Carl Wurster (2 December 1900, in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

– 14 December 1974, in

Frankenthal Frankenthal (Pfalz) (; ) is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. History Frankenthal was first mentioned in 772. In 1119 an Augustinians, Augustinian monastery was built here, the ruins of which — known, aft ...

) was a German chemist and '' Wehrwirtschaftsführer'' (war economy leader) during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. He subsequently became one of the leading figures in post-war Germany's industrial life.

Pre-war career

The son of police inspector Carl Wurster and his wife, Clara Sippel Carl Wuster entered the

German Imperial Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the leadership of Kingdom o ...

to serve in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

after leaving school.Carl Wurster (1900–1974)
/ref> After his war service he studied chemistry at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

whilst also serving with the '' Einwohnerwehr'', a right-wing militia active in southern Germany. He subsequently took a doctorate in engineering and in 1924 took a post with

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

where he worked closely with

Carl Bosch Carl Bosch (; 27 August 1874 – 26 April 1940) was a German chemist and engineer and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. He was a pioneer in the field of high-pressure industrial chemistry and founder of IG Farben, at one point the world's largest ...

. In 1926 he was made the head of the main inorganic laboratory at

IG Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German Chemical industry, chemical and Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical co ...

Ludwigshafen Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning "Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig's Port upon the Rhine"; Palatine German dialects, Palatine German: ''Ludwichshafe''), is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in the German state of Rh ...

plant, marrying Margareta Bergmann around the same time (the couple eventually having two daughters). Wurster rose through the ranks at IG Farben, becoming head of inorganic operations in 1931, chairman of the Inorganic Production Committee in 1933, a director of the company in 1936 and both a full member of the

Vorstand In German corporate governance, a ''Vorstand'' is the executive board of a corporation (public limited company). It is hierarchically subordinate to the supervisory board (''Aufsichtsrat''), as German company law imposes a two-tier board of d ...

and head of Farben's Upper Rhine Business Group.

Under the Nazis

Like his fellow IG Farben executive Georg von Schnitzler, Wurster was close to Dr Carl Ungerwitter, a government chemist with links to leading figures in the

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It beg ...

, and through him Wurster learned in early 1939 that an invasion of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

was planned for September. Following the German occupation, Wurster went to Poland to inspect the chemical works in that country. Here he was able to determine which could be absorbed by IG Farben and utilised as part of the Nazi war effort. IG Farben was complicit in crimes committed at German Nazi death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, leading to the death of an estimated 1.5 million people, according to the Auschwitz museum in Poland. Wurster was made a '' Wehrwirtschaftsführer'' in 1941 and also became a member of the Military Economy Council of the Reich Economic Chamber. This was followed in 1943 by the award of a First Class

War Merit Cross The War Merit Cross () was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Merit Cross was reissued in 1957 ...

. He had joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

itself in 1937.

After the war

The occupying

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

initially gave Wurster permission to remain in charge of the plant at Ludwigshafen following the end of the war but in 1947 he was arrested by American authorities to face

trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, w ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

. However Wurster was acquitted and soon returned to a leading position in German business. He became chairman of the board at IG Farben in 1952 and successfully led moves to re-establish BASF. In the academic world he was made an honorary professor at

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

and was awarded the title of honorary doctor or honorary senator by several other German universities. He was recognised by the

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

government when he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955 and also received the

Bavarian Order of Merit The Bavarian Order of Merit () is the Order of Merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria and the Bavarian people". The or ...

. He officially retired from IG Farben in 1965 but continued to be involved on the supervisory boards of a number of other companies, including

Robert Bosch GmbH Robert Bosch GmbH (; ), commonly known as Bosch (styled BOSCH), is a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company was founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart in 188 ...

Allianz Allianz SE ( , ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. Allianz is the world's largest List of largest insurance ...

and Degussa. Wurster retained links to those he had worked with as part of the Nazi war machine and on 6 February 1959 as chairman of BASF he hosted a reunion banquet for the veterans of the pre-1945 IG Farben Vorstand. The event was attended by Otto Ambros, Heinrich Bütefisch, Fritz Gajewski, Max Ilgner, Friedrich Jähne,

Carl Krauch Carl Krauch (7 April 1887 – 3 February 1968) was a German chemist, industrialist and Nazi war criminal. He was an executive at BASF (later IG Farben); during World War II, he was chairman of the supervisory board. He was a key implementer of th ...

, Hans Kühne,

Wilhelm Rudolf Mann Wilhelm Rudolf Mann (4 April 1894 – 10 March 1992) was a German business executive for IG Farben and later with Bayer. He was a supporter and member of the Nazi Party, and was involved in financing the human medical experiments of Josef Mengel ...

, Christian Schneider and Fritz ter Meer as well as Carl Bosch's widow.Jeffreys, ''Hell's Cartel'', p. 349

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wurster, Carl 1900 births 1974 deaths Businesspeople from Stuttgart 20th-century German chemists IG Farben people German chemical industry businesspeople University of Stuttgart alumni Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German Army personnel of World War I People acquitted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals Scientists from Stuttgart People from the Kingdom of Württemberg Recipients of the Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross Presidents of the German Chemical Society Nazi Party members