Hüls A.G.

Hüls A.G.

Paüul Baumean-Strasse 1
Postfach 1320
D-4370 Marl 1
Federal Republic of Germany
(02365) 49-1

Subsidiary of Veba A. G.
Incorporated: 1953
Employees: 14,711
Sales: DM 6.544 billion (US$ 3.369 billion)

Hüls was founded in 1938, but it really should celebrate the year 1888. That was when tires were invented, and without tires and the consequent demand for rubber, there would have been no synthetic rubber. Without synthetic rubber, there would have been no Hüls. The first patent for synthesising rubber was filed in 1909, but the process was too expensive for commercial exploitation. After the automobile increased the need for tires, experiments began in earnest again. Based on the work of the Nobel prize-winners Carl Bosch, Fritz Haber, and Friedrich Bergius, Buna was created. First made in 1926, Buna was an economical synthetic rubber, based on coal and using sodium as a catalyst.

In the fall of 1935, the first experimental plant for the production of Buna was built by I.G. Farbenindustrie. A year later, the German Government issued its second Four Year Plan, in which the importance of Buna production to the country’s strength was stressed. On 9 May 1938 Chemische Werke Hüls GmbH was founded specifically for the production of Buna, with a capital stock of 30 million marks. I.G. Farbenindustrie owned 74% and Bergwerksgesellschaft Hibernia A.G. owned 26% of the new company. The first managing directors were Otto Ambros and Friedrich Brüning, and on the board were Dr. Fritz ter Meer and Wilhelm Tengenmann. All four men were representatives of the shareholding companies.

Construction of new factories was difficult during wartime, yet labor was obtained because the Nazis urgently needed Buna. The factory was built very quickly and, in August 1940 production began. The annual capacity for production was 18,000 tons of Buna. The capital stock was immediately increased to 80 million marks. The company also produced chlorine, antifreeze, and other chemicals. In 1941 the production of Buna was increased to 40,000 tons annually. From this time, the chemists at Hüls began to work on the production of solvents, softening agents, and resins. Production was increased to 50,000 tons in 1942 and capital was raised to 120 million.

It was not until 1943 that the war began to affect Hüls negatively. The company had great difficulty in obtaining raw materials and surviving bomb attacks. The worst was a heavy daylight air raid on 11 June 1943, when 1,560 bombs were dropped on Hüls factories. The works were devastated, 186 people were killed, and 752 were wounded. Production stopped for three months. In spite of more heavy bombing of the hydrogenation plants to stop the supply of raw materials, by 1944 the Hüls works reached maximum production capacity again, though they were still a main target of the bomb attacks. On 29 March 1945 a special unit of the German Army appeared with orders to blow up all of Hüls. It was Hitler’s command that “the enemy should find nothing.” The unit was persuaded to disobey these orders by Dr. Paul Baumann. Two days later, American troops marched into the factories.

Paul Baumann was one of the chemists who had worked on the development of Buna. He fought in World War I, then studied in Heidelberg with the Nobel prize-winner Philipp Lenard. Baumann received his doctorate in 1923, and first worked for I.G. Farbenindustrie, spending time at their offices in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At Hüls he was quickly promoted to production manager. In 1945, when the British troops replaced those of the Americans, Baumann was made manager of works, then chairman of the board.

In 1945 the British, who were paying high prices for natural rubber at home, allowed the resumption of the production of Buna. At their orders, the company’s name changed to Chemische Werke Hüls. The Potsdam agreement then forbad the production of Buna in Germany, and in order to survive the company had to change its products immediately. As the country was short of everything after the war, Hüls had no problem coming up with new products, but there were other problems, chiefly with the customers. Hüls sold a preparation that was meant to be used against scabies. When it was discovered that this was being used to make illegal liquor, the product had to be withdrawn. A lice-killer also had to be withdrawn when it was learned that people were using it as a substitute for petrol. The list of other products Hüls was permitted to make in 1945 included softening agents, artificial resins, detergents, gasses, colorings, antifreeze, and pharmaceuticals. Its mains product, after the erratically produced Buna, was acetic acid.

In November 1945 the entire company was taken over by the Allied authorities and put under a financial control office. The “de-Nazification” included the dismissal of Hans Gunther and Ulrich Hoffman. Other dismissals were planned but, as they would have meant the administrative collapse of the company, were not effected. The I.G. Farbenindustrie sales offices, Hiils’s main outlets, were closed by the Allies. Hüls then co-operated with other companies on sales, but as this was regarded as joint operations, it too was stopped. All production of Buna was formally stopped by the British in 1948, partly as English, French, and Dutch colonies were experiencing a natural rubber boom, but also because the production of synthetic rubber was seen as potentially useful in the rebuilding of a German military effort. Hüls was faced with large numbers of employees and not enough work for them. The company began to produce vinyl chloride, propylene oxide, emulsifiers, and the polyvinyl chloride called Vestolit, but even so in 1949, many employees were made redundant, and plant works capable of producing 900 tons had to be dismantled.

