The Rise of the Fourth Reich - ThereAreNoSunglasses

A NEW REICH BEGINS 25in its shortened version as I. G. Farben. Created in 1926 by combining sixexisting chemical companies, it was the brainchild of Hermann Schmitz,who became the firm’s president. Under his guidance, I. G. Farben becamethe largest chemical manufacturing enterprise in the world. It wasso powerful during the Nazi regime that the firm became known as a “statewithin a state.”Farben had subsidiaries, offices, and representatives in ninety-threecountries, including the United States. Paul Manning, a CBS news correspondentin Europe during World War II, explained Schmitz’s connectionsby pointing out that the Farben chief once “held as much stock inStandard Oil of New Jersey as did the Rocke fellers.” By the time war beganin 1939, I. G. Farben had doubled in size, gaining participation andmanagerial control over 380 other German companies as well as morethan 500 foreign firms. This growth was made possible by bond sales inAmerica, including one for $30 million offered by National City Bank, aforerunner of today’s Citibank.It was I. G. Farben’s patented Zyklon-B, a prussic acid poison gas, thatwas used to kill victims in the “shower baths” of Auschwitz, Maidanek,and Treblinka. Previously, the firm had received a contract to producecarbon monoxide, used to gas the sick and mentally deficient under Germany’seuthanasia program.One example of the close business ties between the United States andNazi Germany was Walter C. Teagle, chairman of Standard Oil of NewJersey, which was owned by Rocke feller’s Chase Bank. Teagle also was adirector of American I. G. Chemical Corporation, one of the subsidiariesof I. G. Farben, which changed its name to General Aniline and Film(GAF) in an effort to distance itself from its German owners.Teagle, through Rocke feller banking and oil interests, made his superiorsa handsome profit just prior to the war. “[Teagle] remained in partnershipwith Farben in the matter of tetraethyl lead, an additive used inaviation gasoline,” wrote author Charles Higham. “[German Luftwaffechief Hermann] Goering’s air force couldn’t fly without it. Only Standard,Du Pont and General Motors had the rights to it. Teagle helped organizea sale of the precious substance to [Farben president] Schmitz, who in1938 traveled to London and ‘borrowed’ 500 tons from Ethyl, the British