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D. Farben Participated in Creating and Equipping the Nazi
Military Machine for Aggressive War |
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37. The major contribution which Farben rendered in the rearmament
of Germany lay in making her capable of waging war by rendering her
self-sufficient in three crucial war materials essential to the waging of
aggressive war: nitrates, oil, and rubber. In all three cases Germany had no
natural resources and was incapable of planning, preparing, or waging
aggressive war without Farben's development of processes for manufacturing them
synthetically.
38. Farben developed the Haber-Bosch process for the
fixation of nitrogen from air. Nitrogen is the basic element in nitrates
production. Farben became the largest nitrates producer in the world. Germany,
through the instrumentality of Farben, not only became self-sufficient in
nitrates, but prior to the war replaced Chile as the main source of supply for
other countries. Farben and its subsidiaries produced 84 percent of Germany's
explosives and 70 percent of Germany's gunpowder from its nitrogen production.
39. Germany had practically no natural oil. On 26 May 1936, Goering
announced to the defendant Schmitz and the other members of the Committee of
Experts for Raw Materials Questions, that the oil problem had to be solved to
enable Germany to motorize the Wehrmacht and prepare for war. Farben developed
the hydrogenation process whereby coal could be converted into lubricating oils
and gasoline. As a result of the conference between Hitler and the defendants
Buetefisch and Gattineau in 1932 (referred to in paragraph 7), Farben continued
its developmental work which it had considered abandoning. By spring of 1933,
Farben's quantity production of synthetic gasoline was well under way. A top
technical official of Farben has stated: "After six years of efforts, IG solved
the question of producing synthetic gasoline from brown coal on a large scale
in the spring of 1933'' the experience of IG in this field was absolutely
necessary for the conduct of a prolonged war." In 1943, Farben produced all the
lubricating oil manufactured in Germany, and its processes accounted for nearly
all German production of synthetic gasoline. The hydrogenation of coal into
gasoline by Farben enabled the Wehrmacht to plan and prepare for aggressive war
based on the rapid movement of tanks and aircraft, notwithstanding Germany's
deficiency in natural petroleum.
40. Germany had no natural rubber.
Farben discovered that synthetic rubber could also be obtained from coal. This
discovery, together with the production of synthetic gasoline, by a single
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