Hoechst AG () was a German
chemicals then life-sciences company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's
Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999. With the new company's 2004 merger with
Sanofi-Synthélabo, it became a subsidiary of the resulting
Sanofi-Aventis pharmaceuticals group.
History
The company was founded in 1863 as "Teerfarbenfabrik Meister, Lucius & Co." in
Höchst, near
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 ...
and changed its name some years later to "Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius & Brüning". In 1880 it became a stock company "Farbwerke vorm. Meister Lucius & Brüning AG". For the international market the name was simplified to "Farbwerke Hoechst AG". Until 1925 the Hoechst AG was independent. In 1916, the Hoechst AG was one of the co-founders 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, ...
, an advocacy group of Germany's chemicals industry to gain industrial power during and after World War I. In 1925, IG Farben turned from an advocacy group into the well-known conglomerate.
World War II
Various Hoechst facilities were bombed during the
Oil Campaign of World War II. Its managers in charge were prosecuted along with other IG Farben managers—during the
Nuremberg trials—in the
IG Farben trial for their role in the exploitation of enslaved laborers and for testing drugs on
concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...
prisoners.
Postwar timeline
1951 - Hoechst AG was re-founded on December 7 in Frankfurt when IG Farben was split into its founder companies. The original capitalization of the company was 100,000
Deutsche Mark
The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...
. By 1953 Hoechst had acquired parts of Knapsack-Griesheim, Kalle AG, Behring Werke,
Wacker Chemie and Ruhr Chemie, among others.
1957 - Signed a technical cooperation contract with Handok Pharmaceuticals In South Korea
1964 - Handok Pharmaceuticals Joint Venture Partner In South Korea
1969 - Hoechst acquired
Cassella.
1970 - Hoechst AG took over
Berger, Jenson and Nicholson Ltd.
1987 - Hoechst acquired the American chemical company
Celanese and formed a new Hoechst subsidiary in the US, Hoechst Celanese.
1988 - Hoechst AG sold
Berger, Jenson and Nicholson Ltd to
Williams Holdings.
1995 - Hoechst merges with
Marion Merrell Dow of Kansas City, Missouri forming U.S. subsidiary Hoechst Marion Roussel (HMR).
1997 - Hoechst underwent a realignment wherein its various businesses were transferred to independent companies, including
Nutrinova and
Clariant.
[Anna Bálint: ''Clariant clareant. The beginnings of a specialty chemicals company'', Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main/New York 2012, .]
1999 (December 7) - Hoechst and Rhône-Poulenc settle Federal Trade Commission charges that merger would violate U.S. antitrust laws;
1999 - Aventis was formed when Hoechst AG merged with
Rhône-Poulenc S.A. The merged company was headquartered in
Strasbourg
Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin
Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-re ...
, Eastern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
. As part of the merger, the company demerged many of its industrial businesses into Celanese, which became an independent company again (e.g. the engineering polymers business
Ticona).
2005 - The company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis (now called
Sanofi).
Key figures
Wilhelm Meister (1827–1895) founded the chemical company Teerfarbenfabrik Meister, Lucius & Co. which eventually became Hoechst AG. He was the great-grandfather of
William von Meister
William F. von Meister (February 21, 1942 – May 18, 1995) was an American entrepreneur who founded and participated in a number of startup ventures in the Washington, D.C., area. These included The Source, an early online service and CompuServe ...
, one of the founders of
Control Video Corporation which later became
America Online. Pascal Soriot (the now-chief executive of AstraZeneca) held positions with the organisation from 1989 up until 2006 through Aventis.
References
;Notes
* https://web.archive.org/web/20051028022652/http://www.celanese.com/index/about_index/company-profile/company-profile-history.htm. Retrieved July 24, 2005.
* https://web.archive.org/web/20050620220227/http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104 Retrieved July 24, 2005.
Stephan H. Lindner. Inside IG Farben: Hoechst During the Third Reich. New York: Cambridge University Press.
"Faith Healers: The born-again Gregory brothers worked a financial miracle from cast-off drug brands." Forbes. Zina Moukheiber. October 28, 2002.
External links
Archive site
Sanofi Aventis siteAventis Foundation*
{{Authority control
Pharmaceutical companies disestablished in 1999
Chemical companies of Germany
Defunct companies of Germany
Manufacturing companies based in Frankfurt
IG Farben
Sanofi
German companies established in 1863
German companies disestablished in 1999