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Buna Werke Schkopau were a chemical company specialising in the production of polymer materials such as plastics and artificial rubber. The name BUNA is derived from the technology of polymerising butadiene with sodium (chemical symbol: Na) as a catalyst.
In order to make Germany independent from the importation of natural rubber, the first industrial plant for the production of artificial rubber was built in Schkopau near Halle (Saale) and named Buna-Werke GmbH Schkopau. It was a subsidiary of Ammoniakwerk Merseburg GmbH, later known as Leunawerke , which belonged to IG Farben. The foundation stone was laid in April 1936.
Production of artificial rubber started in 1937. Other products were PVC and basic chemicals such as trichlorethylene, formaldehyde, tetrahydrofuran, acetic acid, and acetone. Another factory, Hüls-Werke in Marl started production of Buna rubber in 1939.
During World War II, a branch of Buna-Werke was built near Auschwitz, which employed forced labourers and inmates of Monowitz concentration camp. The latter camp was built on the factory grounds. It never produced rubber during its wartime life, and both plants were bombed by the Americans to inhibit the supply of fuel to the Wehrmacht. Both plants also used large numbers of slave labourers for which several members of the IG Farben company were prosecuted at Nuremberg after the war.
Under Soviet administration after World War II, Buna Werke Schkopau were expropriated and – under the name Chemische Werke Buna – became part of Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaft (SAG) Kautschuk in order to cover reparation demands of the Soviet Union. They were transferred into a publicly owned corporation (VEB Chemische Werke Buna) within Kombinat Chemische Werke Buna. Its slogan Plaste und Elaste aus Schkopau referred to its main products, namely the rigid plastics (Plaste) and the elastic materials (synthetic rubbers, Elaste). With about 18000 employees, Buna Werke were one of the five largest industrial combines of the GDR. In order to provide sufficient accommodation for the workforce, new town quarters were built in Halle (Saale) and Merseburg. The new town of Halle-Neustadt was built specifically for the workers of the chemical plants in Schkopau and Leuna, and suburban railway lines provided transportation for commuters.
Buna Werke Schkopau became the world's largest producer of calcium carbide in 1958. Its outdated production plants caused severe environmental pollution.
After the political changes in the GDR in 1989, Buna Werke were initially administered by Treuhandanstalt (later Bundesanstalt für vereinigungsbedingte Sonderaufgaben (BVS), a privatisation agency. In 1992, the works employed only 7200 people. In 1995, Dow Chemical took over large parts of the facilities, but only few employees. The outdated production facilities were demolished and the land rehabilitated for use. Rehabilitation expenses of BVS were estimated to be 809 million Deutsche Mark in 1999 alone. [1]
Since 2004, the chemical works in Schkopau belong to Dow Olefinverbund GmbH, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company, its production of plastics and basic chemicals is now petroleum based and uses modern technologies. [2]
In 2021, Synthetic Rubber production plant was purchased by Polish chemical company Synthos.
I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies—BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, Agfa, Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron, and Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler Ter Meer—it was seized by the Allies after World War II and divided back into its constituent companies.
BASF SE, an initialism and portmanteau of its original name Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik, is a European multinational company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is a synthetic, semicrystalline organic polymer resin, with the linear formula (CH2CHCN)n. Almost all PAN resins are copolymers with acrylonitrile as the main monomer. PAN is used to produce large variety of products including ultra filtration membranes, hollow fibers for reverse osmosis, fibers for textiles, and oxidized PAN fibers. PAN fibers are the chemical precursor of very high-quality carbon fiber. PAN is first thermally oxidized in air at 230 °C to form an oxidized PAN fiber and then carbonized above 1000 °C in inert atmosphere to make carbon fibers found in a variety of both high-tech and common daily applications such as civil and military aircraft primary and secondary structures, missiles, solid propellant rocket motors, pressure vessels, fishing rods, tennis rackets and bicycle frames. It is a component repeat unit in several important copolymers, such as styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic.
Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität in Berlin.
The Publicly Owned Enterprise was the main legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany. These state-owned enterprise were all publicly owned and were formed after mass nationalisation between 1945 and the early 1960s, and the handing back in 1954 of some 33 enterprises previously taken by the Soviet Union as reparations.
