Company history A century of expansion and progress

摘要

Alexander Wacker, bornin Heidelberg in May 1846, laid the foundations for the present-day Wacker Chemie AG when, on 13 October 1914, he entered the Dr. Alexander Wacker, Gesellschaft fur elektrochemische Industrie, KG company in the trade register kept by the town of Traunstein, Germany. The company started to take shape in 1916-17. In 1916, the company's headquarters were established in Munich, and construction work started on the first factory building at Burghausen under architect Professor Josef Hoffmann. Production began at Burghausen on 7 December 1916 with the world's first industrial-scale synthesis of acetaldehyde, followed by acetic acid. Construction also began in 1916 on the 16-kilometer Alz canal. The Alz canal was completed in 1922 and it is still used by the Alzwerke power station to generate electricity.