Shortly after the turn of the century, scientists closely associated with IG embarked on the development of a new generation of synthetic chemicals, starting spectacularly with the synthetic production of ammonia, by the Haber–Bosch process.62 By making possible the domestic production both of explosives and fertilizer, this made the German chemical industry and above all BASF into a mainstay of the German war effort in World War I. In the 1920s this path of technological development was pushed further by Carl Bosch, the real inspiration behind the merger that reshaped the
...more
