour day, against
social insurance because it weakened moral fiber:
"For German industry the colonies, like foreign plants, represented hopes for
the future, a possible escape from the ever more difficult conditions of
investment and production at home."
Carl Duisberg, president of IG, said:
"Be united, united, united! . . . We hope that our words of today will work, and
will find the strong man who will finally bring everyone under one umbrella . .
. for he [the strong man] is always necessary for us Germans, as we have seen in
the case of Bismarck." (65)
"If Germany is again to be great, all classes of our people must come to the
realization that leaders are necessary who can act without concern for the
caprices of the masses."
"...there is no doubt that the German economy can only exist and fulfill its
duties, if the burdens of salaries, wages, taxes, freights, and--not
least--impositions for social security, which it must carry are limited..."
IG spread its support of political parties around, advised by their Political
Committee which had a representative in each of the political parties. IG
contributed heavily to elections.
Max Ilgner, nephew of Hermann Schmitz (Rathenau's associate in WWI and president
of IG during WWII), was "director of the Finance Department in title, actually
one of the key organizers in IG and boss of the IG international spy ring." (13
& 97) Ran his office (Berlin NW 7) with a strong hand, and none of his chief
assistance had a complete picture of the whole operation. (97) Statistical
Department prepared maps and kept tabs for the army on industries and
agricultural production abroad, especially bottlenecks in capacities and raw
materials. Joined Nazi party early.
The top men of IG avoided taking official government jobs themselves. Per
Duisberg: stay clear of open government ties, but to exert pressure in secret
conferences. Second-tier leaders were sent to the government.
"Without the support of the IG and the rest of the German monopolies and
cartels, Hitler could not have won his polical fight. And the German
industrialists could see that without Hitler their empires would crumble." (54)
Four members of the Vorstand [managing directors] of IG Farben, including Dr.
Bosch, the head of the Vorstand, and Baron George von Schnitzler were asked by
the president of the Reichstag to attend a meeting at this house. About 20
people attended, mostly leading industrialists from the Ruhr: Schacht, Krupp von
Bohler, and Albert Vogler, leader of steel trust Vereinigte Stahlwerke. Hitler
was also present, and was given the decisive support of German business leaders.
Historical revisionism: German army was "stabbed in the back" by the surrender
in WWI. German generals let civilians negotiate armistice under their
directions, so generals said they wanted to fight to bitter end but civilians
wouldn't let them. (74) So army could still feel it could have won the war.
To show that Germany was no place for pacifists and defeatists, former soldier
organizations like Black Militia and Free Corps assassinated Erzberger and
Rathenau, identified as civilian leaders who gave up the war.
Dr. Karl Waninger's firm, Rheinmetall-Borgis, opened office in Berlin "disguised
as a transfer office," but actually used to direct the production of artillery.
Before Hitler, Ministry of Defense coordinated with Association of German
Industry to draw up an industrial mobilization plan.
Arms producers worldwide (e.g. Du Pont) benefitted from rearmament. After Hitler
took power, all arms producers made a killing.
Krupp
In 1920 Krupp began producing weapons.
Krupp was symbol of arms makers. Krupp family fortune was saved in December 1924
by a loan of $10 million from Hallgarten and Company and Goldman Sachs and
Company of New York. Foreign loans poured into Germany between 1924 and 1930.
IG became one of the big powers of the Ruhr, owning its own coal mines. Hermann
Schmitz was on the Krupp board of directors, as well as on Vereinigte
Stahlwerke's board of directors. (83)
The two major munitions-making concerns became IG subsidiaries in 1926. (83)
Synthetics
IG's most important achievement was in finding substitutes for critical raw
materials. (83) Prof. Fritz Haber's process for producing nitrates by snatching
nitrogen from the air (fixation of nitrogen - essential for explosives - and
fertilizers) was very successful.
Dr. Carl Bosch (who with Duisberg had founded the IG), with IG chemists,
discovered how to make synthetic oils using hydrogenation which converted coal
into lubricating oils and gasoline for cars, tanks or airplanes. Enabled IG to
form an alliance with Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey. Produced gasoline at its
main plant at Leuna.
