Overview
This theory begins with a documented reality: I.G. Farben was one of the largest and most powerful chemical combines in the world, with international interests, cartel arrangements, patent power, and strategic significance in fuels, rubber, dyes, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemistry. The theory then expands that reality into a geopolitical master claim: that the war was not merely something Farben served, but a structural reordering from which cartelized industrial powers expected lasting advantage.
Rather than treating nations as primary actors, the theory places corporate concentration at the center. Governments become the armed negotiators of a global industrial consolidation.
Why I.G. Farben Became a Magnet
I.G. Farben was unusually suited for conspiracy focus:
enormous scale
It was widely described as the world’s largest chemical cartel or concern.
international entanglement
Its prewar and wartime ties crossed borders, patents, and markets.
war-central products
Synthetic fuel, rubber, and chemical production were not peripheral to war—they were central.
documented crimes
Its use of slave labor and connections to Auschwitz created a morally extreme record that made broader systemic interpretations seem plausible.
The “Merger War” Idea
The theory’s strongest form says that World War II was, beneath national rhetoric, a forced consolidation of industrial power:
- competitors were weakened or absorbed,
- patent regimes were restructured,
- chemical and pharmaceutical control deepened,
- and postwar successor firms inherited global influence.
In this frame, Farben becomes less a German company than a prototype of transnational corporate sovereignty.
Cartels and Postwar Continuity
Because I.G. Farben’s constituent firms and successor entities survived in transformed form after the war, the theory places great emphasis on continuity. Dissolution did not look like simple destruction. It looked, in conspiracy retellings, like rebranding and redistribution.
Legacy
The I.G. Farben Global Monopoly theory endures because its historical foundation is unusually strong: cartel power was real, industrial concentration was real, and Farben’s wartime influence was immense. The conspiratorial leap is to treat the war itself as the merger mechanism.