I.G. Farben

I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, known as IG Farben, was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate formed on 2 December 1925 by merging six companies: Agfa, BASF, Bayer, Griesheim-Elektron, Hoechst and Weiler-ter-Meer. At its height it was the largest company in Europe and the largest chemical and pharmaceutical company in the world, and its scientists made basic contributions to chemistry and medicine, including three Nobel laureates: Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius and Gerhard Domagk. Under the Nazi government it became a major contractor and relied on forced labour, including at Auschwitz, and a subsidiary supplied the Zyklon B gas. The Allies seized the firm in 1945, its directors were tried at a Nuremberg trial in 1947 and 1948, and the western remainder was split in 1951 into its constituent companies, later BASF, Bayer and Hoechst. The remaining shell was removed from the Frankfurt commercial register on 31 October 2012.