Carl Wurster (2 December 1900, in Stuttgart – 14 December 1974, in

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

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

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. 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 (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the l ...

to serve in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

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

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading 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 wi ...

whilst also serving with the ''

Einwohnerwehr The ''Einwohnerwehr'', or "Citizens' Defense," also called the Civil Guard or Civil Defense, was a far-right paramilitary in Weimar Germany that existed in violation of the Treaty of Versailles from the German Revolution of 1918-19 until June 29 ...

'', 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 () is a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The BASF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80 countries ...

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 larges ...

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

IG Farben Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (), commonly known as IG Farben (German for 'IG Dyestuffs'), was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies— BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, Agfa ...

Ludwigshafen Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning "Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it f ...

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 Georg August Eduard ''Freiherr'' von Schnitzler (29 October 1884, in Cologne – 24 May 1962, in Basel) was a member of the board at IG Farben and a Nazi war criminal. Early years Schnitzler studied law at a number of universities, eventually comp ...

, Wurster was close to Dr Carl Ungerwitter, a government chemist with links to leading figures in the

Schutzstaffel The ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS; also stylized as ''ᛋᛋ'' with Armanen runes; ; "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe d ...

, 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. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

was planned for September. Following the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 193 ...

, 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 (german: Kriegsverdienstkreuz) 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 Mer ...

. He had joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

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 explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

initially gave Wurster permission to remain in charge of the plant at Ludwigshaven 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 tribun ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. 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, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

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 is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

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 (german: Bayerischer Verdienstorden) 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 Bavari ...

. 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 and stylized as BOSCH, is a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, Germany. The company was founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart in 1886. Bosch i ...

Allianz Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. T ...

and

Degussa Evonik Industries AG is a stock-listed German specialty chemicals company headquartered in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the second largest chemicals company in Germany, and one of the largest specialty chemicals companies in the ...

. 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 Otto Ambros (19 May 1901 – 23 July 1990) was a German chemist and Nazi war criminal. He is known for his wartime work on synthetic rubber (polybutadiene, or "Buna rubber") and nerve agents (sarin and tabun). After the war he was tried at Nure ...

, Heinrich Bütefisch, Fritz Gajewski,

Max Ilgner Max Ilgner (28 June 1899 – 28 March 1966) was a German industrialist. He was a member of the board of IG Farben and held the title ''Wehrwirtschaftsführer'' or war economy leader under the Nazi regime. After the war, he was convicted by the Al ...

Friedrich Jähne Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

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 t ...

Hans Kühne Hans Kühne (3 June 1880 – 18 February 1969) was a German chemist on the board of IG Farben and a defendant during the IG Farben Trial. Early years The son of Julius and Elisabeth Kühne, Hans Kühne enrolled in the University of Leipzig to stud ...

, Wilhelm Rudolf Mann, 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 people 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