The American IG Chemical Corporation, or American IG for short, was an American holding company incorporated under the Delaware General Corporation Law in April 1929 and headquartered in New York City. It had stakes in General Aniline Works (GAW), Agfa-Ansco Corporation, and Winthrop Chemical Company, among others, and was engaged in the manufacture and sale of pharmaceuticals, photographic products, lightweight metals, synthetic gasoline, synthetic rubber, dyes, fertilizers, and insecticides. The Moody's industrial manual listed an affiliation between IG Farben and American IG at the time of founding. The initial president of American IG was Hermann Schmitz, number two after Carl Bosch in IG Farben's hierarchy. Hermann's brother, Dietrich A. Schmitz, was appointed president next.

Origin

American IG owes its genesis to a German business conglomerate, namely, Interessens-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG, or IG Farben for short. The business, along with the industrial empire that IG Farben 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 Wall Street financial assistance, created the giant chemical corporation, combining six German chemical companies — Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik Ludwigshafen (BASF), Bayer, Agfa, Hoechst, Weiler-ter-Meer, and . These six companies were merged into Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG, or IG Farben for short.

In the year 1929, the American holdings of IG Farben, namely, the American branches of Bayer Company, General Aniline Works (formerly Grasselli Dyes), Agfa-Ansco, 50% interest in Winthrop Chemical Company, and 50% in Alcoa's American Magnesium Corporation The certificate of incorporation was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1929.

The controlling interest of this entity rested with IG Farben in Germany. In the following decade before the outbreak of the Second World War, the American IG Chemical Corporation, or American IG, played important role in manufacturing of dyes, chemicals, and fertilizers, among others. Among its board of directors members were Edsel Ford and Walter C. Teagle.

In 1933–1939, American IG repeatedly denied its ties with I.G. Farben and reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, first, that it "had no parent", then, that it "did not know if whether it had a parent." Its assets were valued as $10,880,860 with holdings in Standard Oil ($6,979,946), Sterling Products Inc. ($2,424,320), and du Pont ($899,250).

In 1952, IG Farben was split into Agfa, BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst.

In 1965, the U.S. government sold General Aniline & Film, or GAF stock.

As a result of its 1966 acquisition of Sawyer's, GAF went on to produce the View-Master, a children's toy, made today by Mattel's Fisher-Price division. GAF today still exists as GAF Materials Corporation, mainly as a manufacturer of asphalt and building materials.

See also

  • Interhandel

References

Further reading

  • Robert J. Baptista and Anthony S. Travis. , History and Technology, Volume 22, 2006.
  • Antony C. Sutton. Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House Publishers, 1976.
  • Mira Wilkins. The history of foreign investment in the United States, 1914-1945. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004