Can't forget the 'Farben'

G. GEORGE OSTROM / For the Hungry Horse News

ETO Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, issued orders during World War II stating the beautiful, seven story, I.G. Farben Office Building was to be left intact so it could be used as American Army Headquarters when Germany surrendered. The Farben building was built in 1928, before the Nazis took over and it had 1,000 rooms gathering light through 10,000 windows. Architect Hans Poelzig created an amazing place for the world's fourth largest corporation.

I.G. Farben was the chemical corporation, vital to Hitler's plans for world domination, Deutchland's DuPont. The "most modern office building in the world" was on a slope in western Frankfurt, away form the city center. That expansive structure was easy to spot for an American bomber crew returning from an eastern Germany raid in early '45. It stuck out "like an outhouse in the fog." With few enemy anti aircraft or fighter pilots left, the crew thought, "What the hell?" They still had two live bombs which had "hung up" over the target, and with the release problem now fixed, "Why waste 'em?"

The first boomer hit 50 feet from the northwest corner of the building and peeled a large strip of polished marble facing off the outside, leaving a large crater but causing minor interior damage.

The second hit 300 yards west at the entrance of another place not on Ike's priority list. It was a plush nightclub for high-ranking Nazis, Whermacht and Gestapo. Das Palmengarten included a staged ballroom, cocktail lounge, and lush tropical flowered paths among palm trees and a waterfall. The bomb made a large crater inside the elaborate iron and stone gateway, wrecking the entire entry.

"Liberating" American soldiers liked to think the bomb, "Must have got a few of those bigshot bastards." They hoped it hit during happy hour, though at that stage of the war, there wasn't much for Nazis to be happy about.

Although it was 75 percent destroyed by bombs and artillery during WWII, the historically magnificent Frankfurt am Main has been restored in the 65 years since. The first rehabilitation began with the I.G. Farben building. That's where Ike set up headquarters, and it was from that "Pentagon of Europe" the famed Marshall Plan for reconstructing Germany was directed, and a new German Federal Government was launched.

Behind the main building was a reflecting pool in a terraced courtyard leading to a beautifully designed auxiliary building which became a plush American Officer's Club. Overlooking the pool was a statue of a shapely "water nymph" with no clothes on. She was called "am Wasser" but was officially found to be "inappropriate for a military installation" and removed, right after a visit by Mamie Eisenhower. Maybe Mamie thought Am Wasser was a bad influence on young soldiers occupying the defeated Germany? I've often thought it would have been fun to hear how she brought up the subject with her husband and what his reaction was.

Have many stories about the I.G. Farben building, but space doesn't allow, so I'm winding up with a few relative facts.

The Americans built the most powerful radio communications center in the world in the Farben basement and it had eight clear channels directly to the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Messages to and from all U.S. armed forces, embassies, consuls, etc. in Europe came through there. I was assigned to Headquarters European Command with Top Secret Clearance 22 months after the shooting stopped and worked up to shift supervisor.

Thirty years after leaving the Army, I went back to Frankfurt with Iris and talked my way through security guards for a nostalgic tour. Later that same year, our daughter Heidi, in the Army Intelligence Corps, was assigned to the I.G. Farben building doing the work I did those many years before.

The I.G. Farben bigshots were tried at Nuremberg and convicted for War Crimes and their corporation disbanded … zilch.

Today, the I.G. Farben building is owned by the German State of Hessen and is a vital part of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University.

Mamie might not like it but guess who's back … hanging around the pool?

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist.