Evonik

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Degussa Logo

Evonik is a German chemicals, energy and real estate business. It owns the chemicals business formerly known as Degussa.

Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

1 Chemicals
2 Energy
3 Real estate
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Chemicals

The Chemicals Business Area of Evonik was known as Degussa GmbH until 2007. It is a multinational chemistry corporation based in Düsseldorf, Germany. Degussa employed about 45,000 people. It is Germany's third largest chemistry company and the world's largest producer of specialty chemicals. Degussa was acquired by Ruhrkohle AG in 2006.

The name Degussa is an acronym of „Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheide-Anstalt“ ("German Gold and Silver Metals Separating Works"). The purification of precious metals was one of the central parts of Degussa.

In 2003 Degussa was involved in a major controversy surrounding its involvement in the construction of the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" (also known as "Holocaust Memorial") in Berlin. Degussa produced the anti-graffiti substance Protectosil used to cover the stelae which are the major element in the memorial. The controversy arose because a Degussa subsidiary had produced the Zyklon B used to poison people in Nazi gas chambers. The board of trustees of the memorial ultimately decided that, given the cost of eliminating Degussa's role in the project at that relatively late stage, the use of Protectosil ought to continue, despite protests from many Jewish groups. – After several mergers and the latest acquisition by RAG (Ruhrkohle AG), the name Degussa was retired in 2007. Since September 2007, the company resurfaced on the global stock market as part of Evonik.