IG Farben

This exhibition was created based on a 'Z' magazine feature on Kanal 4, in cooperation with Botschaft e.V. and the editorial collective around Kaos Film in Cologne. The programme covered the repossession of properties in the former eastern part of Berlin by the successor company of the former IG Farben factories.

Press release Botschaft from 1993:
IG Farben existed from 1925 to 1945 and was Europe's largest chemical company under the National Socialist regime. Not only was IG Farben the most generous party donor to the NSDAP, it also held a 42.5% stake in Degussa. This made IG Farben largely responsible for the production of the poison gas Zyklon B, and the company also operated its own concentration camp, Auschwitz-Monowitz, where around 25,000 forced labourers were murdered in line with the slogan 'extermination through labour'.

IG Farben in Auflösung was founded in 1952 after the company was forced to liquidate by the Allies in the Nuremberg Trials. Its task was to manage the remaining assets and honour pension and compensation claims of surviving forced labourers. The former chemical multinational still exists as a joint-stock company in liquidation to this day.

IG i.A.'s continued profitability on the stock market, despite lacking a company structure or product, can be attributed to its 'hope values'. These are former properties in East Germany that IG i.A. is now reclaiming following reunification.
 

Postscript: Following its insolvency at the end of 2003, I.G. Farbenindustrie AG i.L. was deleted from the commercial register on 31 October 2012.

IG Farben catalogue "Performance einer Aktie" as PDF

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