Hans Kühne (3 June 1880 – 18 February 1969) was a German chemist on the board of

IG Farben Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (), commonly known as IG Farben (German for 'IG Dyestuffs'), was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies—BASF, ...

and a defendant during the

IG Farben Trial ''The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al.'', also known as the IG Farben Trial, was the sixth of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany (Nuremberg) after the end of World War ...

Early years

The son of Julius and Elisabeth Kühne, Hans Kühne enrolled in the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

to study

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

in 1903, graduating in 1906.Hans Kühne (1880–1969)
/ref> He took a job with ''Chemische Fabrik Marienhütte'' after university but changed employer several times in the following years, as well as serving in the

German Imperial Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the l ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for a spell in 1915 as part of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. In 1916 he took on a position with

Bayer Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...

where he flourished, developing a process for the production of

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...

and being awarded his doctorate by the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

. He was appointed an alternate member of the Bayer board in 1923, a post he held until 1926 when he left to take on full membership of the board at IG Farben.

IG Farben

Kühne first came to attention within IG Farben in the late 1920s when he called for a change in the company structure. He suggested that the company's major product lines should all be centralised at

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and that for each line a commercial executive should be appointed to work closely with a product manager in order to help secure a greater share of the world market for the company. He also argued for a restructuring at boardroom level, calling for a reduction in the number of senior executives and for those in charge to have greater power. Throughout the late 1920s and the early 1930s Kühne's suggestions were taken on board and held determine a new structure for IG Farben's business practices.

Serving Nazi regime

Kühne was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazi regime from the moment it took office. As manager of IG Farben's Leverkusen plant, he immediately took up the suggestion that the traditional May Day holiday should instead be celebrated as a new Nazi holiday for industrial excellence. He equally encouraged involvement in other unusual government initiatives, such as regular air raid drills that were brought in 1933 despite Germany not being at war with anyone. He promptly joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

after being sponsored by Robert Ley although in 1934 he was summarily expelled from the party for his involvement in

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

.Jeffreys, p. 152 Kühne would later gain promotion to the post of chief of production for organic and inorganic chemicals at IG Farben and immediately following the signing of the

Munich Agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, Germany, the United Kingdom, French Third Republic, France, and Fa ...

he was one of a number of executives appointed to oversee expansion in the

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

. In this post he played a central role in the rapid remilitarisation of Germany.

Post-war

On 4 May 1947 Kühne, as a member of the managing board of IG Farben, was one of 24 company executives indicted by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

for their role in rearming Germany and their use of slave labour.Jeffreys, pp. 316-317 He was however acquitted the following year and soon secured a role with the Bayer pharmaceutical research facility in Elberfeld. In an interview after the war Kühne insisted that he had only ever supported the Nazis because he hoped that their policies would lead to job creation.

Personal life

Kühne was married to Helene Bucerius and the couple had four children together.

Bibliography

*Diarmuid Jeffreys, ''Hell's Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine'', Bloomsbury, 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuhne, Hans 1880 births 1969 deaths Businesspeople from Saxony-Anhalt 20th-century German chemists IG Farben people German chemical industry people People indicted for war crimes Leipzig University alumni University of Cologne alumni Scientists from Magdeburg People acquitted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals German Army personnel of World War I