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A large planned expansion in military explosives began in 1934.
Generally a Reich-owned corporation — Montan — built the plants and
leased them to private explosives companies, which were predominantly Farben
subsidiaries for the manufacture of explosives. By 1939,a large stockpile of
powder had been built, totaling about 187,000 tons. Consumption of powder by
the German forces averaged 3,000 tons per month in 1940 and 5,000 tons per
month in 1941. Germany was dependent almost exclusively upon Farben for raw
materials and intermediates necessary to make explosives and gunpowder. In the
evidence is a chart from the records of the Reich Office for Economic
Development entitled “Interlocking of Raw Materials of the Production of
Powder, Explosives and Preliminary Products.” Defendant Ambros testified
concerning this chart, “This presentation is chemically correct.” It
shows that for the production of explosives and powder and chemical warfare
agents those raw materials and intermediates are necessary which were produced
predominantly by Farben.
The production outlined in that chart has been
made possible by the development during the First World War of the Haber-Bosch
process for the production of synthetic nitrogen by Farben. As a result of that
development. Farben enabled Germany to produce explosives without relying upon
the imports of Chilean nitrates. [NI-7743. Pros. Ex. 592; NI-8313, Pros. Ex. 1325;
NI-11252, Pros. Ex.
1051.]
Farben planned facilities for production of nitric acid
solely for the Wehrmacht in the event of war; Farben stockpiled pyrites, the
basic raw material for sulphuric acid essential for the process of nitration
[NI-9409, Pros. Ex. 593]; Farben increased Germany's production
capabilities for nitric acid many times prior to the outbreak of the war in
1939 [NI-9409, Pros. Ex. 593].
Farben manufactured all of
Germany’s diglycol, an intermediate product for the manufacture of
gunpowder. It was developed as a substitute for nitroglycerine. By the middle
of 1937, Farben had planned an enormous expansion of diglycol production at
Wolfen with the entire amount to go to the explosive manufacturers of Dynamit
A. G. and Wasag [NI-5763, Pros. Ex. 121]. According to a report dated 9
February 1939 by the Army Ordnance Office [NI-8700, Pros. Ex. 609], at
that time the production capacity for diglycol at the I. G. Farben plants in
Ludwigshafen, Wolfen, Schkopau, Huels and Trostberg was sufficient to produce
50,000 tons of gunpowder per month.
Second only in importance in
nitrogen was the production of methanol, which is an essential product in the
making of the most effective explosives — hexogen and nitropenta
[NI-10580, Pros. Ex. 616; NI-6239, Pros. Ex. 591]. Farben produced all
of the methanol in Germany. The report of the Army Ordnance Office of February
1939 showed the planning of additional facilities for the production of hexogen
by Farben at that time [NI-8790, Pros. Ex. 609]. As |
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