Search for synthetic rubber began in 1906 when Duisberg ordered Dr. F. Hofmann,
a chemist at Leverkusen works, to proceed with rubber synthesis.
Sir William Tilden, an English chemist, created a synthetic called isoprene by
replicating the ratio of carbon atoms to hydrogen atoms (5 to 8)--but it wasn't
rubber. Needed to get the atoms of isoprene to arrange themselves in a more
complicated way by a process called polymerization. Instead of isoprene which
replicated the atomic make-up, they decided to use butadiene which had the
physical qualities of rubber. After WWI, began to make butadiene cheaply from
coke and limestone. Then mixed butadiene with other substances, like styrene,
and eventually produced buna N and buna-S rubbers which were used in WWII.
"During the period between the two world wars, IG was tirelessly spreading a
network of cartel relations which eventually covered every part of the world. In
almost every case IG was the dominating element in the cartels it entered." (90)
Through patent-pooling agreements, IG could keep constant watch on all new
discoveries in other countries.
"The widely spread sales organization of IG was used to plant Nazi agents in
strong posts through the world." (90) "Germany's most effective intelligence
agents were solid, respectable businessmen."
A few years after WWI, created alliances with three Swiss concerns--Ciba,
Sandoz, and Geigy--who formed a cartel of their own in 1920.
1929 Continental Dye Cartel (CDC)- Ciba, Sandoz, Geigy, Establissement Kuhlmann
and Societe des Matieres Colorantes de St. Denis (both French), and IG. 80% of
world dyestuffs in 1927.
1926 Major English chemical firms had organized into a single concern - Imperial
Chemical Industries, Ltd. (ICI) - 2nd only to IG in Europe.
1932 ICI joins CDC.
Because of buna rubber, strong links were established between IG and Standard
Oil Co. of NJ and with Ford Company.
IG had a system of foreign holdings (est. 500) and assets which covered 93
countries on all the continents. (92)
Schmitz used camouflage (Tarnung) to disguise IG links. Though ownership on
paper rested with citizens of the country, close inspection revealed that
operations were actually controlled by agents of IG Farben, e.g. American
company, General Aniline and Film Corporation. When US entered WWII, it called
itself an independent corporation with no relation to IG. But it was created by
IG under the name of American IG. Stock held by a dummy corporation set up by
IG: IG Chemie of Switzerland ("Internationale Gesellschaft für Chemische
Unternehmungen") (set up in 1928), which called itself an independent and
neutral Swiss company. Schmitz was president of IG and IG Chemie. When WWII
started and Schmitz declared IG Chemie independent, the old ties were still
there. The bank which handled IG Chemie's financial matters was one of IG
Farben's foreign assets.
Camouflage also used to avoid taxes.
Herrn Klub - elite inner circle of Junkers and financiers
IG espionage went largely undiscovered by US
"According to the German military theory developed between the two world wars,
every resource of the nation, from the entire economy out through every
political organ, would be organized in complete support of a mechanized and
sharply trained army which would strike suddenly and with overwhelming force.
This became the well-known pattern of the Blitz." (100) "Every foreign link of
the entire nation should be used to pick up information and funnel it back to
the intelligence center."
For the all-important U.S., IG set up a special organization, Chemnyco, Inc., of
New York--to siphon out technical data of military importance. Though its
officials were mostly Americans, it was run by Germans or loyal German
Americans. Its sole client was IG.
Where IG did not set up special intelligence agencies such as Chemnyco, NW 7 was
represented by special agents called Verbindungsmaenner, well established sales
representatives of IG whose spy work could be carried on under the cloak of
everyday business. Kept IG informed on political developments. Also did straight
military espionage.
Auslands-Organization (AO) - Nazi Party's foreign agency.
Business concerns abroad were expected to help preserve German culture by
building up purely German institutions. "Once a German always a German." (106)
IG very active in spreading pro-German/Nazi propaganda.
Hired American high-powered public relations man Ivy Lee (did JD Rockefeller's
make-over).
Vermittlungsstelle W. - Army Liaison Office created by IG. Liaison between
Wehrmacht and IG. Headed by Prof. Carl Krauch, big leader in IG.
