Carl Wurster (1900–1974)
Carl Wurster, born in Stuttgart on December 2, 1900, was the son of a police inspector, Stadtpolizeirat Carl Wurster, and his wife, Clara (née Sippel). After attending school in Stuttgart, he volunteered for military service in World War I. After the war ended, he studied chemistry in Stuttgart and in 1919, as a member of the paramilitary police force known as the Einwohnerwehr, was a committed opponent of the communists. In 1921, he graduated with honors, and two years later he received his doctorate in engineering at the Institute for Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Technology. In 1924, he joined the science lab at BASF, where he became one of Carl Bosch’s closest associates. In 1926, he was promoted to head of the inorganic lab and the pilot operations at the Ludwigshafen plant of I.G. Farben. The same year, he married Margareta Bergmann, with whom he had two daughters.
In 1930, Carl Wurster became head of inorganic operations. In 1933, he assumed the chairmanship of the Inorganic Production Committee, and one year later he was made an authorized signatory in the Inorganic Department. He was promoted to director in 1936, and during the same year he worked in Carl Krauch’s Office for German Raw Materials (Amt für deutsche Roh- und Werkstoffe). In 1938, he became a full member of the managing board and head of the Upper Rhine Business Group of I.G. Farben. In 1939, after the Wehrmacht’s invasion of Poland, he inspected chemical facilities there, to verify which of the Polish chemical plants of I.G. Farben could be assimilated in order to boost wartime production. From 1941 on, he worked more closely with Carl Krauch and was named a “military economy leader” (Wehrwirtschaftsführer) and a member of the Military Economy Council of the Reich Economic Chamber. In 1943, he was awarded the War Merit Cross 1st Class.
After 1945, Carl Wurster remained plant manager with the approval of the occupying powers, until he was arrested in 1947 and charged in the I.G. Farben Trial in Nuremberg
(SP; transl. KL)