Bavaria

Bavaria is the largest and oldest state in the Federal Republic of Germany. More than twelve million people live and work in its more than 70,000 square kilometres. The way the Bavarians see themselves and their own state is the result of more than 1,000 years of history. This historical heritage is still very much alive today. The face of Bavaria is unmistakeable and at the same time inextricably bound up in German and European culture and history.

It is the state at the heart of Europe. The major European transport routes between East and West and between North and South intersect between the Alps and the Rhön, between the Main and the Danube. Near the town of Waldsassen in the Upper Palatinate you can still see the stone placed there by Napoleon to mark the centre of Europe. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain, Bavaria has once again become the gateway to the neighbouring countries in eastern and south-eastern Europe and an important link between the old and the new countries of the EU.

In the last few decades Bavaria has become an extremely modern economic location. With major international companies, strong medium-sized firms, and future-oriented research, Bavaria is now in the forefront of technical and economic progress. The two European urban conglomerations of Munich and Nuremberg together with other big cities such as Augsburg, Würzburg, Regensburg and Ingolstadt are booming centres of business and industry and world-famous cultural centres. More than twelve per cent of all the people working in the Free State work in the high technology sector, more than anywhere else in Europe. Names like Siemens, EADS, and MTU stand for the most modern technological developments. International companies are coming to Bavaria and setting up production facilities here. In addition a large number of new high technology and state-of-the-art technology firms are being set up.

picture credit: Wacker Chemie

The third largest among the countries’ states, Bavaria’s chemical industry operates on a worldwide scale--as shown by its export rate of 52% (far higher than that of the state’s manufacturing sector as a whole)--and is highly innovative. These innovations are produced by such global players as Wacker Chemie and Süd-Chemie (both headquartered in Bavaria) and as BASF, Clariant and Roche Diagnostics (which maintain research and production facilities in the state), and by some 250 SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises).

With a total workforce of more than 61,000 and annual sales of more than €16 billion, Bavaria’s chemical industry is one of the largest in the state’s manufacturing sector. Its range of products is commensurately large and covers nearly the entire spectrum of chemicals marketed. The industry’s main products are pharmaceutical specialties, primary plastics, paints, lacquers and putties, body care products, and chemical fibers. Some 17,000 people work for the chemical companies based in Bavaria’s Chemical Triangle, which has the great expanse of any venue of activity in Bavaria. A further 8,000 are employed by the manufacturers and service providers commissioned by the companies. The business area bordered by the Inn and Salzach rivers is comprised of the Altötting (in which Burghausen and the Gendorf industrial park are located), Mühldorf am Inn (in which Aschau, Töging and Waldkraiburg are located) and Traunstein (Trostberg) districts. This region accounts for more than a quarter of the people employed by Bavaria’s chemical industry, and more than a third of the industry’s sales. The region’s main areas of activity are petrochemicals, plastics, silicons, ultra-pure silicon, and construction and special purpose chemicals. Further, small-sized areas of activity (with some taking the form of integrated chemical parks) include:

• Munich / Starnberg / Weilheim (pharmaceuticals, chemical specialties)
• Ingolstadt / Münchsmünster / Kelheim (petrochemicals, chemical fibers)
• Augsburg (chemical fibers and specialties, paints); this region is home to the Gersthofen and Bobingen industrial parks
• Nuremberg/Erlangen (pharmaceuticals, paints and chemical specialties)
• Lower Main /Miltenberg district (chemical fibers, plastics); this region is home to the Obernburg industrial center.

Nearly all of the chemical companies in the state maintain dedicated R & D operations in it. Prime among these is the Munich-based Consortium for the Electrochemical Industry research center maintained by Wacker Chemie, the Heufeld-based main research department of Süd-Chemie AG, and the Trostberg-based center of expertise in construction chemicals of the AlzChem group. To foster the sector’s working relationships with Bavaria’s universities and universities of applied sciences, the state’s chemical associations launched an exchange for research topics.

As well chemistry is one of the main subjects taught and researched at Bavaria’s universities. This broad-ranging and in-depth approach to chemistry is taken by the departments and chairs of chemistry maintained at six of Bavaria’s universities. One of these - TUM (Technical University Munich) has been accorded top rankings in the ISI and CEST surveys.

The successes registered by Bavaria’s chemical industry are attributable to the large pool of highly qualified and motivated employees which it can tap. Many of these employees are graduates from Bavaria’s institutions of higher education, which maintain chemical research facilities of international renown, and which also turn out specialists with advanced scientific qualifications.

Bavaria’s chemical companies are also highly active in on-the-job training. This vocational education is currently being conducted by some 125 companies and involves more than 2,750 young persons. The professions which they are learning include such traditional ones as chemical technicians or laboratory staff members. Other professions involve handling business and technical operations.