In the twentieth century, dyes, pharmaceuticals, photographic products,
explosives, insecticides, fertilizers, synthetic rubber, fuels, and
fibers, plastics, and other products have flowed out of the chemical
industry and into the consumer economies, war machines, farms, and
medical practices of industrial societies. The German chemical industry
has been a major site for the development and application of the
science-based technologies that gave rise to these products, and has had
an important role as exemplar, stimulus, and competitor in the
international chemical industry.
This volume explores the German chemical industry's scientific and
technological dimension, its international connections, and its
development after 1945. The authors relate scientific and technological
change in the industry to evolving German political and economic
circumstances, including two world wars, the rise and fall of National
Socialism, the post-war division of Germany, and the emergence of a
global economy. This book will be of interest to historians of modern
Germany, to historians of science and technology, and to business and
economic historians.