IG Farben
bandwraith at aol.com
bandwraith at aol.com
Wed Nov 21 17:47:49 CST 2012
"German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of
electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full
capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of
a renewable energy think tank said.
The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the
Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately
and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/26/us-climate-germany-solar-idUSBRE84P0FI20120526
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany
When it comes to energy, I'm a Deutschophile.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
To: Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>; pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, Nov 21, 2012 7:38 am
Subject: Re: IG Farben
On 21.11.2012 00:47, Erik T. Burns wrote:
via that Metafilter convo (which was actually yesterday and didn't
develop into much) there are some amazing links, including to Sasuly's
book on IG Farben to much else on the Nuremburg war crime trials.
right here:
http://www.metafilter.com/122021/A-streaker-comes-across-the-stage-It-has-happened-before-but-there-is-nothing-to-compare-it-to-now#4695505
more on Sasuly, who is indeed mentioned by Weisburger in the companion:
http://www.thomaspynchon.com/gravitys-rainbow/extra/farben.html
>> Because of buna rubber, strong links were established between IG and
Standard Oil Co. of NJ (...).<<
Frank Howard, the head of research at Standard, visited I. G.'s Leuna
works in 1926. He was so impressed that he immediately fired off a
telegram to Standard's president, Walter Teagle, then visiting in
Paris. "Based upon observations and discussion today, I think that this
matter is the most important which has ever faced the company since the
dissolution," wired Howard. "This means absolutely the independence of
Europe in the matter of gasoline supply." Teagle himself, alarmed about
the possibility of losing European markets to the new synthetic oil,
hurried to Leuna. The research and production facilities awed him: "I
had not known what research meant until I saw it," he later said. "We
were babies compared to the work I saw."
Teagle, Howard and other Standard executives hurriedly gathered at a
hotel room in Heidelberg, ten miles from the I. G. Farben works. They
concluded, Howard later recalled, that the hydrogenation process might
be "more significant than any technical factor ever introduced into the
oil industry up to the time." Here, in the laboratories of I. G.
Farben, was a clear threat to the Standard's business. "Although
hydrogenation of coal probably could never compete on an economic basis
with crude oil," said Howard, "'the nationalistic factor' would lead to
hydrogenation's being made the foundation of a protected manufacturing
industry in many countries willing to pay the price." Thus, markets
could be closed to imported crude oil and refined products; Standard
could hardly afford not to become involved.
An initial agreement was therefore reached with I. G. Farben, which
allowed Standard to build a hydrogenation plant in Louisiana. But by
this time, the world oil shortage was beginning to turn into a surplus,
and the American company's interest shifted. Hydrogenation could also
be used on crude oil, to increase the gasoline yield. Thus, the new
plant in Louisiana would experimentally apply the process not to coal,
but to oil, in order to squeeze more gasoline out of each barrel of
petroleum.
In 1929 the companies struck a broader agreement. Standard would have
the patent rights to hydrogenation outside of Germany. In exchange I.
G. Farben received 2 percent of Standard's stock - 546, 000 shares -
valued at $35 million. Each company agreed to stay out of the other's
main field of activity. As a Standard official put it, "The I. G.
Farben are going to stay out of the oil business --- and we are going
to stay out of the chemical business." The next step came in 1930, with
the establishment of a joint company to share developments in the
"oil-chemical" field. Overall, a good deal of technical knowledge was
flowing to Standard.
Daniel Yergin: The Prize. The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power
(chapter 17)
In 1938 Germany - despite the Leuna product - had to import 90, 000
barrels of oil daily; changing volumes came from Venezuela, Peru,
Russia and Iran; 10, 000 barrels each were delivered by Mexico and
Romania; the largest part - 25,000 barrels - came from the USA.
(see Daniele Ganser: Europa im Erdölrausch, p. 69)
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