IG Farben

IG Farben (short for Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG) (and also called I.G. Farbenfabriken) was a German conglomerate of companies formed in 1925 and even earlier during World War I. Farben is German for "paints", "dyes", or "colors", and initially many of these companies produced dyes, but soon began to embrace more and more advanced chemistry. The founding of the IG Farben was a reaction to Germany's defeat in the First World War. IG Farben held a near total monopoly on the chemical production, later during the time of Nazi Germany. It is the German chemical firm that was the financial core of the Hitler regime, and was the main supplier of Zyklon-B to the German government during the extermination phase of the Holocaust. Before the war the dyestuff companies had a near monopoly in the world market which they lost during the conflict. One solution for regaining this position was a large merger.

Mentions in Fiction

• I.G. Farben plays a major part in Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow.
• I.G. Farben is a character played by Dennis Hopper in the film Straight to Hell (1987).
• I.G. Farben is mentioned in Alfred Hitchcock's film Notorious.
• I.G. Farben is mentioned and vilified in L Ron Hubbard's "Mission Earth" decalogy, mainly for the supply of amphetamines.
• I.G. Farben and its future fictional products are often mentioned in Philip K. Dick's novel The Man in the High Castle.