Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheideanstalt vorm. Roessler, Frankfurt, became a limited partner in Chemiefabrik H. & F. Zimmermann, Wesseling. Founded near Cologne in 1880 by the brothers Heinrich and Franz Zimmermann, this factory manufactured potassium ferrocyanide and other cyanic, ammonia, and rhodan compounds from the residuals of coal gas production. Coal gas was a waste product used for street lighting. Since Degussa was also active in the field of cyanic compounds, this form of participation in Zimmermann’s business made sense.

It paid off, too, because when H. & F. Zimmermann merged with the new chemical company Chemische Fabrik Wesseling AG in 1905, Degussa had a 12.47 percent stake in it. During the decades that followed, the Frankfurt-based company bought in and continuously increased its shareholding until Wesseling finally became a branch of Degussa. The merger of this branch with the Degussa factory in Wesseling, which had been founded in the local neighborhood in 1952, took place between 1978 and 1981 and culminated in the present-day site of Evonik Industries AG in Wesseling.