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SECTION 1: DIVISIONAL CONTROL
Asset Capture and Divisional Control
Occupation and seizure of property
THE POLITICAL PROCESS surrounding the dissolution of IG Farben began with the end of World War II or, more accurately, immediately after the end of the war in Europe, which was part of the war. The war in Europe ended with Germany signing an unconditional agreement. surrfinisher, either on May 7, 1945 in Reims or on May 8 in Berlin. At that time, IG Farben’s activities as a single, unified company virtually came to a halt. Even before that time, the U. S. military was able to prevent the U. S. military from the United States. The U. S. government had occupied I. G. Farben settled one after another in Germany and Europe and seized their properties. The price of IG Farben’s assets seized on German territory amounted to approximately one billion marks, without fully taking into account the estimated price of the patents and trademarks. The total price of IG Farben’s assets The assets on German territory, according to the balance sheets at the end of 1944, amounted to 1,947 million marks, not counting the equity stake of other companies.
As Figure 8. 1 shows, the majority of IG Farben’s 57. 9% of assets on German territory were in the Soviet zone when Germany was divided into the four occupying powers (the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union). The remaining 42. 1%, or about one billion marks, in the professional zones of Western powers. The breakdown of the latter figure shows 18. 3% of the assets at BASF’s former headquarters in Ludwigshafen, 8. 5% at the former Bayer Leverkusen headquarters, 6. 8% at the former headquarters in Hoechst instead of the same call and 8. 5% of the assets elsewhere.
In the western industrial zone, the former BASF factory in Ludwigshafen, near Mannheim, was occupied by American forces at the end of March 1945 and placed under the direction of the American military government. Bayer’s former factory in Leverkusen, near Cologne, was also occupied by the US. forces in April, but placed under the control of the British Army in June. The activity of the Hoechst factory in Frankfurt am Main also began at the end of March through the US army. Very rare among IG Farben’s main factories, the Hoechst factory has been expanded again almost intact, never having been the target of Allied strategic bombing.