In 1948 Hüls rather cleverly created “produkt 1973,” a synthetic rubber made by the same process as that for Buna but with a few steps reversed. (It was also called “umgekehrte Buna,” literally “Backward Buna.”) This was to be used in linoleum. Both the forward and the backward Buna required butadien for production. In 1949 the Allied governments banned all butadien. Hüls protested, but, as it was one of the few companies to escape the total disbanding of its works by the allies, it restrained its protests. Generally, Hüls was better treated than other companies after the war, in part because of its ability to change its production to acceptable areas, and of the ability of Paul Baumann to get on so peaceably with the Allies. Additionally, Hüls was a major producer of fertilisers, which were considered vital to the agricultural economy.

In 1950, when the rest of the world dreaded that the Korean War might become World War III, Hüls was pleased to record a turnover increased by 50.4%. Colonial unrest cut off the supply of natural rubber to the Allies, and in 1951 the production of some 6,000 tons of Buna was permitted. This was on the condition that all coal export agreements were honoured first. The mines of Germany could not produce enough coal, so Hüls was forced to import coal from the United States. Not enjoying this arrangement, Hüls built its own small, temporary mine until the German mines could increase production.

The I.G. Farbenindustrie was disbanded by the Allies in Frankfurt in 1952. On 19 December 1953 Hüls was released from Allied control and converted to a joint stock company with a capital stock of DM 120 million. The following year, the company invested DM 85 million to expand plant production capacity. New products included Vestolen, a high-density polyethylene, and Vestopal, a polyester resin.

For some time, the production of Buna had ceased to be profitable, and the company had been working on ways to improve and modernise the antiquated production procedures. A new plant was proposed and a new company, Bunawerke Hüls GmbH, was formed in 1955. The shareholders were Hüls, with 50%, and its old partners from I.G. Farbenindustrie, in the guise of that company’s three successors. Dr. Baumann was the managing director. In a very short time, Bunawerke was the largest producer of synthetic rubber in Europe.

Hüls grew apace. It built Power Station II, the first coal power station to operate on supercritical steam. In 1956 Quimica Industrial Huels do Brasil Ltda. was formed in Brazil. Plants were either converted or constructed to produce latices and reinforcing agents, phthalic anhydride, and more acetylene. In 1961 the capital stock was increased to DM 120 million and Faserwerke Hüls GmbH was founded, with a capital of DM 33.6 million, to produce synthetic fibers.

In 1959, quarter of a century after Hüls had begun manufacturing heavy detergents, it was discovered that they were major polluters of the environment. A law was passed in 1961 requiring that all detergents be reduceable by 80% by the existing sewage plants. Three years later Hüls produced Marlon, a biodegradable surfactant. The whole episode was a minor setback in the phenomenal growth of Hüls, which continued to form new companies, introduce new chemicals, and establish new partnerships until, in 1971, its capital reached DM 310 million.

VEBA and Bayer had long been owners of equal amounts of Hüls stock. This led to squabbles. In 1978, VEBA bought out Bayer, increasing its shareholding of Hüls to 87.6%, and thus acquiring control. A reorganisation was arranged, transferring all of VEBA-Chemie A.G. (now VEBA Oel A.G.) to Hüls. Throughout the early 1980s, Hüls built plants all over Germany for a variety of functions, from sludge burning to the production of n-but 1-ene and powdered rubber. In 1985, The Chemische Werke Hüls changed its name to Hüls Aktiengesellschaft. In 1986, total sales were DM 6,544.5 million for the group; Hüls A.G. employed 14,711 people, down from the 1980 high of over 18,000, for whom it provided nearly 10,000 housing units. As the chemical arm of VEBA, the company has gained security and support and expects to continue to expand.

Principal Subsidiaries

Bunawerke Hüls GmbH (50%); Phenolchemie GmbH; GAF-Huls Chemie GmbH (50%); Verwallungsgesellschaft Hüls mbH; Buna France S.A.R.C. (50%); RUHR-STICKSTOFF AG; Katalysatorenwerke Hüls GmbH; Kunststoffwerk Hohn GmbH (99%); Faserwerk Bottrop GmbH (99%); Deutsche Hefewerke GmbH (98.3%); Gipswerk Embsen GmbH & Co. Baustoffproduktion KG (50%); Rohm GmbH Chemische Fabrik (43.3%); Salzgewinnungsgesellschaft Westfalen GmbH (25%); Westgas GmbH (50%); Gemeinnutziges, Wohnungsunternehmen CWH GmbH (98%); Vestischer Vermittlungsdienst für Versicherungen GmbH; Chemische Fariek SERVO B.V. The company also lists subsidiaries in the following countries: Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.