IG supported the Nazi State. "The wild-eyed Nazis on the fringe of the Party,
the ones who had believed Hitler in his early speeches when he said he would
clip the big monopolies, could safely be forgotten. The bad manners of the Storm
Troopers counted for nothing while the profits rolled in." (109)
During final preparations for WWII, IG took the lead in making plastics and also
entered the light-metals field, tripling its magnesium production between 1935
and 1941.
From 1932 to 1943 IG profits took a big leap each year. Gross profit in 1943 was
16 times as great as in 1932.
Munich Pact - with England and France - Sept 1938. When Hitler seized all the
border areas around Czechoslovakia, IG president Hermann Schmitz sent a telegram
to Hitler:
"Profoundly impressed by the return of Sudenten-Germany to the Reich which you,
my fuehrer, have achieved, the IG Farbenindustrie A.G. puts an amount of half a
million Reichsmarks at your disposal for use in the Sudenten-German territory."
WWII
Chemistry was the business of IG. 43 main products, 28 of which were of primary
concern to the Wehrmacht.
IG produced :
all of Germany's synthetic rubber
all Germany's lubricating oil
part of its synthetic gasoline (Leuna plant)
greatest bulk of German explosives
90% of plastics
light metals
Britain & US went to war with their own defenses neglected, as the result of
arrangements made between their own big industrialists and German businessmen.
"More than any other corporation IG sat at the center of a web of international
cartel agreements." (15)
During occupation of France, Germans stole useful equipment and machinery from
the chemical plant in Chaulny and then destroyed the plant before leaving.
WWII Nazi spies were respectable businessmen - "picked up and transmitted vital
information in the normal course of running their businesses." (15)
"IG took over control of every chemical plant of importance" in countries
conquered by the Wehrmacht. (15)
IG was a big part in developing chemical/gas warfare: toxic gases were produced
at Hoechst, Agfa and Leverkusen plants (34)
Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the steel magnate, and Carl Duisberg credited as
being the men most responsible for war production.
IG's major assignments: find synthetics for rubber and for Chilean nitrates.
IG participated in the plunder of conquered countries (Austria, Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, France and all the rest of Central Europe),
seizing their factories and taking over.
Max Ilgner:
"The general policy of the Nazi government in respect to the conquered countries
was to take as much out of those countries as possible. . .IG played an
important role in adapting the industries of those countries to the purposes of
the Nazi war machine."
Deutsche Bank - one of Big Six German banks - big, German and Aryan; acted as
respectable fence in stolen property.
Austria: Pulverfabrik Skoda Werke Wetzler - leading chemical concern
Czechoslovakia: Aussiger Verein of Prague - only major chemical concern
Belgium: Solvay Chemical Co. IG battled SS for control.
Poland: 3 dye companies: Boruta, Wola, and Winnica.
France: the French army collapsed after only 6 weeks of attack by Wehrmacht.
Four years of Nazi occupation. The leaders of the French chemical industry
(Kuhlmann Company the biggest) quickly expressed eagerness to help Nazis in any
way. The leading French industrialists were willingly accepting the terms of the
Germans. Dr. von Schnitzler: "...based upon the 'slogan' of collaboration, an
intercourse between the German and French industries had developed, which
practically included the whole French industry..."
IG used slave labor extensively.
"foreign slave workers who had been shanghaied by the Nazis declared themselves
free and were graduated to the status of "displaced persons"--DP's. Soon DP's by
the tens and hundreds of thousands were on the move all over Germany...As many
as ten thousand DP's made themselves at home in the IG building [main
headquarters in Frankfurt-on-the-Main]." (12)
IG produced fully 95% of the poison gases for Germany. Developed Tabun - most
deadly yet.
Because it worried that questions of title and legal claim might eventually
become a concern, IG moved in behind the Wehrmacht in conquered countries not
just to seize but to buy properties, on its own terms. Didn't do it gangster
fashion.
--
Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel.
King Lear
tsja...@hotmail.com
wrote:
>This article has to be have been among the best best articles
Won't read it , it's to long and probably Socialist CRAP anyway.
Did you know Jim Anderton is a Socialist , same as Adolf Hitler.
janice
tsja...@hotmail.com wrote in message <390542bf...@news.ihug.co.nz>...
