The German Chemical Industry In The Twentieth Century

In the twentieth century, dyes, pharmaceuticals, photographic products, explosives, insecticides, fertilizers, synthetic rubber, fuels, and fibers, plastics, and other products have flowed out of the chemical industry and into the consumer economies, war machines, farms, and medical practices of industrial societies. The German chemical industry has been a major site for the development and application of the science-based technologies that gave rise to these products, and has had an important role as exemplar, stimulus, and competitor in the international chemical industry. This volume explores the German chemical industry's scientific and technological dimension, its international connections, and its development after 1945. The authors relate scientific and technological change in the industry to evolving German political and economic circumstances, including two world wars, the rise and fall of National Socialism, the post-war division of Germany, and the emergence of a global economy. This book will be of interest to historians of modern Germany, to historians of science and technology, and to business and economic historians.

The editors wish to thank the European Science Foundation for its support of the programme on the Evolution of Chemistry in Europe, 1789-1939, as well as for sponsoring the publication of this volume. Through the subdivision of this initiative that deals specifically with chemical industry it has been possible for historians of science, technology, business and economics to share often widely differing viewpoints and develop consensus across disciplinary and cultural boundaries. The contents of this volume are based on the third of three workshops that have considered the emergence of the modern European chemical industry prior to 1939, the first held in Liege (1994), the second in Maastricht (1995), and the third in Strasbourg (1996). All contributors and participants are thanked for their participation in often lively and informative debates. The generous hospitality of the European Science Foundation and its staff in Strasbourg is gratefully acknowledged. Introduction Emerging chemical knowledge and the development of chemical industry, and particularly the interaction between them, offer rich fields of study for the historian. This is reflected in the contents of the three workshops dealing with the emergence of chemical industry held under the aegis of the European Science Foundation's Evolution of Chemistry in Europe, 1789-1939, programme. The first workshop focused mainly on science for industry, 1789- 1850, and the second on the two-way traffic between science and industry, 1850-1914. The third workshop, dealing with the period 1900-1939, covers similar issues, but within different, and wider, contexts.

Unlike conventional histories written about the field of chemistry, this study presents an international perspective, integrating the story of chemical science with that of the chemical industry, and emphasizing the developments of the twentieth century.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, grade: 1,0, University of Massachusetts - Amherst (Department of Economics), course: European Economic History, 64 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This paper provides an analysis of the German chemical industry during the "Second Industrial Revolution" of the late 19th and the early 20th century. It is modeled after Steven Webb's (1980) article on the iron and steel industry. Here it is argued that the exceptional growth and success of the industry - chemicals were the fastest growing industry in Germany and by 1890 German firms held 85% world market share in dyestuff production - was supported by a high degree of market con-centration and cartelization. This enabled the firms to gain large economies of scale and scope through backward integra-tion and product diversification. Dynamic efficiency gains were mainly achieved by relaxing credit constraints, reducing uncertainty, and allocate investment more efficiently. It is further argued that state action played a crucial role in setting up and stabilizing cartels. This analysis is in line with a Schumpeterian view of welfare-enhancing effects of imperfect competi-tion. While these findings obviously do not question anti-trust policy per se, they do question a mechanical view on market structure that is common in much mainstream economic thinking.

American Synthetic Organic Chemicals Industry: War and Politics, 1910-1930

The corporate history of BASF spans an era of German and international economic history that began with the rise of the 'new industries' as of the late nineteenth century and continues today in their confrontation with the new economy. This book examines BASF's corporate governance, financial system, industrial relations, system of qualification and relation to other companies. A corporate history of BASF promises more than an insight into the functioning of an industrial organisation. It also reveals the reasons for the extraordinary economic dynamics of the German empire and the enormous expansion of the world economy before World War I. BASF's history stands at the centre of Germany's wartime economy during two world wars and highlights both its strengths and weaknesses. Just as the IG Farben trust helped support Germany's course of politicoeconomic autarky after 1933, so it was that BASF helped facilitate West Germany's startlingly quick return to the world market. BASF has since been among the transnational companies whose efforts at the leading edge of economic and technological progress are paradigmatic for Germany's entry into the new economy of the twenty-first century.

Nieto-Galan examines the political role of chemistry in twentieth-century Spain, enriching understandings of the relationship between science and power.