 |
| rubber was concerned. Synthetic rubber had been produced for the
first time in Elberfeld in 1906. Nitrogen, also, had been invented before the
First World War. If these inventions were then misused for war purposes, the
inventor can hardly be blamed. Even the invention of synthetic gasoline came
about at the beginning of the 1920's, soon after the end of the First World
War. All these inventions were only intended for peaceful purposes. At that
time, I was only referring to the attack of Mr. Pleiger against Farben. I
wanted to reject that attack by pointing out Farben's merit in the buna and
gasoline field. Not only was it unpleasant, it was even dangerous, that, in the
presence of such prominent Party people as the Gauleiter and the Minister of
Economics, any such attack was made against Farben which somehow put the firm
into the light of having committed sabotage. I was glad that afterwards I
received the approval of Mr. Funk. I should like to add in that connection that
I personally have repeatedly made the statement that I wished we had not
invented buna and nitrogen, because then Hitler perhaps would not have been
able to wage this unfortunate war. But the best rubber and the best gasoline is
of no use if one has no guns, and no armored cars and submarines to wage war.
Farben, at any rate, did not make these inventions in order to wage an
aggressive war together with Hitler. |
| |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
| g. Testimony of Defendant Kugler |
| |
[Statement from the judgment concerning personal history, positions,
and affiliations of Defendant Hans Kugler:
"KUGLER, Hans: Born 4
December 1900, Frankfurt/Main. Doctor of political science. Not a member of the
Vorstand; 1920-1945, Prokurist (with title of "Director"); 1934-1945 member of
Commercial Committee; 1937-1945 member of Dyestuffs Application Committee;
1934-1945 chief of Sales Department Dyestuffs for Hungary, Roumania,
Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Near East,
and Africa; 1939-1945 member of Farben's Southeast Europe Committee; 1942-1944
member of Commercial Committee of Francolor, Paris.
"1939-1945 member
of Nazi Party; 1934-1945 member of German Labor Front; 1938 and 1939 Reich
Economics Ministry commissioner for Aussig-Falkenau factories, Czechoslovakia,
and manager of said plants and member of the Advisory Council of the
Aufsichtsrat, 1939-1945."] |
| |
EXTRACT FROM THE TESTIMONY OF
DEFENDANT KUGLER* |
| |
| DIRECT EXAMINATION |
| |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
| DR. HENZE (counsel for defendant Kugler) Mr. Kugler, the prosecution
deals with the contributions made by Farben. Since |
__________
* Complete testimony is
recorded in the mimeographed transcript. 27, 28. and 29 April 1948, pp.
12538-12597; 12626-12705; 12778-12787; and 12815-12842. Further extracts are
reproduced in subsection O 7.
642 |
. 
