Those producing a new weapon of war must always consider the possibilities possessed by their opponents to exploit the same weapon after the first shock. For the Germans the answer was obvious. The Allies would be held at a material disadvantage for months, if not years. Without the means of production available in Germany, we are not at all, convinced that the gas experiment would have been made, and had it not been made, and its formidable success revealed, Germany's hesitation to use this new weapon would probably have carried the day. This, at least, is the most generous point of view. In other words, the German poison gas experiment owed a large part of its initial momentum to ease of production by a monopoly. The combination of this factor with the willingness to use gas led to the great experiment. The future may again provide this combination, unless the monopoly is removed.
Following up this line of thought, we can see how tempting was the German course of action. Falkenhayn has told us what a violent strain was imposed upon Germany by the stabilisation of the Western Front early in 1915. The tension between the Great General Headquarters and the Home Government was already in evidence, and would have caused difficulty in attaining suitable home and liaison organisations, in particular with regard to supply. We can well understand this when we remember the drastic changes which occurred in our own ministries and departments. But what organisation was required for chemical warfare supply? Very little! Quoting from the report of the Hartley Mission to the chemical factories in the occupied zone, we know that when the Government wished to produce a new gas "a conference with the various firms was held at Berlin to determine how manufacture should be subdivided in order to use the existing plant to the best advantage." The firms referred to were the constituent members of the highly organised I.G. There was no need to create a clumsy and complicated organisation with an efficient one existing in the I.G. ready to meet the Government demands. The path could not have been smoother. Ludendorff states in his memoirs that the Hindenburg programme made a special feature of gas production. Increased supply of explosives was also provided for. He says: "We aimed at approximately doubling the previous production." And again: "Gas production, too, had to keep pace with the increased output of ammunition. The discharge of gas from cylinders was used less and less. The use of gas shells increased correspondingly." This programme represented a determined effort to speed up munitions production in the autumn of 1916. It included not only gas but explosives, both of which could be supplied by the I.G. Explosives demanded oleum, nitric acid, and nitrating plants, which already existed, standardised, in the factories of the dye combine. The unusual speed with which standard dye-producing plant was converted for the production of explosives is instanced in the operation of a T.N.T. plant at Leverkusen, producing 250 tons per month. The conversion only took six weeks. The factories of the I.G. supplied a considerable proportion of the high explosives used by Germany.
In the field of chemical warfare the relationship between war and peace production was even more intimate. Chemical warfare products are closely allied and in some cases almost identical with the finished organic chemicals and intermediates produced by the dye industry. Therefore, in most cases, even when the suggestion of the new chemical may come from a research organisation entirely apart from the dye research laboratories, the products fall automatically into the class handled by the dye industry.
Is there any doubt that the I.G. was a terribly effective arsenal for the mass production of the older war chemicals, explosives, and the newer types, poison gases? Is there even a shadow of exaggeration in our claims? There may be those who would see a speedy resumption of friendship with Germany at all costs, regardless of the honourable settling of her debts, regardless of her disarmament and due reparation for wrongs committed. Can even such concoct material to whitewash the military front of the I.G.? If they would, they must explain away these facts.
The plants of the I.G. produced more than two thousand tons of explosives per week, at their average pre-war rate. This is an enormous quantity. How can we best visualise it? In view of the chapters on Disarmament which follow, we will use the following comparison. The Treaty of Versailles allows Germany to hold a stock of about half a million shell of different stated calibres. How much explosive will these shell require? They could be filled by less than two days' explosives production of the I.G. at its average war rate. Between two and three million shell could be filled by the result of a week's production in this organisation. Further, the average rate of poison gas production within the I.G. was at least three thousand tons per month, sufficient to fill more than two million shell of Treaty calibres. Unless drastic action has been taken, the bulk of this capacity will remain, and Germany will be able to produce enough poison gas in a week to fill the Treaty stock of shell; this in a country where the manufacture and use of such substances are specially prohibited.
It is appropriate at this stage to describe as briefly as possible the origin and composition of this great German combination, the Interessen Gemeinschaft, known as the I.G. There is no need to go into the gradual self-neglect, and the eventual rooting out by Germany, of the dye-producing industry in other countries, notably England, France, and America.
The Interessen Gemeinschaft.—By the end of the nineteenth century the manufacture of dyes on a large scale was concentrated almost exclusively in six great firms. These were the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik, Ludwigshafen on the Rhine, known as the Badische; the Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr. Bayer, & Co., in Leverkusen, known as Bayer; Aktien-Gesellschaft fur Anilin-Fabrikation in Berlin; Farbwerke vorm. Meister Lucius & Bruning in Hochst am Main, referred to as Hochst; Leopold Cassella G.m.b.H. in Frankfort; and Kalle & Co., Aktien-Gesellschaft in Biebrich.
Each of these six great companies had attained enormous proportions long before the war. Only two other concerns had carried on manufacture on a comparable scale. These were the Chemische Fabrik Greisheim-Elektron of Frankfort A.M., a company which has absorbed a number of smaller manufacturers, and the Chemische Fabriken vormals Weiler-ter Meer, Uerdingen.
The position of all these establishments, with one single exception, along the Rhine and its tributaries is well known. Their growth has been illustrated in their own prospectuses. Hochst was organised in 1863 and started with five workmen. In 1912 it employed 7680 workmen, 374 foremen, 307 academically trained chemists, and 74 highly qualified engineers. The works of the Badische, which was organised in 1865, covered, in 1914, 500 acres, with a water front of a mile and half on the Rhine. There were 100 acres of buildings, 11,000 workmen, and the company was capitalised at fifty-four million marks. The establishment of Bayer was on a scale entirely comparable. Quoting from an official American report,[1] "Griesheim Elektron, prior to the war, had enormous works chiefly devoted to the manufacture of electrolytic chemicals and became an important factor in the dyestuff business only within recent years, when by absorption of the Oehler Works and the Chemikalien Werke Griesheim, its colour production reached a scale approaching that of the larger houses." This move on the part of the Griesheim Elektron is interesting as an example of the general tendency which has characterised the development of the German dye industry. This firm, producing inorganic materials and intermediates, absorbed the Oehler Works in order to find an independent outlet for its intermediate products, thus becoming directly interested in dyestuffs production. This move towards independence in the whole range of products involved is referred to elsewhere, owing to the manner in which it simplified German production for chemical warfare.
Combination, however, did not cease in the creation of these enormous establishments. The cartel fever raged here as in other German industries. By 1904 two immense combinations had been formed in the dyestuff industry. One of these comprised Bayer, Badische, and Berlin; the other Hochst, Cassella, and Kalle. "By pooling profits, by so arranging capitalisation that each company held stock in the other companies of its own cartel, and by other familiar means, the risks incident to the enormous expansion of the business and the immense increases of export trade were minimised. The centripetal tendency, however, did not stop here. In 1916, the two pre-existing cartels were combined with Griesheim Elektron, Weilerter Meer, and various smaller companies in one gigantic cartel, representing a nationalisation of the entire German dye and pharmaceutical industry." The combination was extremely close. Profits of the companies were pooled, and after being ascertained each year on common principles were divided according to agreed percentages. Each factory maintained an independent administration, but they kept each other informed as to processes and experiences. "There was also an agreement that in order to circumvent tariff obstacles in other countries materials were to he produced outside of Germany by common action and at common expense whenever and wherever desirable.