HOECHST AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT

((German: Hoechst Limited-liability Company), ) byname Hoechst AG, German chemical concern founded in 1863 in the Hchst quarter of Frankfurt am Main. Originally a producer of dyestuffs, it became, by the late 20th century, one of the world's largest producers of pharmaceuticals. From 1863 to about 1865 the company was styled Meister, Lucius & Co. (after the major founders, Wilhelm Meister and Eugen Lucius); it then became Meister, Lucius & Brning (to include another founder, Adolf Brning). In 1880 it was converted into a limited-liability company and gradually became known as Farbewerke Hoechst Aktiengesellschaft (Hoechst Dyeworks AG) after the area in which it was located. From 1925 to 1945 it was part of IG Farben (q.v.), the world's largest chemical concern; the latter was dissolved by the Allies in 1945, and Farbewerke Hoechst AG was reestablished in 1951. In 1970 the company acquired a majority interest in Cassella Farbewerke Mainkur Aktiengesellschaft, a German chemical corporation that had also been a member of the IG Farben cartel. The company's current name was adopted in 1974. In 1987 Hoechst AG's American subsidiary, the American Hoechst Corporation, acquired the Celanese Corporation, a major American producer of synthetic fibres. Another major subsidiary, Hoechst Marion Roussel, includes the American pharmaceutical firm Marion Merrel Dow Inc., which Hoechst bought in 1995, and the French drug maker Roussel Uclaf. Hoechst AG has divisions, affiliates, and subsidiaries not only in Germany but also in other European nations and on other continents. Its various operations produce pharmaceuticals, synthetic resins and paints, plastics and waxes, textile fibres, organic and inorganic chemicals, fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals, gases, dyestuffs, and film and printing accessories.