- American IG
American IG is the name of a company, and it owes its genesis to a German business conglomerate, namely, Interessens-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG, or
IG Farben for short. The business and the industrial empire, which the “IG” controlled and commanded has been described as “a state within a state”.The Farben cartel was created in 1925, when
Hermann Schmitz , the master organizer, with theWall Street financial assistance, created the super-giant chemical corporation, combining six already giant German chemical companies — Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik Ludwigshafen (BASF),Bayer ,Agfa ,Hoechst ,Weiler-ter-Meer , andGriesheim-Elektron . These six companies were merged into Inter-nationale Gesellschaft Farbenindustrie AG or,IG Farben , for short.In the year 1928, American holdings of IG Farben, namely, the American branches of
Bayer Company,General Aniline Works ,Agfa Ansco, andWinthrop Chemical Company, were organized into a Swiss holding company, which was christened Internationale Gesellschaft für Chemische Unternehmungen AG orIG Chemie , in short. The controlling interest of this entity rested with IG Farben inGermany . In the following year, in 1929, just a decade before the outbreak of theSecond World War , these American firms merged to become American IG Chemical Corporation, or American IG, later renamed General Aniline & Film.On the eve of
World War II ,IG Farben , the German chemical conglomerate was the largest manufacturing enterprise in the world and exercised extraordinary economic and political clout in the Nazi Germany. In 1936, they were the principal source forZyklon B , the poison used in Germanconcentration camp s. From 1942-1945, the company used slave labor from Naziconcentration camp s. After 1945, three members of the Board of Governors of American IG were tried and convicted as German war criminals. In 1952, theIG Farben was split intoBASF ,Bayer , andHoechst again.General Aniline & Film (or GAF) went on to produce the
View-Master , a children's toy, now made today byMattel 's "Fisher-Price " division. GAF today still exists asGAF Materials Corporation , mainly as a manufacturer ofasphalt and building materials.References
* [https://www.mega.nu/ampp/sutton_wall_street/chapter_01.htm Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler]
* [http://www.colorantshistory.org/IGFarbenAmerica.html I.G. Farben in America: The Technologies of General Aniline and Film]
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