Germany’s Faustian Pact With Russia Haunts Industrial Giants
As the government weighs cutting off imports over the Ukraine invasion, economists are divided over how much pain the nation could suffer.
BASF’s chemical factory in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Source: BASF SE
Along the banks of the Rhine, Europe’s biggest chemical factory churns out the building-block compounds for the country’s powerhouse car, pharmaceutical, and agricultural industries—all fueled by pipelines filled with Russian gas.
BASF SE’s plant in Ludwigshafen is emerging as a symbol of Germany’s opposition to a full embargo on Russian gas amid rising calls to punish President Vladimir Putin for his war on Ukraine. Cutting it off, BASF says, could render its factory—the biggest supplier of the base chemical acetylene—inoperative, sending shock waves through many industries and causing Germany’s economy irreversible damage.