Saltpeter promise

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The saltpetre promise as a contract of 1914 , which was supposed to enable the synthetic production of saltpeter on an industrial scale, was concluded between Carl Bosch and the Supreme Army Command of the German Reich .

Until the First World War , people were dependent on natural saltpeter , which was mainly used for the production of fertilizers and explosives . Chile had owned almost all known deposits since the end of the saltpeter war in 1884 and thus had a monopoly on the raw material.

Even before the war began, the German military was aware that the German Empire was not self-sufficient in terms of the supply of important raw materials for agriculture and industry , but was dependent on imports. This affected, among other things, oil , natural rubber and saltpetre.

With regard to saltpetre, however, Fritz Haber's path of synthesis of ammonia by binding the nitrogen in the air, followed since 1904, showed a way out. In 1909, together with Carl Bosch at BASF, he developed the Haber-Bosch process , for which a patent was applied for in 1910. By oxidation after Ostwald process could be so large industrial scale nitric win, by their neutralization the ammonia ammonium nitrate is produced.

After the outbreak of the First World War, the foreseen situation occurred: The Entente succeeded in cutting off the German Reich from the further supply of saltpetre. To defuse the situation, the Supreme Army Command set up a saltpeter commission. In close consultation with Carl Duisberg and Emil Fischer , Bosch (for BASF) and the Supreme Army Command reached an agreement at the end of 1914 on a contract that provided for acceptance guarantees and a loan of 35 million marks from the Reich, which made it possible to build appropriate facilities. This contract is known as the Saltpeter Promise. The contract was signed by other chemical companies in mid-January 1915.

This made it possible to partially offset the previous imports from Chile, which in 1913 had amounted to 800,000 tonnes worth 120 million marks, until further increases were increased with the construction of the Merseburg plant and later Leuna in 1916/17 Had capacities available. Previously, people made do with saltpetre collections, for example from animal stalls, where so-called wall nitrate occurred.

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