High-tonnage chemistry is one of Germany's most important industrial sectors. Entrepreneurial risk-taking and great scientific and engineering achievement, on the one hand, and unscrupulousness coupled with political miscalculation, on the other, have characterized the developmet of this industry from its beginnings in the mid-19th century down to the present. Competently written and outstandingly readable, this book contains abundant data and facts on people and companies that have taken part in the development of high-tonnage chemistry into one of Germany's mightiest industries. Not only chemists and historians of science, but also journalists, politicians and anyone else interested in recent German history will read this book with profit. A detailed appendix containing many tables and illustrations, as well as a number of indexes, round off the work.