The company was founded on 27 November 1968, consolidating several coal mining corporations into the Ruhrkohle AG.

Today, Evonik Industries are majority owned by the RAG-Stiftung (English: RAG-Foundation), which uses corporate profits to finance the costs that arise due to the former mining activities in the Ruhr region.

The foundation plans on using about 220 million euro per year from 2019 to maintain abandoned coal mines, which mainly involves pumping out the ground water that destabilises tunnels.

[1] Since its board of trustees is dominated by federal and regional government officials as well as unions, RAG Foundation is also keen to secure Evonik's more than 20,000 jobs in Germany.

[2] But in 2024 Evonik wants to cut 10% jobs of its employees in Germany By June 2014, the foundation received the approval from its board of trustees to cut its Evonik stake to 60 percent over the medium term.