Buna may refer to:
Monowitz was a Nazi concentration camp and labor camp (Arbeitslager) run by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1942–1945, during World War II and the Holocaust. For most of its existence, Monowitz was a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp; from November 1943 it and other Nazi subcamps in the area were jointly known as "Auschwitz III-subcamps". In November 1944 the Germans renamed it Monowitz concentration camp, after the village of Monowice where it was built, in the annexed portion of Poland. SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) Heinrich Schwarz was commandant from November 1943 to January 1945.
Schkopau is a municipality in the Saalekreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
The Geisel valley is a valley in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, situated west of Merseburg, Saalekreis district. It is named after the River Geisel which rises in Mücheln and is a tributary of the Saale, just under 25 km (16 mi) long.
Halle-Neustadt, popularly known as HaNeu, was a city in the German Democratic Republic. It was established as a new town on 12 May 1967, as an independent and autonomous city. The population in 1972 was 51,600 and in 1981 was more than 93,000. On 6 May 1990, Halle-Neustadt merged back into Halle again. The population has halved since then and was about 45,157 inhabitants on 31 December 2010. Halle Neustadt has been praised for being "sustainable" as a result of its urban planning, which includes high density living, a tram line serving the central corridor and the regional suburban rail system (S-Bahn).
The Halle–Bebra railway, known in German as the Thüringer Bahn, is a 210 kilometre-long railway line from Halle (Saale) via Erfurt and Gerstungen to Bebra, mainly in Thuringia. As far as Gerstungen the line originally belonged to the Thuringian Railway Company. From Gerstungen to Bebra, it was owned by the Frederick William Northern Railway (Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn), named after the Prussian king, Frederick William IV. It is now a two-track, electrified, standard gauge mainline operated by DB Netze. It was opened between 1846 and 1849 and was the first railway line in Thuringia. All types of trains from Regionalbahn to ICE currently run on the line except Interregio-Express. Four of the six largest cities in Thuringia are located on the line.
The Middle German Chemical Triangle is the industrial conurbation around the cities and towns of Halle (Saale), Merseburg and Bitterfeld in the North German state of Saxony-Anhalt and Leipzig and Schkeuditz in the Free State of Saxony. Its name is derived from the dominant industries of the region – the chemical and oil refining industries.
Otto Ambros was a German chemist and Nazi war criminal. He is known for his wartime work on synthetic rubber and nerve agents. After the war he was tried at Nuremberg and convicted of crimes against humanity for his use of slave labor from the Auschwitz III–Monowitz concentration camp.
Heinrich Bütefisch was a German chemist, manager at IG Farben, and Nazi war criminal. He was an Obersturmbannführer in the SS.
Christian Schneider was a German chemist, industrial manager and, in the Third Reich, a Wehrwirtschaftsführer.
Technical University Leuna-Merseburg was an institution of tertiary education in the city of Merseburg in today's Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded on 1 September 1954 as Technische Hochschule für Chemie Leuna-Merseburg (THC) and closed on 31 March 1993. Hochschule Merseburg was founded on the grounds of THLM in 1992.
The Leuna works in Leuna, Saxony-Anhalt, is one of the biggest chemical industrial complexes in Germany. The site, now owned jointly by companies such as Total S.A., BASF, Linde AG, and DOMO Group, covers 13 km2 and produces a very wide range of chemicals and plastics.
Merseburg Hauptbahnhof is the main station of the town of Merseburg in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is located on the Halle–Bebra railway and Deutsche Bahn assigns it to category 4. Merseburg is located in the tariff area of the Mitteldeutscher Verkehrsverbund.
The Merseburg–Halle-Nietleben railway is an about 19 kilometre-long electrified branch line in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. A second track exists between Merseburg and Merseburg-Elisabethhöhe and between Halle-Zscherbener Straße and Halle-Nietleben. Part of the current route was built in 1967 with a significant realignment of the Zwiebelbahn on the (Merseburg–) Bad Lauchstädt–Angersdorf route.
Marl Chemical Park is an industrial park in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the third largest industrial cluster in Germany and among the largest chemical production facilities in Europe. The site occupies over 6 square kilometers, hosts 100 chemical plants, employs 10,000 people, and produces 4 million metric tons of chemicals annually. 18 companies are based in the Park, including primary tenant Evonik Industries AG, which also owns and operates the infrastructure through its subsidiary Infracor GmbH.
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