>On Tue, 25 Apr 2000 15:05:32 +1200, "janice" <jan...@ihug.co.nz>
>wrote:
>
>>This article has to be have been among the best best articles
>
>Won't read it , it's to long and probably Socialist CRAP anyway.
I think I stated quite explicity that it was neither left or right.
but never let it be said, that nobody tried to educate you.
As for Jim Anderton being a socialist, first let me assure
you that you, like many other ignorant people, ervert the
ideologies of the left which range from capitalism to
communism. Socialism is defined as workers owning the
means of production--i.e. the factories, industries, farms
businesses. Jim Anderton was a business millionaire
before entering parliament and is most assuredly NOT
a socialist. He is a Liberal Democrat and a capitalist. He
believes in self-interest but not greed, which is what most
normal people used to believe in.
Janice
Janice
harry
> This article has to be have been among the best best articles I have
> ever read in all the years I have researched the net. It is old, out-of print
> but my goodness it provides such insight into our recent history and
> the influences on modern globalisation..
Which "globalisation"?
> You needn't fear, it is not about right or left politics [it never is] but
> the tortured and the torturer; the powerful and the powerless, the pharaoh
> and the enslaved.
>
> This article has huge implications for those wanting to understand the
> underlying mechanisms of globalisation.
Which "globalisation"?
Which one Janice?
(harry)
harry
> Jim Anderton was a business millionaire before entering parliament
I was wondering about this.
Jims' ideas do seem to fly right in the face of all the highly regarded
economists about the place,
not to mention the foreign investors have been scared out of NZ by his anti
business stance, which leads me to this:
Can anyone tell me (with evidence to back their statement up) if Jim actually
managed his business himself, or did he just hire some smart university graduate
to look after it for him?
Judging by his crack pot ideas for the country, and the fact that only about 5%
of the population actually voted for his laced-with-lunacy policies, I'd make an
guess that the latter is correct myself.
> He is a Liberal Democrat and a capitalist.
That's rich.
> He believes in self-interest but not greed, which is what most
> normal people used to believe in.
I disagree with this.
The fact that the Labour/Alliance govt is a minority indicates to us that most
people still believe in self-interest, but not greed, as the Labour/Alliance
voters do.
Who is more greedy?
Is it the rich people who work hard and earn their money in this capitalist
economy?
Or is the the not-so-rich people who want everything to be free (as Jim Anderton
advocates), presumably at the expense of the taxpayer?
Again, I believe the latter is correct.
(harry)
Geoff Merryweather.
wrote:
>
>Can anyone tell me (with evidence to back their statement up) if Jim actually
>managed his business himself, or did he just hire some smart university graduate
>to look after it for him?
Firstly I believe he inherited it, and secondly, it was during the
Muldoon days or before. He wouldn't have a clue about starting and
running a business in the modern environment.
Geoff
Owen McShane
making supermarket trolleys and a protected and licensed regime. He left
the business a long time ago and his brothers who now operate it in the
real world have little complementary to say about Jim and his business
skills. His ex wife is not keen on his moral standards either.
--
Owen McShane
Kaiwaka, Northland, New Zealand.
Publisher of Straight Thinking Magazine
harry
I seem to remember his children having the "odd problem" or too also...
(harry)
harry
I seem to remember his children having the "odd problem" or two also...
(harry)
janice
Owen McShane wrote in message <390651...@wk.planet.gen.nz>...
>Geoff Merryweather. wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, 25 Apr 2000 21:02:28 +1200, harry <hardhe...@ihug.co.nz>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >Can anyone tell me (with evidence to back their statement up) if Jim
actually
>> >managed his business himself, or did he just hire some smart university
graduate
>> >to look after it for him?
>>
>> Firstly I believe he inherited it, and secondly, it was during the
>> Muldoon days or before. He wouldn't have a clue about starting and
>> running a business in the modern environment.
>> Geoff
>His family owned and operated a wire bending company which ended up
>making supermarket trolleys and a protected and licensed regime. He left
>the business a long time ago and his brothers who now operate it in the
>real world have little complementary to say about Jim and his business
>skills. His ex wife is not keen on his moral standards either.
