The German Chemical Industry in the Twentieth Century

In the 20th century, dyes, pharmaceuticals, photographic products, explosives, insecticides, fertilizers, synthetic rubber, fuels, and fibres, 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 should be of interest to historians of modern Germany, to historians of science and technology, and to business and economic historians.