Chapter Five - Science for the Führer

CHAPTER FIVE

Science for the Führer

WHEN ADOLF HITLER came to power in 1933, IG Farben saw opportunity.

The new regime wanted to rebuild Germany’s military. It needed fuel, rubber, explosives, and synthetic alternatives to everything the country couldn’t import. IG Farben delivered. It became one of the Nazi regime’s most important industrial partners. Supplying raw materials, chemicals, and support.

The company didn’t just follow orders. It offered ideas.

IG Farben developed synthetic gasoline from coal, freeing Germany from reliance on foreign oil. It produced Buna rubber, a critical component for tires, tanks, and boots. And it ramped up pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical production to keep the country moving.

The money poured in.

By the late 1930s, IG Farben was Germany’s largest company and the fourth-largest in the world. Its executives were welcomed by Nazi leadership. Its boardroom was filled with men who either supported the regime or saw no reason to resist it.

Bayer, now just one part of the larger IG Farben machine, was deeply involved. Its scientists continued drug development. Its factories kept producing. And its leadership remained fully integrated into the company’s wartime expansion.

But it wasn’t just materials.

IG Farben also funded eugenics research. It supported medical experiments designed to prove racial superiority. Some of its scientists worked directly with SS officials. The line between science and ideology disappeared. Chemistry became a tool for policy. For purity. For war.

This was science with a purpose. Not to heal, but to dominate.

And Bayer, once a maker of dyes and medicine, was now part of a system designing the future of a fascist empire.