Chemische Fabrik Kalk GmbH (1892–1945)
On 24 May 1892, the Vorster & Grüneberg Kommanditgesellschaft was renamed into Chemische Fabrik Kalk GmbH (CFK) and converted into a company with limited liability (GmbH).[15] It was one of the first limited liabilities companies in the German Empire as the law on companies with limited liabilities was adopted only one month earlier. On 7 June 1894, the last surviving founder Hermann Julius Grüneberg dies. His son Richard Grüneberg succeeds him and joins the management board of the company.[8] After 1900, the production of potassium carbonate ceased due to competitive pressure. Instead, the company began to produce sodium carbonate using the Solvay process. In 1902, the Düngerfabrik C. Scheibler & Co. was incorporated, and a year later the last remaining factory in the Staßburg region, the potassium chloride factory in Leopolshall was sold. To guarantee the water supply in the main factory in Kalk a water tower with an integrated chimney and a height of 43.6 m was built. This water tower should dominate the skyline of Kalk for the next one hundred years.[16]
At the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the company on 1 November 1908, the Chemische Fabrik Kalk produced the following chemicals: ammonium hydroxide, ammonium chloride, ammonia, sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfate, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, sodium carbonate and various fertilizers. Apart from the main factory in Kalk the company operated an ammonia factory in Cologne-Nippes and fertilizer factories in Cologne-Ehrenfeld and Euskirchen. The company was also one of the owners of the coal distillation plant Ammonium GmbH in Weitmar near Bochum and held interests in domestic and international Thomas steel mills producing slag. Total production of all chemicals combined was 600000 MT. In 1908, the company employed more than 1200 workers.[17]
With the outbreak of World War I employment fell to 70 workers and parts of production were shut down, as the company was not producing essential chemicals for the war economy. Management then concentrated on the production of saltpeter, a raw material for explosives. Due to the importance of the chemical the workforce increased to 504 employees in December 1914. In 1916, an explosives research laboratory was created, and a short time afterwards the first explosive agent was developed. Despite the lack of workers the company also expanded into the new market for animal food by treating straw with sodium hydroxide.[18]
After the end of the war the treaty of Versailles forced Chemische Werke Kalk to end the production of explosives and close the research laboratory. In the 1920s, demand for fertilizers slowly increased, but was accompanied by an increase in prices for raw materials. To mitigate the effect of the price increases the company began to produce a fertilizer based on ammonium nitrate and calcium carbonate, two by-products of the production of other fertilizers. In 1930, Scheibler’s Kampdünger (Kamp standing for Kalk-Ammon-Phospor, i.e. lime-ammonium-phosphorus and Dünger being the German word for fertilizer) was introduced, a two-component fertilizer that was readily accepted by the market.[19] The company management at this time considered moving the factory from Kalk to Godorf in Rodenkirchen as the high population density made expansion of the factory difficult. Ultimately this plan was not implemented.[20]
After the Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the company gradually began to concentrate on raw materials for the production of explosives. Since 1937, women were employed as workers. After the outbreak of World War II, with the male workforce in military service, women were conscripted for work at the company. Since 1940, Chemische Fabrik Kalk used approximately 460 forced laborers from Poland and later the Soviet Union.[21] The factory was heavily damaged during the bombing raids which started in 1942. In 1943, the sulfuric acid plant was completely destroyed, a year later almost all of the production came to a standstill. On 6 March 1945, the grandson of the founder, Fritz Vorster Jr. closed the factory after 80 percent of the production facilities had been destroyed. At this time the company had only 100 employees.[22][23]
