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the time either in Germany or abroad, and no prosecution raised its
warning voice. All the more are we sometimes filled with bitterness when we ask
ourselves why we, who did only what many other citizens did too, are here in
the dock. The day before yesterday we had an opportunity to hear the final plea
of Mr. Silcher who described very well the services performed by German
chemical industry, and particularly by I. G. Farben. I must say that I listened
to his words with some pride for I saw that these were services which benefited
not only the German people but all of humanity.
Today this enterprise
to which my whole life’s work was devoted is facing a dark and obscure
future. Many of my most efficient associates and their families are facing
ruin, and their fate worries me more than my personal fate. I may perhaps
express a general thought here.
It is the task of a technical man to
see today the problems of tomorrow and to devote himself to them. One of these
problems, which I was working on was the production of synthetic fuel by means
of hydrogenation of coal, that is by chemical processes, after it had been
discovered that the natural petroleum resources of the world were being
exhausted and that certain political developments were occurring. I am today
filled with a certain satisfaction when I see that in the whole world
scientists and economists are dealing now with this problem by means which we
— and I had an important part in it — had developed 20 years earlier.
At that time we exchanged experiences with great foreign companies — I
mention only the United States — in such a friendly way that the
recollection of this cooperation is one of the most happy recollections of my
life.
I know it is fate that progress is not usually recognized. That
has always been the case. As a rule progress is combatted and attacked and it
even happens that, as the prosecution has done, base motives are ascribed to
this struggle for progress. The technical man recognizes this, but continues to
work nevertheless. Occupation with natural sciences is a high and noble
profession. It, too, is a struggle but not a struggle with men. It is a
struggle with nature, with matter. Nature is not deceptive and cannot be
deceived. It can be approached only with truth and respect, and only in this
way can its problems be solved.
It is perhaps, in a sense, tragic that
this experience has made us technical men all too often trust those working
with paper and with words more than with deeds. You can understand that it was
a sacrifice for me to give up this work which I loved and to follow the call of
the government to help in the Four Year Plan; in short, to leave the struggle
with nature and to take up the struggle with paper work in administration for
which I really was not suited. I did so because |
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