h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chemists

Friedrich Engelhorn was a genuine Mannheimer. He was born and grew up in the Kurpfalz town and completed his apprenticeship as a goldsmith. He got involved in local politics and was quite a popular leader throughout the revolutions and civil disputes in the mid-19th century.

The devastation and economic crisis which followed in the wake of these disputes caused his goldsmith shop to suffer, so he turned his hand to business and set up the gas company which eventually became the municipal gas company. He was running the financial side of the business whilst Justus von Liebig and, in England, William Perkin, were figuring out ways of producing indigo and other synthetic dyes from coal tar, one of the waste products from the gas works.

Engelhorn started a company to commercially exploit Perkin's method, and thanks to his astute management moves, soon had a company which embraced all the stages of the production under one roof. The enterprise grew and the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik was founded - although not in Baden, but in the Pfalz - in Ludwigshafen. The BASF is a household name in much of the Western World - in the 1980's the name was to be seen on reel-to-reel and cassette tapes.

In the 1860s, the BASF was really big on R&D - this was, after all, the era for inventions and mechanised production processes, factories and mass-production. Many talented chemists worked in the research department, keeping the BASF in the vanguard of the new industrial developers. Among them: Fritz Raschig, who went on to found his own chemicals company in Ludwigshafen, Carl Liebermann, Heinrich Brunck - and many others who have chemical phenomena and processes named after them. In their wider circle you will also come across the names of Carl Bosch, and Robert Bunsen, who taught many of them at the university of Heidelberg.

In 1870, by which time William Perkin was marketing his dye-making processes in Britain to a similar extent, Engelhorn demonstrated his diplomatic skill which we heard about in his days at the forefront of politics, and came to an agreement with Perkin that they should divide the rights for the red dye Alizarin equally across the world market. Perkins had developed a method for producing this dye simultaneously to the BASF.

On a darker note, the BASF was part of the huge conglomeration of chemical companies IG Farben, which supported the NSDAP (and furthered their businesses with the help of government support). One of the member companies, Degussa, was the producer of Zyklon B which was used in the gas chambers of the concentration camps. Other members made (chemical) weapons, and produced the bulk of the weapons sent by the Nazi party to support Franco's forces in the Spanish Civil war. When the IG Farben was dissolved in 1945, the BASF came out relatively healthy, along with many other German companies which still enjoy a robust reputation today.

The company has to this day a very strong policy of providing welfare for its employees, which dates back to Friedrich Engelhorn himself, who built housing for his workers in Ludwigshafen. It is one of the largest employers in the area and anyone who works there is assured of maximum benefits, generous paid holidays, bonuses and a company pension. Every year, school children apply for apprenticeship places and many are taken on.

Nowadays, Ludwigshafen and Mannheim still house a considerable number of chemical companies, many of whom are either closing down or joining forces. As you drive through, you can still read Böhringer, Knoll, Giulini, Raschig and BASF on many of the buildings. These names conjure up chemicals of all kinds that we see in our daily lives, from pharmaceuticals to paints to fertilisers, and countless others which we don't even notice: coatings, plastics, additives of all kinds.

[Amy P]

Robert Bunsen -- he was hot stuff.

Can't see why BASF was called the Bayerisch ASF though, if it was in Baden-Württemberg?

Or Rhineland-Palatinate? Can't get the hang of these departments.

Deb

It was called the Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik. It was originally supposed to be in Mannheim (which is in Baden) but they finally found a piece of land big enough in Ludwigshafen, which is in the Pfalz.

I was going to post a picture or the relevant section from Google Earth but you can find that yourselves if you're interested - there are just so many pictures to choose from...

I saw that Ludwigshafen is just west of the river from Mannheim ... another place to visit, clearly.

I remember BASF from the days when I collected audiocassettes. I'm sure the company has moved on to other products.

I do not recommend a visit to Ludwigshafen. It is a most unattractive and boring town. Stay over the other side of the river - Mannheim has style and character and lots to offer.

Ludwigshafen does go for inner values though - they put a lot of effort into theatre and art galleries. The town itself should do better with the revenue they must be getting from the BASF, which is absolutely huge and dominates the whole area from Worms to Speyer. For example, there are three malls within close proximity of each other, each from a different decade and in various states of dishevel and neglect. A fourth - one of the very early ones in the 70s) has already gone the way of many other malls, the second one is only hanging on in there because it incorporates many council offices, the library and a tram station.

The main shopping streets between them are lined with closed down and boarded up independent shops, many of these were specialist shops which were absolute treasure troves in the 70s for odd bits of ironmongery, sports equipment and haberdashery.

The BASF themselves run a series of excellent concerts with world-famous names. They have a concert hall actually on the complex. They also have huge wine cellars and a very high-class restaurant.

As for the BASF, they have huge plants all over the world, and did not need to "move on" to other products, because they had fingers in all the chemical pies going from quite early on.

http://www.basf.com/group/products-and-industries/index

They have about 30 sites in the US alone:

http://www.basf.com/group/corporate/en/about-basf/worldwide/north-america/usa

many years ago we went to an open air gig at the Maimarktgelaende in Mannheim. Driving home was a nightmare, it seemed that all roads went to Ludwigshafen and nowhere else.