The images and the entire text used on this and all other USMBOOKS web pages are the copyrighted property of USM Inc.  Those images and the text may be used by others ONLY AFTER completion of a formal international licensing agreement and payment of a licensing fee! It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found on USMBOOKS.com and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

This is rare original corporate share number 1460465 of 200 Reichsmarks issued by I.G. Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft of Frankfurt am Main in March 1940.

The enormous German industrial-chemical conglomerate IG Farbenindustrie (the “IG” stands for Interessengemeinschaft of “Community of Interest” and Farben means “Color”), headquartered in Frankfurt am Main was able to claim many famous international brand names among the products it manufactured. Everything from Agfa film and cameras, to Bayer aspirin, cellophane, synthetic silk, chemical dyes, Zyklon B poison gas, to gasoline and even Buna synthetic rubber. Starting in 1933, the company contributed large amounts of money to the Nazi Party and soon became a huge government contractor.

The 5-1/2 x 7-3/4 inch light green center portion of this IG Farbenindustrie share certificate has the faint logos of Agfa and Bayer printed on the background. The 27 mm round white embossed seal of IG Farbenindustrie has a punch hole through it.

This is a 100% original Third Reich IG Farbenindustrie share certificate in very nice condition, exactly as shown. A rare piece of authentic Third Reich history!

* Above is the IG Farbenindustrie entry on page 82 of the March 1945 Allied Counter Intelligence handbook Who’s Who in Germany and Austria Parts 1 & 2. The list includes the board members whose names are printed on this original Nazi share certificate, Hermann Schmitz and August von Knieriem. Dr. Carl Bosch (shown right for reference only), was the Chairman of the Board and his signature is the first one to the right of the embossed company seal.

A lot of information about IG Farbenindustrie is available online but the company's involvement in the construction and operation of the Nazi Concentration Camps at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz and their licensing of production of Zyklon B before and during World War II are probably what many people think of first when considering IG Farben. The Zyklon B photo below is for reference only.

So sinister and notorious was the reputation of the giant chemical combine, that the Allied victors in World War II immediately began to dismember the company into a vast array of separate entities in an effort to prevent them from ever again monopolizing the chemical industry business. Many of the chief executives of the company were tried at Nürnberg in 1947, including board members whose names are printed on this rare original 1940 IG Farbenindustrie Stammaktie. *

This 8-1/4 x 11-3/4 inch embossed cream colored share certificate with green and black printing was produced by Giesecke & Devrient of Leipzig and Berlin. In the center (under the printed text) is the 2-5/8 inch tall IG Farben logo in a white outline.