Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Founding of BASF in Mannheim

When
6 April 1865
Where
Mannheim
Part of
Founding of BASF and move to Ludwigshafen, April 1865

Friedrich Engelhorn founded Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik (BASF) in Mannheim on 6 April 1865 to produce chemicals for dye manufacturing.

Engelhorn established the company with several partners in the state of Baden. The firm was created to manufacture soda and acids, which were necessary for dye production processes. This event marks the beginning of BASF as a dye manufacturer.

Sources

  1. Friedrich Engelhorn Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-01
  2. BASF Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-23

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.