Kalle, Wilhelm Jakob Ferdinand

Chemist, industrialist, politician

Born: 19.02.1870 in Biebrich

Died: 07.09.1954 in Wiesbaden

Kalle studied chemistry in Geneva, Strasbourg and Erlangen as well as at the Technical University of Dresden. In 1897, after gaining his doctorate, he became a partner in Chemische Fabrik Kalle & Co. in Biebrich, became a member of the Management Board in 1904 following the transformation of the family business into a public limited company and moved to the Supervisory Board in 1925 following its incorporation into I. G. Farben. There he headed the so-called Kalle Circle, which consisted of political representatives from the management bodies of I. G. Farben and supported the conservative-bourgeois party spectrum. From 1937, Kalle was Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of I. G. Farbenindustrie AG and was a member of the Reich Association of German Industry. The Technical University of Munich awarded him the title of Dr. Ing. e.h.

Kalle began his political career in 1912 as a town councillor in Biebrich, and served for a long time as head of the town council. After the First World War, he joined the German People's Party (DVP). In 1919/20 he was a member of the Prussian State Constituent Assembly, was a member of the Prussian State Parliament in 1921/24 and of the Reichstag for Hesse-Nassau in 1924-32. He was expelled from Biebrich in 1923 during the French occupation.

Kalle was chairman of the economic committee for the occupied territories in Koblenz and a member of the party executive. In 1929, he successfully campaigned for the erection of a hall of honor for Stresemann on Fischtorplatz in Mainz, which was removed six years later by the National Socialist Gauleiter of Hesse Jakob Sprenger. In 1954, he campaigned for its re-erection.

After the Second World War, he had to fear prosecution in Nuremberg because of IG Farben's involvement in war crimes. However, as he also had connections to opponents of the Nazi regime, he was spared. His villa on Lake Starnberg was confiscated by the Americans, so he and his wife had to stay with his chauffeur.

In 1953, Kalle was made an honorary citizen of the city of Wiesbaden.