Carl Krauch (7 April 1887 – 3 February 1968) was a German chemist, industrialist andNaziwar criminal. He was an executive atBASF (laterIG Farben); during World War II, he was chairman of the supervisory board. He was a key implementer of the Reich's Four-Year Plan to achieve national economic self-sufficiency and promote industrial production. He was Plenipotentiary of Special Issues in Chemical Production, a senator of theKaiser Wilhelm Society, and an honorary professor at theUniversity of Berlin. He was convicted in theIG Farben trial after World War II and sentenced to six years in prison.
From 1906 to 1912, Krauch studied at theUniversity of Giessen and theRuprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. From 1911 to 1912, he was an unpaid teaching assistant to R. Stallé at Heidelberg. He received his doctorate in 1912 underTheodor Curtius at Heidelberg.[1]
From 1912, Krauch was employed atBASF, laterI.G. Farbenindustrie AG. He was a longstanding member of the board and general committee, and chairman of the supervisory board, 1940 to 1945, succeedingCarl Bosch as chairman. From 1936, Krauch was head of the Research and Development Department of theAmt für Deutsche Roh- und Werkstoffe. From 1939, he was head of the renamedReichsamtes für Wirtschaftsausbau (Reich Office for Economic Expansion), established in 1936 as part of theFour-Year Plan to achieve national economic self-sufficiency and promote industrial production especially for rearmament. TheAmt für Deutsche Roh- und Werkstoffe was nicknamed theAmt für IG-Farben Ausbau ("Office for the Expansion of IG Farben"), due to his dual head positions.[1][2][3]
From 1938 to 1945, Krauch wasPlenipotentiary of Special Issues in Chemical Production and a member of the board of theReichsforschungsrat (RFR, Reich Research Council). Additionally, he was an honorary professor at theFriedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (later, theHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin). Krauch was also a member of the Senate of theKaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft (KWG, Kaiser Wilhelm Society).[1][4]
Krauch was a member of theNationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist Workers Party) from 1937.
He was a defendant in the post warIG Farben Trial, found guilty of the indictment of "War crimes andcrimes against humanity through participation in the enslavement and deportation to slave labor on a gigantic scale ofconcentration camp inmates and civilians in occupied countries, and of prisoners of war, and the mistreatment, terrorization, torture, and murder of enslaved persons." and given a six-year prison sentence.[1][5] He was released in 1950. After that, he became a member of the supervisory board of the Bunawerke Hüls GmbH. In theFrankfurt Auschwitz Trials, as a witness on 19 February 1965, he denied all knowledge of the events inMonowitz, part of the Auschwitz complex and designed to producesynthetic fuel andbutadiene rubber. Carl Krauch died on 3 February 1968.[6]
| Predecessors | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Successors | |||||||||||
| Products | |||||||||||
| People |
| ||||||||||
| Other | |||||||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
