18 companies are based in the Park, including primary tenant Evonik Industries AG, which also owns and operates the infrastructure through its subsidiary Infracor GmbH.

Originally named Chemische Werke Hüls, the complex was built in 1938 by a consortium led by IG Farben to produce synthetic rubber and other war materials for the Third Reich.

The plant manufactures a substantial proportion of the world supply of CDT, a precursor to Nylon 12, which in turn led to a shortage which impacted global production of finished goods particularly in the automotive industry.

[4] Shared services include: In 1936, the Nazi government launched a Four Year Plan which identified strategic materials critical to German rearmament, with a goal to make Germany self-sufficient in preparation for war.

[7] The factory site, adjacent to the August-Victoria coal mine at Hüls near the village of Marl, was strategically located on the northern edge of the Ruhr industrial basin along the Wesel-Datteln Canal.

This created a highly efficient production cycle wherein exhaust gases from Hibernia were piped to Hüls, which were converted into acetylene and ethylene using the electric arc process.

[8] Managers and foremen were relocated to Marl exclusively from other IG Farben plants across Germany, such as Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Schkopau and Leverkusen, while skilled workers came from the surrounding Münster area.

The neighborhood, known as the Bereitsschaftssiedlung (literally "standby settlement"), was built by IG Farben architect Clemens Anders in the traditionalist Stuttgart school style favored in the Third Reich.

[11] In addition to the 5000 German employees,[7] between 10,000-15,000 prisoners of war and forced laborers were locked up in 30 camps around Marl to provide workers for the plant and mines which supplied it.

Records from 1944 show a special prison camp on the company site controlled by the Gestapo, and Polish workers transferred between Hüls and the Buna plant at Auschwitz.

More heavy bombing targeted the Hibernia hydrogenation plants to stop the flow of raw materials, however the Hüls works managed to reach maximum output again by 1944.

On the breakup of owner IG Farben, the Allies initially placed tight limits on what could be produced and had plans to dismantle the plant, although rubber shortages in Europe soon meant that great efforts were made to restart buna production.

By 1949, the company recognized their existing synthetic rubber production methods were not competitive in world markets and American development aid became critical in re-establishing the plant's former importance.

[13] The complex was named Chemische Werke Hüls AG and began manufacturing plastics, raw materials for detergents and a new synthetic rubber process developed by the Americans.