The chemical industry in Germany is one of the most well-established in the world, and a world leader; a quarter of the chemicals made in the EU, are made in Germany.
Currently the German industry, turning over 160 billion euros[1] is the European leader, and the third-biggest in the world. It is Germany's third-largest industry, after Germany's much-renowned automotive industry, and its mechanical engineering industry. The largest German chemical company is BASF, turning over 59 billion euros in 2020, with around 110,000 workers.
History
Before World War II, the German chemical industry was the European leader.
After World War II, the industry was not making any amount of organic chemicals, but by the mid-1950s, the West German industry was making around a third of the output of organic chemicals as the UK.
Wesseling plant in September 2016
BASF was refounded from 1952 to 1953, largely under Bernhard Timm.
The first petrochemical plant in West Germany opened in Wesseling on September 29 1955. In a joint-arrangement between BASF, and the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, who supplied the oil. The plant would make 6,000 tons of polyethylene a year, to be raised to 10,000 tons. It was the British ICI process of making polyethylene, made by BASF under licence. All chemical production in Germany, before this plant, was from synthetic types of oil, made from coke.[2] The site today is run by LyondellBasell.
in 1872 Eugen Baumann discovered PVC, although it would not be until Waldo Semon developed methods in the US in the late 1920s could PVC be largely made
in 1899 Hans von Pechmann added diazomethane to ether, and noted the formation of polymethylene, a type of polyethylene, identified in 1900 by Eugen Bamberger and Friedrich Tschirner, but had not realised that it has any commercial significance; ICI in Cheshire in England will, in 1933
in March 1954, Karl Rehn, at Hoechst, made polypropylene with a Ziegler catalyst, but did not apply for a patent
in June 1954 Karl Ziegler, with Heinz Martin, made polypropylene with a Ziegler catalyst, allowing Hoechst to commercially manufacture polypropylene from 1958; polypropylene is the world's second-most produced synthetic polymer, after polyethylene
Anorgana GmbH at Gendorf, in Bavaria, was the first development site of magnetic tape production, although it was quite primitive at first.[4]Friedrich Matthias, at BASF, led the chemical development. The choice of chemical film came from John Eggert, a former Professor of Photochemistry at the University of Berlin, at Agfa Wolfen (now ORWO) at Wolfen, Germany, later part of East Germany. From 1936, Magnetite, Fe3O4, was the type recording compound.
After the war, magnetic recorders were manufactured in Wedel in north Germany, in Schleswig-Holstein, from around 1948. Germany was divided into four zones of occupation, which restricted trade across these zones of occupation.
Gamma ferric oxide (Iron(III) oxide) was the recording compound from 1939, from a 1935 BASF patent. All magnetic recording would be with this type of compound until around 1971.
The magnetic technology made its way across the Atlantic, where Semi Joseph Begun, a native German and the husband of the German NASA engineer Ruth Begun, had conducted elementary research from August 1943. He worked with the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio.
The chemical industry consumes around 8% of Germany's energy, with 15% of Germany's natural gas, and 10% of Germany's electricity.
Chemical plants
Gendorf in July 2024Nünchritz in May 2023Böhlen in April 2008Schwarzheide in April 2024Chempark Dormagen in April 2020BP Gelsenkirchen at Scholven in July 2025
Dormagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, west of Germany, towards the Netherlands, Chempark, started as a joint venture of BP in 1957, bought by BP in 2001, and by INEOS in 2005
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