German Industry and Global Enterprise: BASF: The History of a Company

by Werner Abelshauser , Wolfgang von Hippel , Jeffrey Allan Johnson , Raymond G. Stokes

• ISBN13: 9780521827263
• ISBN10: 0521827264
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This corporate history of BASF offers a view of the functioning of an industrial organization that has managed to thrive and expand since 1865. Moreover, it reveals much about the reasons for the extraordinary economic dynamics of the German empire and the enormous expansion of the world economy before World War I. It permits the probing of the origins and spread of the knowledge society, in which science and research-based innovation have become the key determinants of economic growth and social development. Accordingly, BASF's history developed at the core of Germany's wartime economy during both world wars and highlights its strengths as well as its weaknesses.

Table of Contents

Introduction by the Editor	1	(1)
From New Industry to the New Economy	1	(4)
I Becoming a Global Corporation - BASF from 1865 to 1900	5	(110)
Wolfgang von Hippel
1. The Prehistory	7	(8)
Friedrich Engelhorn - Pioneering Enterpreneurship	7	(2)
A Massive Market - The Beautiful World of the New Dyestuffs	9	(3)
One of the First Coal-Tar Dye Factories in Germany	12	(3)
2. The Early Years (1865-1873)	15	(21)
Mannheim or Ludwigshafen? The Dramatic Establishment of the Corporation	15	(4)
The Large-Scale Project to Begin Anew in Ludwigshafen	19	(4)
From Imitation to Independent Research - Heinrich Caro	23	(3)
The First Synthesis of a Natural Dyestuff: Alizarin	26	(5)
On an Expansion Course: The Fusion with the Stuttgart Firms of Knosp and Siegle in 1873	31	(5)
3. Between Science and the Marketplace - BASF in the "Dyestuffs Age," 1873-1900	36	(79)
An Overview	36	(2)
The Centers of Developments - Top Management and Organizational Problems	38	(12)
The Heart of the Company - Research and Production	50	(2)
Science as a Factor of Production - Laboratory Work	52	(3)
The Stony Path to the Marketplace - Dyeing Works as Testing Stations	55	(2)
"The Age of Dyestuffs" I: Aniline Dyes	57	(2)
"The Age of Dyestuffs" II: Azo-dyes	59	(4)
"The Age of Dyestuffs" III: Alizarin Dyes	63	(2)
"The Age of Dyestuffs" IV: Indigo	65	(5)
A Promising Future as a Supplier to the Industry: Inorganic Production	70	(2)
Structural Development, Technical Service Facilities	72	(4)
The Ecological Costs of Production - Environmental Problems?	76	(3)
Intellectual Property as a Factor of Production: Patent Issues	79	(3)
Integration into the Marketplace	82	(11)
The Expression of Economic Success: Sales Turnover, Markets, and Profits and Their Use	93	(9)
The Human Factor in Production: Firm Personnel - High-Ranking Salaried Employees ("Beamte") and Workers	102	(10)
Economy and Politics	112	(3)
II The Power of Synthesis (1900-1925)
Jeffrey Allan Johnson
1. A Company in Transition	115	(12)
BASF at the Paris World Exposition of 1900	115	(2)
Changes in Corporate Leadership Circa 1900	117	(2)
The Victory of Synthetic Indigo	119	(2)
New Products: Paths Taken and Not Taken	121	(6)
2. From the Dreibund to von Brunk's Death (1904-1911)	127	(24)
The Dreibund: Concentration, Conflict, and Organizational Change	127	(9)
Innovation and Marketing in Dyestuffs	136	(6)
Innovation and Academic-Industrial Collaboration: From Dye Chemistry to Nitrates	142	(4)
Workers' and Employees' Movements	146	(4)
The End of the von Brunck Era	150	(1)
3. From Oppau to Leurra: Synthetic Ammonia and War (1912-1918)	151	(26)
The Ammonia Synthesis, 1912-1914	151	(6)
BASF on the Eve of the War, 1912-1914	157	(3)
Mars Rising: Entering the War Economy	160	(5)
The Leurra Project	165	(6)
Wartime Reorganization: The Expanded IG	171	(2)
From Labor Truce to Mass Protest: The Workforce at War	173	(4)
4. From Crisis to Fusion (1919-1925)	177	(29)
Defeat and Revolution: New Leadership Facing Postwar Challenges	177	(6)
Stark Realities of the Peace Terms: Occupation, Technology Transfer, Reparations	183	(6)
Postwar Marketing and Innovation	189	(4)
Labor Conflicts and the Catastrophic Explosion in Oppau	193	(8)
From Crisis to Fusion (1922-1925)	201	(5)
III From the IG Farben Fusion to the Establishment of BASF AG (1925-1952)	206	(156)
Raymond G. Stokes
1. Introduction	206	(6)
BASF in the IG Period: Overview and Initial Hypotheses	207	(5)
2. Fitting into the New Concern, 1925-1929	212	(23)
