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Inside IG Farben : Hoechst during the Third Reich / Stephan H. Lindner ; English translation by Helen Schoop.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: German Publication details: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011, c2008.Description: xx, 388 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780521178389 (pbk.)
  • 052117838X (pbk.)
Uniform titles:
  • Hoechst. English
Subject(s):
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Non-Fiction Davis (Central) Library Non-Fiction Non-Fiction 338.766 LIN 1 Available T00520929
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In 1925, the three leading chemical firms in Germany - BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst - merged, together with some smaller firms, to become IG Farben. IG Farben became, like no other firm, synonymous with the participation of German industry in the most heinous crimes of the Nazi regime. This book deals in depth with one of IG Farben's leading factories, Hoechst, during the Third Reich. On the basis of long and meticulous archival research, including previously inaccessible company records, the author tries to describe and analyze the relationship between management and employees and the Nazi party and its organizations. The author shows the exclusion and persecution of employees, particularly Jewish employees. He traces the extent of Hoechst's involvement in the exploitation of forced labor, and its active participation in human experiments in several concentration camps. Throughout, he tries to shed light on the motivations of those responsible for this conduct.

This translation originally published: 2008.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Translated from the German.

11

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 From the formation of IG Farben to the great depression
  • 3 Works management, workforce, and the national socialist party
  • 4 From self sufficiency to war production, drugs and experiments on human beings
  • 5 The post-war years: dealing with the past
  • 6 Bibliography

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Accepting Emerson's insight that institutions are but the lengthened shadows of men, Lindner's exploration of the German chemical company Hoechst is as much a series of biographical profiles as corporate history. Quickly tracing the 1925 merger of Hoechst with other firms to create the IG Farben conglomerate, Lindner (Univ. of the Bundeswehr, Munich) outlines the significant changes in leadership that emerged by the early 1930s: 1) the new men governing the company move from tolerating the rise of Hitler to pursuing an opportunistic embrace, and 2) a "decentralized centralization" management style places enormous initiative in the hands of local plant managers. The central portion of this history focuses on the role that politics played from the mid-1930s to the onset of the war: forced retirements of undesirable employees, such as Jews; denunciation for those deemed insufficiently loyal to the new regime; favoritism for political advantage by hiring and promoting regional Nazi party leaders. In the final analysis, Hoechst leadership incrementally moved from compliance to complicity with the Nazi government. Whether firing capable scientists or embracing the use of forced labor, Lindner provides the names of those whose decisions promoted personal ambition and corporate well-being at the expense of moral degradation. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through faculty and research collections. J. Kleiman University of Wisconsin Colleges

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