I.G.Farben as Creator of Modern World

[fraben]

There is a strong tendency to reduce history of IG Farben to Zyklon-B, Nuremberg trial and Auschwitz (z.B. Curriculum Vitae of IG Farben )
I made a statistics of Goggle searches using keywords defining some of major works by IG Farben. Of course, by far the greatest hype is a famous fumigant used by Nazis to kill Jews.

+zyklon +"IG Farben" - 51.800 documents
+buna +"IG Farben" – 18.200
+sarin +"IG Farben" – 12.000
+anilin +"IG Farben" – 10.200
+nitrogen +"IG Farben" – 5.720
+prontosil +"IG Farben" – 4.990
+hydrogenation +"IG Farben" - 4.600
+magnetofon +"IG Farben" – 3.360

It seems wrong.
Here: farben10.blogspot.com is my article (sorry, it is in Russian) arguing that half of the modern technological world was made by IG Farben.
It was basically simple job - I just wrote down in a short list all IG Farben great works from Joseph Borkin's canonical book on IG Farben history - and counted the sum.

Some works have been added. Even nuclear bomb may be traced to IG Farben - basic discovery of nuclear fission which made bomb possible was made by Otto Hahn who served in Fritz Haber's unit overseeing the use of chemical weapons during first World War. And then Otto Hahn worked in Haber's institute (where the discovery was actually made in 1938).

 

[GoodGame]

I find it kind of amusing that you joined this website just to post that, but anyway. And your name seems to be an anagram.

Patents and scientific know-how
Once Germany had surrendered the US moved quickly to commercially exploit all German patents and scientific know-how. (see Industrial plans for Germany)

Konrad Adenauer stated "According to a statement made by an American expert, the patents formerly belonging to IG Farben have given the American chemical industry a lead of at least 10 years. The damage thus caused to the German economy is huge and cannot be assessed in figures. It is extraordinarily regrettable that the new German inventions cannot be protected either, because Germany is not a member of the Patent Union. Britain has declared that it will respect German inventions regardless of what the peace treaty may say. But America has refused to issue such a declaration. German inventors are therefore not in a position to exploit their own inventions. This puts a considerable brake on German economic development."[30]

So basically the USA took IP rights as a spoils of war under the terms of unconditional surrender.

 

[Zardnaar]

Consideribng the amount of technology the Nazis looted, I wouldn't get to upset if the yanks took some German patents.

 

[Lord Baal]

Consideribng the amount of technology the Nazis looted, I wouldn't get to upset if the yanks took some German patents.

What technology did the Nazis loot?

 

[GoodGame]

What technology did the Nazis loot?

They sure did loot a lot of art works, but yeah I'd wonder what technology they looted. Excepting maybe the dissident/jewish researchers who had to leave to avoid persecution.

 

[Zardnaar]

Czech tanks which formed the basis of several assault guns, and they took over the industrial plants and the like in France, etc.

 

[Lord Baal]

Czech tanks which formed the basis of several assault guns, and they took over the industrial plants and the like in France, etc.

Ah, of course, Czech weapons technology. Most of the stuff they looted later in the war industrial though, not technological. I don't even think they looted the T-34, which I sure would have done, choosing rather to design a similar tank from scratch.

 

[Zardnaar]

One of the German tank prototypes was almost a clone of the T-34 and the sloped armour definately influenced German tank design.

 

[Lord Baal]

One of the German tank prototypes was almost a clone of the T-34 and the sloped armour definately influenced German tank design.

Copying the design is hardly "looting" though, is it? The Americans certainly looted the Mitsubishi Zero from the Japanese, the Romans looted Carthaginian shipping designs, and Russia looted just about every piece of technology they could find from everyone, but Germany never really looted technology. They didn't need to, since they already had some pretty good stuff - excepting their aircraft, which were behind the times - and by the time they were superceded technologically, they no longer possessed the industrial or economic capacity to make use of their finds.

 

[Zardnaar]

True its just that I seem to get into arguements with people who have the opinion "German tech=uber, Alled stuff = junk" where the Germans were really only ahead in a few areas and with the exception of rockets probably not that far ahead.

 

[GoodGame]

Czech tanks which formed the basis of several assault guns, and they took over the industrial plants and the like in France, etc.

I was only aware that they desparately upgraded French Hotchkiss tanks for various duties.

 

[Zardnaar]

Marder III and the Hetzer were built on Czech chasis manufactured after the Germans took over the Skoda plant. They were reliabe espicially compared to more than a few German designs.

 

[r16]

the basis for the Hetzer , the PZ 38(t) whatever , formed a quarter Germans' tank park in 1941 , Rommel's division in France 1940 used Czech models only .

 

[fraben]

thanks for your interest.
Concerning "looting" (more politically correct "intellectual reparations") here is nice article or search wikipedia for "operation Paperclip"
Unfortunately available information is obsessed by themes of aviation and von Braun in particular. It leads to a wrong conclusion that technological breakthrough happened during Nazis

PS I also played Civilization. It turns out it was Civ1 though I thought it was Civ2. Should I jump to Civ5 now?

 

[Lord Baal]

thanks for your interest.
Concerning "looting" (more politically correct "intellectual reparations") here is nice article or search wikipedia for "operation Paperclip"
Unfortunately available information is obsessed by themes of aviation and von Braun in particular. It leads to a wrong conclusion that technological breakthrough happened during Nazis

PS I also played Civilization. It turns out it was Civ1 though I thought it was Civ2. Should I jump to Civ5 now?

The Russians and British both had very similar programs to Paperclip. I don't know if Wiki mentions their programs, whose code names I don't remember.

I'd play Civ 4 first. It's the best of the original four, and probably easier for you to pic up than 5. Then again, 5's brand new, so if you have to buy a new one it's probably the way to go.

 

[xchen08]

The Americans certainly looted the Mitsubishi Zero from the Japanese...

Never heard this one before. What exactly did the Americans copy from the Zero? Certainly, both the Hellcat and Corsair were independently developed before any Zeros were captured, so...

 

[Terxpahseyton]

That reminds me of Aspirin, which was among the looted products. Later the German producer of Aspirin just bought the American producer.

 

[Samez]

It's no miracle that a lot of things are based on IG-Farben inventions, as the IG-Farben represented a large part of the chemical industry at that time. Some of it's ancestors are still large companies today like:
BASF (largest chemical company)
Bayer (chemical+pharmaceutical company known for Aspirin, Polyurethane and Polycarbonate)
Hoechst (chemical+pharmaceutical company known for synthetic Adrenalin)
Wacker (chemical products, known for e.g. the wacker process, today they are also known for producing silicon wafer)

Others were important parts of the German post war economical miracle:

AGFA (chemical+photo products known for the color film)
Leuna (refinery and the largest post war chemical industry company of post war Eastern Germany)
Dynamit Nobel AG (quite obvious)

and many more...

 

[Zardnaar]

You could replace IG Farbin in the title with Ford/GM/Toyota or Microsoft etc.

 

[r16]

the Zero angle is so interesting but ı don't think that will get anyone far . Anyone can say it is the exact opposite , never minding the Australian angle which will inevitably end as the Jew who steals ...

guy works for Heinkel , works for mitsubishi , works for CAA or what ever