ITEM No. 22 
FILE No. XX—n 
COPY No 
LG. FARBENINDUSTRIE A.G. PLANT 
HOECHST/MAIN 
COMBINED INTELLIGENCE OBJECTIVES 
SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT ON VISIT TO 1.0. EAR8HTINDUSTRIE A. 0. PLANT 
HQECHST/^m. 
10 & 11 April, 1945 
Reported by 
P.J. LEADER 
CWS, Hq.ETOUSA 
25 April, 1945 
CIOS Black List Item - 22 
Miscellaneous Chemicals 
COMBINED INTELLIGENCE OBJECTIVES 
SUB-COMMITTEE 
G-2 DIVISION, SHAEP (Rear), ARC 415 
1 TABLE OP CONTENTS. 
Subject Page No. 
1. Introduction... 3 
2. Interview with Prof. Lautenschl&ger 3 
3. Interview with Dr. Karl Winnacker and tour 
of plant 4 
1+, Miscellaneous activities 7 
5. Important documents turned over to MIPS for 
filing. .Appendix A. 
PERSONNEL OP INSPECTION TEAM 
Lt.Gol. Joseph E. Smodel Medical Corps, Hq.ETOUSA 
Major Francis T. Chinard... .Medical Corps, Hq.ETOUSA 
Major H.M. Horack .Medical Corps, Hq.ETOUSA 
Mr. Ernest V. Volwiler CW13, Hq.ETOUSA 
Mr. Percy J. Leaper CWS, Hq.ETOUSA 
Mr. Lester M. White..,, CW3, Hq.ETOUSA REPORT COVERING VISIT TO I.G. PARBENINDUSTRIE 
hoechstAiajn 
1. INTRODUCTION. 
a. This target was visited by a team with two main purposes 
in mind, namely medical and organic chemicals. The medical and 
pharmaceutical phases of the visit and interviews are recorded 
in a separate report by other members of the team. This report 
covers only the organic chemical part of the plant*s activities, 
b. It was found that the plant and offices at Hoechst/iiain 
were intact, only a small amount of damage being caused by 
bombing. Several people we re interviewed and an extensive 
tour of the plant was made. Because of its enomous size, much 
of the plant had to be missed, and no attempt was made to 
search the offices for docianents. Since most of the key personnel 
were present, it was felt that better results would be obtained 
if these people were asked to supply the information required 
There has been ample opportunity for all important documents 
to be removed to a place of hiding, and since no guard had been 
put on the plant except on one research building in which 
work on Radar was being conducted, it is likely this was done. 
There was little of Black List importance found in the 
investigation although some important Grey List material was 
apparent. The people interrogated were moderately co-operative, 
but naturally were not willing to offer any information unless 
specifically asked to do so, 
c. The plant is 1300 x 1000 meters in area and normally 
employed 12,000 people, 3#000 men had been taken by the Army 
and 3*000 foreign workers were supplied in replacement. The 
buildings are all well constructed and spaced 30 meters apart 
for fire protection. 
2. INTERVIEW WITH PROF. LAUTENSCHLAGLR» DIRECTOR, 
a. Prof, Lautenschl&ger is in full charge of all pharma- 
ceutical activities of the company, and, therefore, much of 
the interrogation was left to the medical men of the team. b. Prom a chemical point of view the most important 
point gleaned from this interview was the manufacture of 
Pluor-Geserol. Geserol is the trade name used by I.G, for 
D.D.T, and Pluor-Geserol refers to difluorodiphenyltrichlor- 
ethane in which two fluorine atoms take the place of two 
chlorine atoms in the benzene nuclei. 
c. I.G. have preferred to use D.D.T. in emulsion form 
rather than as a powder and because of its relatively high 
melting point they claim to have had difficulty in preparing 
satisfactory emulsions. One attempt to avoid this trouble 
had been to deliberately make an impure product in which 
side reaction products were left behind to lower the melting 
point. It had been found, however, that a still greater 
lowering of melting point, and a much better product for 
emulsification could be made if fluorbenzene replaced chlor- 
benzene in the condensation. Also, it was thought that 
the resulting product had improved insecticidal properties, 
particularly against mosquitoes, Pluor-Geserol is also 
known in the factory as GIX. 
d. The hydrofluoric acid was obtained from Leverkusen. 
The chloral and fluorbenzene were made at Hoechst, The 
production capacity was 70 tons per quarter. 
e. The process for the manufacture of GIX was obtained 
in a detailed write up, together with the process for manu- 
facturing the intermediates and a flow sheet of equipment 
layout. This information will be found in the documents 
filed with MIHS. (See appendix). 
