Erich von der Heyde

The von der Heyde family moved to Germany in 1906, where he attended school in Bremen and Weimar until May 1918.

He served in the military until the end of World War I, after which he studied agronomy for five years at the Technische Universität München.

During 1936, von der Heyde became the advisor for nitrogen and agriculture in the Political-Economic Policy Department (WIPO, Wirtschaftspolitische Abteilung) of the I.G.

Farben's “NW 7” (intelligence) office, where his duties included counterintelligence and taking action against breaches of secrecy.

In 1948 at the IG Farben Trial in Nuremberg, von der Heyde was acquitted on the charges of plundering, spoliation, and mass murder.