West Germany: In the Footsteps of Farben

When mighty I. G. Farben was broken up by the Allies after World War II, the smallest and least known of the three major offshoots was a company called Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik. Like the two others, Bayer and Hoechst, B.A.S.F. proved to be a true heir to the vaunted Farben inventiveness and enterprise. It quickly rebuilt its bombed-out plants along the Rhine at Ludwigshafen, then spread out over 1,580 acres to develop Europe's largest single chemical complex. Now Europe's leading producer of raw materials for plastics and synthetic fibers, B.A.S.F. increased its sales by 18% to $940...

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