3. INTERVIEW WITH DR. KARL WIHNACKER. 
a. Dr, Winnacker was completely responsible for all 
chemical production and research except dyestuffs and phar- 
maceuticals, He outlined the principal chemical activities 
of the company under the following headings: - 
(l) Inorganic 
(2j Organic chemicals 
(3) Organic chemicals from acetylene 
{kj Plastics 
(5) Dyestuffs 
(6; Textile and water conditioning chemicals, 
emulsifiers etc. 
(7) Tanning materials b. The inorganic group was left entirely alone since it 
was realized that the processes were in the main, standard ones. 
It was, however, found that in the making of sulphuric acid 
very little native sulphur was used but very large rotary 
burners for pyrites were installed and operated. The whole 
plant was closed down for want of fuel but considerable stocks 
of raw materials were on hand that would allow for two or 
three months of full production. 
c. Under the heading of organic chemicals, a number of 
items were thrown together, mostly dye inteimediates. Also 
the products resulting from the chlorination of methane (the 
latter obtained fron coal gas by the Linde process followed 
by fractional distillation). Nothing very novel was observed 
in this work although the plant was of excellent construction 
and quite extensive. Of war interest is the production of 
chloroform; methyl chloride (for methyl cellulose); 
monochloracetic acid (for acetylating cellulose); chlorobromo- 
methane (used as a fire extinguishing agent to replace carbon 
tetrachloride), and Prigen (dichlorodifluorcmethane or Freon 
12). 
d. Under the heading of acetylene compounds, a number 
of interesting chemicals were produced. It was revealed that 
I, G. had agreements with Wacker whereby they each shared 
processes, but the processes used at Hoechst were mostly their 
own modifications. The usual line of acetylene derivatives 
were produced, e.g., acetic acid, metfcyl acetate, aldol, 
crotonic aldehyde, etc., all of which are critical chemicals 
under a war economy. The acetaldehyde required was received 
by barge from Knapsack, Two extremely interesting modifications 
were being used that have only recently become common practice 
in the U.S, because of cheaper sources of raw materials. 
These processes involve the reduction of crotonaldehyde. Pull 
reduction with hydrogen, done in the gaseous phase with a 
copper catalyst carried on pumice at a temperature of 180° - 
250°C., gives butanol in good yield. Partial reduction 
carried out in the liquid phase, at low pressures and 20° - 
30°C over a nickel catalyst on punice, gives butyric aldehyde 
in good yield. Under the German economy this avoided the 
use of cereal crops. 
Methods for carrying out these processes have been 
obtained and the original documents should be consulted for 
further details. e. The fourth group comprising plastics consisted of 
a number of interesting developments pertaining to vinyl 
compounds. 900 - 1000 tons per month of monovinyl acetate 
were produced which were converted to 300 tons of solid 
polyvinyl acetate and 600 to 700 tons of polyvinyl acetate 
in emulsion form* There was capacity for 35 tons of 
polyvinyl alcohol most of which was claimed to he used for 
emulsifying polyvinyl acetate. Some 2-3 tons were 
stated to find use for textile sizing and offset printing. 
These vinyl products found uses in coating materials 
for artificial leather, textiles, lacquers etc. The processes 
sire not very different from those used in the U.S. Mixed 
polymers of vinyl chloride and vinyl esters are produced in 
this plant, as well as cross polymers of vinyl esters and 
crotonic acid. 
An interesting product made by condensing 1 mole 
of vinyl fluoride with 1 mole of maleic anhydride, and which 
is soluble in ammonia, is claimed to be useful for emulsifying 
other vinyl plastics, 
A plasticizer for nitrocellulose and also useful in 
making plastic emulsions was manufactured at the rate of 180 
tons per month under the name of Uresin B. This was manufactured 
by reacting butanol with urea to form a urethane and then 
condensing this with formaldehyde. 
f. Dyestuffs were touched upon only very lightly since 
this phase of their work is so extensive. A trip was made 
through various parts of the dye plants and all were intact 
and in first-class working order ready for manufacture if 
power and steam were available. The production of dyes was 
a primary project in this plant and almost all types of 
colors, indanthrene, azo, triphenyl methane, etc., as well as 
photographic sensitizers were manufactured in very considerable 
quantities. 
g. Textile and water conditioning chemicals ran into 
production well in excess of 1,000 tons per year. A line of 
products known as Igepons were made from the sodium sulphonates 
of aliphatic glycols. Igepon A is a straight carbon chain 
derivative while Igepon T is of the amide type, and similar 
in properties to the G-ardenols and Naccanols of the U.S. The Igepon T type are extremely good because of their great stability 
against calcium salts and hard water. 
