Ems-Chemie history

On 23 August 1940, the Swiss Federal Council approved the production of 20,000 hl of fuel and secured its acquisition of the production costs.

According to historian Straumann, Giesen was in charge of building up methanol production at the IG Farbenwerk in Auschwitz. “And in 1944, when another director died, he was responsible for the overall management of fuel production in Auschwitz,” Straumann continued.

When he was released from prison in 1951, it was assumed that you could work with them again. “

Shortly afterwards, the first foreign sales company was founded, GRILON & Plastics Machinery Ltd. based in Dover (UK). In 1954 the "Hovag" was one of the largest employers with 1015 employees and consumed about half of the electrical energy of the canton of Graubünden.

In 1963, EMS Patvag was founded for ignition systems.

They show that Werner Oswald maintained contact with the former SS-Sturmbannführer until 1964:

He stayed on the Board of Directors until 1970.

Christoph Blocher continued to lead the company, began to focus on engineering plastics and changed the name to "Ems Chemie Holding AG" and "Ems Chemie AG" in 1981.

In 1983, he was commissioned, by the founding Oswald family, to find a buyer for the shares of Ems Chemie Holding AG. Blocher decided to take over the Oswald family's own share package and therefore had the majority of votes at the company.

Amongst the new products, which were developed continuously, was a highly rigid polyamide in 1991.

In 1997, the "Ems Togo" business unit entered into a joint venture with H.B. Fuller Automotive USA, which appeared under the name of "Eftec". Three years later there was a joint venture between «Eftec» and the Czech company D-Plast to open up the Central and Eastern European market.

On 10 December 2003, Christoph Blocher was elected to the Federal Council.

On 1 January 2004, his daughter, Magdalena, took over the group management as vice-president and Delegate of the board of directors.

In 2005, Blocher's son Markus's, «Ems Dottikon», was split up as an independent company.