Can you provide evidence for these statements Owen?
Janice
harry
> >> >Can anyone tell me (with evidence to back their statement up) if Jim
> actually
> >> >managed his business himself, or did he just hire some smart university
> graduate
> >> >to look after it for him?
> >>
> >> Firstly I believe he inherited it, and secondly, it was during the
> >> Muldoon days or before. He wouldn't have a clue about starting and
> >> running a business in the modern environment.
> >> Geoff
> >His family owned and operated a wire bending company which ended up
> >making supermarket trolleys and a protected and licensed regime. He left
> >the business a long time ago and his brothers who now operate it in the
> >real world have little complementary to say about Jim and his business
> >skills. His ex wife is not keen on his moral standards either.
>
> Can you provide evidence for these statements Owen?
>
> Janice
How about you Janice, do you have any evidence to discredit the annecdotal
evidence presented here so far?
(harry)
janice
"Be united, united, united! . . . We hope that our words of today will work, and
will find the strong man who will finally bring everyone under one umbrella . .
for he [the strong man] is always necessary for us Germans, as we have seen in
the case of Bismarck." (65)
Nazi power peaked in July 1932, then a reaction set in. Because Naziism's
greatest appeal was to the unstable, support was volatile. Another general
election in November 1932 saw a drastic decline in popularity. With Nazis on the
decline and Communists and Social Democrats on the rise, the industrial and
financial leaders of Germany, with IG in the lead, closed ranks and gave Hitler
their full support. (63) Hitler was presented with the Chancellorship of
Germany.
--------
There are distinct parallels to these historical events and the ,
appointment of the strong man in Chile. I am interested in
which corporations moved into Chile during this period. Does
anyone know?
---
Chile and the United States:
Declassified Documents Relating to the Military Coup, September 11, 1973
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 11, 1998 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the military coup led
by General Augusto Pinochet. The violent overthrow of the democratically-elected
Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende changed the course of the country
that Chilean poet Pablo Neruda described as "a long petal of sea, wine and
snow"; because of CIA covert intervention in Chile, and the repressive character
of General Pinochet's rule, the coup became the most notorious military takeover
in the annals of Latin American history.
Revelations that President Richard Nixon had ordered the CIA to "make the
economy scream" in Chile to "prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat
him," prompted a major scandal in the mid-1970s, and a major investigation by
the U.S. Senate. Since the coup, however, few U.S. documents relating to Chile
have been actually declassified- -until recently. Through Freedom of Information
Act requests, and other avenues of declassification, the National Security
Archive has been able to compile a collection of declassified records that shed
light on events in Chile between 1970 and 1976.
These documents include:
** Cables written by U.S. Ambassador Edward Korry after Allende's election,
detailing conversations with President Eduardo Frei on how to block the
president-elect from being inaugurated. The cables contain detailed descriptions
and opinions on the various political forces in Chile, including the Chilean
military, the Christian Democrat Party, and the U.S. business community.
** CIA memoranda and reports on "Project FUBELT"--the codename for covert
operations to promote a military coup and undermine Allende's government. The
documents, including minutes of meetings between Henry Kissinger and CIA
officials, CIA cables to its Santiago station, and summaries of covert action in
1970, provide a clear paper trail to the decisions and operations against
Allende's government
** National Security Council strategy papers which record efforts to
"destabilize" Chile economically, and isolate Allende's government
diplomatically, between 1970 and 1973.
** State Department and NSC memoranda and cables after the coup, providing
evidence of human rights atrocities under the new military regime led by General
Pinochet.
** FBI documents on Operation Condor--the state-sponsored terrorism of the
Chilean secret police, DINA. The documents, including summaries of prison
letters written by DINA agent Michael Townley, provide evidence on the
carbombing assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in Washington
D.C., and the murder of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos
Aires, among other operations.
These documents, and many thousands of other CIA, NSC, and Defense Department
records that are still classified secret, remain relevant to ongoing human
rights investigations in Chile, Spain and other countries, and unresolved acts
of international terrorism conducted by the Chilean secret police. Eventually,
international pressure, and concerted use of the U.S. laws on declassification
will force more of the still-buried record into the public domain--providing
evidence for future judicial, and historical accountability.
Go to the documents
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8.htm
--
Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel.
King Lear
"Without the support of the IG and the rest of the German monopolies and
cartels, Hitler could not have won his political fight.
Deutsche Bank - one of Big Six German banks - big, German and Aryan; acted as
respectable fence in stolen property.
IG used slave labor extensively.
The top men of IG avoided taking official government jobs themselves. Per
Duisberg: stay clear of open government ties, but to exert pressure in secret
conferences. Second-tier leaders were sent to the government.
In 1920 Krupp began producing weapons.
Krupp was symbol of arms makers. Krupp family fortune was saved in December 1924
by a loan of $10 million from Hallgarten and Company and Goldman Sachs and
Company of New York. Foreign loans poured into Germany between 1924 and 1930.
IG became one of the big powers of the Ruhr, owning its own coal mines. Hermann
Schmitz was on the Krupp board of directors, as well as on Vereinigte
Stahlwerke's board of directors. (83)
The two major munitions-making concerns became IG subsidiaries in 1926.
Americans (through Alien Property Custodian) discovered German firms were
sending information back to Germany, and spreading German propaganda. (37)
between the wars.
janice
tsja...@hotmail.com
>On Tue, 25 Apr 2000 07:05:47 GMT in nz.politics tsja...@hotmail.com
>wrote: in <390542bf...@news.ihug.co.nz>:
>
>>On Tue, 25 Apr 2000 15:05:32 +1200, "janice" <jan...@ihug.co.nz>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>This article has to be have been among the best best articles
>>
>>Won't read it , it's to long and probably Socialist CRAP anyway.
>>
>>Did you know Jim Anderton is a Socialist , same as Adolf Hitler.
>
>Godwins Law. Go back to your hole.
>
>DPF
No one is stopping you from reading this CRAP
DICK
tsja...@hotmail.com
wrote:
>
>
> Jim Anderton was a business millionaire
>. He believes in self-interest but not greed, which is what most
>normal people used to believe in.
>
>Janice
>Janice
>
>
>
Well , I am so happy to hear that he has given away his fortune , and
became a NORMAL person.
Aaron Bhatnagar
wrote:
He left
> the business a long time ago and his brothers who now operate it in the
> real world have little complementary to say about Jim and his business
> skills. His ex wife is not keen on his moral standards either.
> --
As I understand, she is Helen Clark's electorate agent also. No
political love lost either.
AB
harry
> On Wed, 26 Apr 2000 15:47:12 +1200 in nz.politics harry wrote: in
> <390666BF...@ihug.co.nz>:
> >Owen McShane wrote:
>
> >> > >Can anyone tell me (with evidence to back their statement up) if Jim actually
> >> > >managed his business himself, or did he just hire some smart university graduate
> >> > >to look after it for him?
> >> >
> >> > Firstly I believe he inherited it, and secondly, it was during the
> >> > Muldoon days or before. He wouldn't have a clue about starting and
> >> > running a business in the modern environment.
> >> > Geoff
> >> His family owned and operated a wire bending company which ended up
> >> making supermarket trolleys and a protected and licensed regime. He left
> >> the business a long time ago and his brothers who now operate it in the
> >> real world have little complementary to say about Jim and his business
> >> skills. His ex wife is not keen on his moral standards either.
>
> Owen agree with all you say except last sentence which is really not
> relevant to the topic of his business credibility.
>
> >I seem to remember his children having the "odd problem" or too also...
>
> And this is even more ir-relevant and in fact getting damn ghoulish.
Indeed, nothing to do with his business experties, but nonetheless, I feel a little
uncertain about the man who is trying to run our lives when he seems to have
so much difficulty running his own.
(harry)
gonzo
harry <hardhe...@ihug.co.nz> wrote in message
news:3906A1B3...@ihug.co.nz...
have
> so much difficulty running his own.
>
> (harry)
Well on the evidence of most pollies over the past 25 or so years you would
find very few you'd have very few you could feel certain in then. A hell
of a lot of them had "skeletons in the cupboard, broken and/or dysfunctional
marriages, and loose morals too. Comes with the job I suspect.
GRANT.