/ 
A middle fraction of C12 hydrocarbons from the 
Pischer-Tropsch process was also being sulphonated at low tempera- 
ture to give sulphonic acid salts, claimed to be of value as 
detergents for vegetable fibers, but of little value for wool. 
h. Tanning material production was being carried out under 
a list of products referred to as Tanigans. Several grades 
exist, but a total production of around 6000 tons per year was 
produced in 1944* They are complex resins formed usually by 
condensing a formaldehyde-phenol reaction product with a complex 
naphthalene sulphonic acid. It is believed that these materials 
are somewhat similar to the Orotans turned out by Rohm and Haas 
in the U.S. 
4* MISCSLIAI'IE(JUS ACTIVITIES. 
a. It was found that the plant was engaged in a large 
number of miscellaneous activities, some chemical, others more 
closely physical. Along the chemical line they were actively 
engaged in making fire fighting compounds. Chlorobromcmethane 
has already been mentioned earlier in this report. Another 
material sold is Tutagen 43 and claimed to be good for oil 
fires, which is a mixture of;- 
10fo Nekal (or product like it) 
Aluminum chloride 
NaOH 
20}b Sulphite liquors from the paper 
industry. 
31$q Water 
10O/o 
b. Another extremely interesting chemical product develop- 
ed at Hoechst is for the production of glycerine from cheap 
sugar's by hydrogenation. A plant capable of producing over 
1500 tons in 1944 was inspected and the process reviewed. 
Sugar is dissolved in water, inverted with to l?o oxalic acid 
and then subjected to hydrogenation at 200°C and 300 atmos- 
pheres pressure through a series of tubular reactors. Nickel 
on pumice is the catalyst used. The reactant mass is filtered, 
cleared with charcoal, and dried under vacuum. It consists 
of the following mixture; - 
k&J, Glycerine 
l+QP/o Propylene glycol 
2C96 Hexahydric alcohol According to Dr, Winnacker this mixture was being used as recovered, 
and was not being fractionated for nitration purposes. It 
was stated by him that the material was used as a substitute 
for glycerine where the physical properties of the mixture 
were suitable. There may be reason to doubt the veracity of 
these statements because such a mixture could be fractionated 
readily if so desired. 
c. It is possible that nitrated glycerine was being made, 
and also it is possible that glycerine might have been supplied 
for the manufacture of synthetic fats. 
P. J, LEAFER APPENDIX A. 
The following documents were collected while on a visit 
to this plant, and have been turned over to MIRS for filing: - 
1. Entwicklungsarbeiten des I&Werkes Hoechst. (Develop- 
ment work of the I.G. Works, Hoechst,) 
2. (Gehcime Kosnmandosache). Wehmachtentwicklungsarbeiten 
in der Hauptgruppe 2, (Development work for the Amed 
Forces in the classification No.2. Top Secret.) 
3. Fabrikationen des I.G. Werkes Hoechst, 1944* (Manu- 
factured Products of I.G. Works, Hoechst, 1944*) 
4* Uebersicht ueber die ungefaehre Zahl an Farbstoff- 
typen der Farbenfabrik I.G. Hoechst. (Survey of the 
approximate amounts of dyestuff production at I.G. 
Works, Hoechst.) 
5. Ivlowilith Dispersionen fest Produkte Loesungen. 
(Mowilith, Dispersions, Solid Material and Solutions.) 
6. 13 photographs showing views of I.G. Works, Hoechst. 
7. Pemsprech Verzeichnis I.G. Y/erk - Hoechst. (Telephone 
Directory, I.G. Works, Hoechst.) 
8. Fabrikation der wichtigsten produkte des Jahres 1944 
aus den Gebieten der organischen Chemikalien und Kunst- 
offe gemaess userer bereits uebergeben Fabrikations- 
aufstellung van 4 April, 1945* (Manufacture of 
principal, products for the year 1944> covering organic 
chemicals and plastics according to the statements 
given as of 4 April, 1945.) 
9. Betriebs vorschriften. (production methods including 
several blueprints of flow sheets of a number of chem- 
icals and chemical products manufactured by IG. at 
their Hoechst works.) 
9-