Carl Duisberg

During World War I, the German army faced a great threat from an ammunition shortage. Indeed, the nitrates that were crucial for the production of gunpowder could not be imported any more because of the blockade by the British Navy. As a result, the German chemical firms (BASF and Bayer among others) were pushed to successfully synthesise nitrates. However, because of the war, shortage in manpower arose, and Duisberg advised Max Bauer on a new solution. In November 1916, Duisberg advised the Kaiser's troops to begin deporting 60 000 people from occupied Belgium; they were put in trains for transport to German mines and factories. Complaints from influential neutral countries, especially the United States, put an end to it. Also, in 1916, General Wilhelm Groener was appointed by General Ludendorff to reduce inflation. He proposed that increases in costs could be absorbed by the chemical community. When Duisberg heard the proposition, he successfully influenced the German government for Groener's removal.

In the 1920s, the dye industry leaders, led by Carl Duisberg of Bayer and Carl Bosch of BASF, successfully pushed for the merger of the dye makers into a single company. In 1925, the companies merged into the Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG or IG Farben. The huge corporation, which soon included related industries such as explosives and fibers, was the biggest enterprise in all of Europe and the fourth largest in the world, behind General Motors, United States Steel and Standard Oil of New Jersey.

Duisberg forced the use of chemical weapons during World War I.

One of Duisberg's major achievements was to move Bayer into pharmaceuticals. He supported Gerhard Domagk's successful efforts to discover the first broadly effective antibiotic, Prontosil.