It had stakes in General Aniline Works (GAW), Agfa-Ansco Corporation, and Winthrop Chemical Company, among others, and was engaged in manufacture and sale of pharmaceuticals, photographic products, light weight metals, synthetic gasoline, synthetic rubber, dyes, fertilizers, and insecticides.

The Farben cartel was created in 1925, when Hermann Schmitz, the master organizer, with Wall Street financial assistance, created the giant chemical corporation, combining six German chemical companies — Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik Ludwigshafen (BASF), Bayer, Agfa, Hoechst, Weiler-ter-Meer, and Griesheim-Elektron.

During the war it became the principal source for Zyklon B, the pesticide used in German concentration camps to murder their victims.

In the United States IG Farben's power was broken by the Justice Department even before the war started, and Assistant Attorney General, Thurman Arnold played a prominent role in uncloaking the association of IG Farben's American affiliates with its parent company.

After the United States entered the WWII, the Office of Alien Property Custodian starting from March 11, 1942, took control of all Nazi Germany-related assets in the country.

[10] As a result of its 1966 acquisition of Sawyer's, GAF went on to produce the View-Master, a children's toy, made today by Mattel's Fisher-Price division.