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The chemical industry in Germany is one of the most well-established in the world, and a world leader; a quarter of the chemicals made in the EU, are made in Germany.
Currently the German industry, turning over 160 billion euros is the European leader, and the third-biggest in the world. It is Germany's third-largest industry, after Germany's much-renowned automotive industry, and its mechanical engineering industry. The largest German chemical company is BASF, turning over 59 billion euros in 2020, with around 110,000 workers.
History
Before World War II, the German chemical industry was the European leader.
After World War II, the industry was not making any amount of organic chemicals, but by the mid-1950s, the West German industry was making around a third of the output of organic chemicals as the UK.
Timeline
- Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik is formed, better known as BASF, in the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1865; one of its first important chemists is Carl Bosch, whose uncle was Robert Bosch, owner of the company that invented the spark plug (by Gottlob Honold around 1901, who also largely developed the automotive headlamp with a parabolic reflector)
- in 1872 Eugen Baumann discovered PVC, although it would not be until Waldo Semon developed methods in the US in the late 1920s could PVC be largely made
- in 1899 Hans von Pechmann added diazomethane to ether, and noted the formation of polymethylene, a type of polyethylene, identified in 1900 by Eugen Bamberger and Friedrich Tschirner, but had not realised that it has any commercial significance; ICI in Cheshire in England will, in 1933
- in September 1909 Fritz Hofmann (chemist) applies for a patent for the first synthetic rubber (isoprene), when working at Farbenfabriken Bayer in Elberfeld in North Rhine-Westphalia; only when Samuel E. Horne Jr. made polyisoprene in the US in 1955, was it made commercially
- in 1912 polyvinyl acetate (PVA) was discovered by Fritz Klatte
- before World War I, the German chemical industry was producing 90% of the world's dyes
- in 1928 Otto Röhm is one of the discoverers of perspex, which he trademarks as Plexiglas; his company, with Otto Haas, becomes Rohm and Haas in Esslingen am Neckar in 1907, in the north of Baden-Württemberg, being bought for $15bn in 2009 by Dow Chemical Company
- in 1931 BASF start manufacturing polystyrene
- Chemische Werke Hüls is built in 1938, now the Marl Chemical Park
- in 1953 Karl Ziegler, at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, with Ehrhard Holzkamp, discovered a better way of making polyethylene at lower temperatures and pressures, via triethylaluminium and a Ziegler–Natta catalyst; for this Ziegler took the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- in March 1954, Karl Rehn, at Hoechst, made polypropylene with a Ziegler catalyst, but did not apply for a patent
- in June 1954 Karl Ziegler, with Heinz Martin, made polypropylene with a Ziegler catalyst, allowing Hoechst to commercially manufacture polypropylene from 1958; polypropylene is the world's second-most produced synthetic polymer, after polyethylene
Exports
By 1960 West Germany was exporting 40% more chemicals than the UK, according to the British Productivity Council.
Turnover by year
West Germany
- 1956 £1,300m
- 1957 £1,450m
Energy consumption
The chemical industry consumes around 8% of Germany's energy, with 15% of Germany's natural gas, and 10% of Germany's electricity.
Workforce
There are 450,000 workers in the industry, with 400,000 workers for foreign subsidiaries of German chemical companies.
See also
References
- "Chemical Industry". www.gtai.de.
- Birmingham Mail Friday 22 February 1963, page 11
- Belfast Telegraph Saturday 28 December 1957, page 1
External links
| Chemical industry in Europe | |
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| States with limited recognition | |
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