Organizational Change and the IG	214	(6)
The Upper Rhine Group in the Initial IG Period: Organization and Relationships with Other IG Plants	220	(2)
Trends in Production	222	(8)
Research and Development	230	(3)
Work and the Workforce	233	(2)
3. Coping with the Crisis, 1919-1933	235	(15)
Reorganizing the Trust and the Group in the Wake of the Crisis	236	(3)
Production Trends	239	(4)
Downsizing	243	(4)
Politicization of the German Chemical Industry and the Upper Rhine Group	247	(3)
4. Accommodation and Conflict, 1933-1936	250	(23)
The National Socialist Seizure of Power, the Trust, and the Group	251	(13)
Recovery in Production and Trends in R&D	264	(6)
Social and Labor Policy in the Factories	270	(3)
5. Autarky and Preparation for War, 1936-1939	273	(20)
The Four Year Plan Organization and Preparation for War	273	(9)
Production, Sales, and Research Trends	282	(7)
Work, the Workforce, and National Socialist Ideology and Practice	289	(4)
6. The Upper Rhine Group in German-Dominated Europe, 1939-1942	293	(20)
The National Socialist New Order and the Upper Rhine Group	294	(12)
War Production and Investment	306	(4)
Labor	310	(3)
7. The BASF Group in Total War, 1942-1945	313	(22)
Total War and the Upper Rhine Group Factories	314	(1)
Production Trends	315	(7)
Labor	322	(6)
The Upper Rhine Group and IG Auschwitz	328	(4)
Destruction and Postwar Planning	332	(3)
8. From Occupation to Refounding, 1945-1952	335	(27)
The Impact of the War on the BASF Factories	336	(10)
Production and Investment under French Occupation	346	(9)
The Workforce and the Re-emergence of Labor Unionism	355	(2)
The Breakup of the IG Farben Trust and the Refounding of BASF	357	(5)
IV BASF Since Its Refounding in 1952	362	(259)
Werner Abelshauser
1. The Past Has a Future: Launching BASF Anew	362	(14)
The Refounding	362	(5)
Disincorporation	367	(4)
Rebirth	371	(5)
2. Corporate Culture: Tradition as a Resource?	376	(59)
Rules and Context: The Social System of Production	376	(2)
Strategy and Structure: Corporate Leadership	378	(10)
Consistency and Flexibility: Financing	388	(9)
Control and Trust: Shareholder Relations	397	(12)
Partnership and Conflict: Industrial Relations	409	(8)
Costs and Benefits: Plant Policy with a Social Bent	417	(11)
Research, Technology, Application: Customized Quality Production	428	(7)
3. Old Markets, New Basis: Early Breakthrough to Petrochemistry	435	(19)
Old and New Markets	435	(6)
The Founding of the Rhenish Olefin Works	441	(9)
Breakthrough	450	(4)
4. Tradition and Distance: The Second Breakup of IG Farben	454	(19)
Distance	454	(3)
Cooperation	457	(3)
Reintegration	460	(5)
The Second Breakup	465	(8)
5. The Way to the Top: Strategic Decisions	473	(14)
Orientation Problems	473	(5)
Profit Can Be Planned, or the Will to Greatness	478	(5)
Interlocking Production Operations on a Large Scale, or a New Technological Paradigm	483	(4)
6. One, Two, Many "Ludwigshafens": The Integrated Production System and the Siting Issue	487	(26)
The Ludwigshafen Site	487	(4)
Looking for the Second "Ludwigshafen"	491	(5)
Ludwigshafen Is Everywhere: Exporting a Model	496	(4)
Challenge I: Nuclear Power Plant	500	(7)
Challenge II: Environmental Protection	507	(6)
7. Learning from the United States? From Joint Venture to Verbund	513	(30)
Staying Power: Joint Venture with Dow	513	(4)
Caught Together, Hanged Together: Entering the Fiber Business	517	(10)
Battle of Cultures: The Tug-of-War over Dow Badische	527	(11)
Exporting a Model: Consolidation through the Verbund	538	(5)
8. Crisis and Consolidation	543	(30)
BASF: Badische Annulment and Suspension Factory	543	(8)
A Calamitous End: The Collapse of Phrix	551	(9)
Upheaval and Persistence: Corporate Reorganization	560	(13)
9. No Weary Shop of Raw Materials: Forward Integration and Acquisition	573	(41)
Off to New Shores	573	(4)
Tape Recorders I: The Struggle for the U.S. Market	577	(6)
Tape Recorders II: The "National Champion" on the Defensive	583	(7)
Lacquer: Defensive Forward Integration	590	(9)
Pharmaceuticals: The Early Bird...	599	(11)
Back to the Roots	610	(4)
10. Upheaval and Persistence	614	(7)
Toward the Transnational Company	614	(5)
The Road to New Industry: Old Industry or "New Economy"?	619	(2)
Appendix Trade Volume and Profits of BASF since its Founding in 1865	621	(8)
Bibliography	629	(14)
Index of Archives	643	(2)
Index of Corporations	645	(6)
Index of Persons	651	(6)
Index of Products and Processes	657	(8)
Subject Index	665