After military service in Munich, which he combined with research in the laboratory of Adolf von Baeyer, he was hired in 1883 at the Farbenwerke (dye company) of Friedr.

Inspired by Standard Oil on a US tour, Bayer became part of IG Farben, a conglomerate of German chemical industries.

In November 1916, Duisberg advised the Kaiser's troops to begin deporting 60 000 people from occupied Belgium; they were put in trains for transport to German mines and factories.

The huge corporation, which soon included related industries such as explosives and fibers, was the biggest enterprise in all of Europe and the fourth largest in the world, behind General Motors, United States Steel and Standard Oil of New Jersey.

He supported Gerhard Domagk's eventually successful efforts to discover the first broadly effective antibiotic, Prontisil.