Editing ORWO (section)

===AGFA===
[[File:W21 Fifa 1929 Chemiepark.jpg|thumb|Agfa-Filmfabrik Wolfen 1929]]
A dye factory was established at the Rummelsburger See near Berlin in 1867. Its name was changed to AGFA (Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation) in 1873.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.agfa.com/corporate/about-us/history/|title=History|last=|first=|date=|website=www.agfa.com|publisher=|access-date=2021-10-24}}</ref> The Wolfen factory was established by AGFA in 1910 and its original Leverkusen works (near Cologne) around the same time.  In 1911, the first casting plant at Wolfen for polymer films (nitrocellulose) was built by AGFA. By 1925, with AGFA now part of the industrial conglomerate [[IG Farben|I.G. Farben]], Wolfen was specialising in film production and Leverkusen [[photographic paper]]. In 1932, the process of making Triacetate Cellulose (TAC) film was patented at the Wolfen facility <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.islandpolymer.com/about/|title=About us|last=|first=|date=|website=www.islandpolymer.com|publisher=Island Polymer Industries|access-date=2021-11-07}}</ref>

The Agfa Wolfen plant developed [[Agfacolor]] Neu, the first modern colour film incorporating [[dye coupler]]s, <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/history-colour-photography#agfacolor-neu |title=A short history of colour photography - agfacolor-neu |last=|first=|date=|website=www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk|publisher=Science and Media Museum |access-date=2022-02-25}}</ref> in 1936. It was simpler to process than its contemporary, Kodak [[Kodachrome]] from 1935.

==== After World War II ====
On 20 April 1945, following the defeat of [[Nazi Germany]] in [[World War II]], the Wolfen plant was taken over by US forces, and important patents and other documents regarding the Agfacolor process were confiscated and handed over to [[Western world|Western]] competitors, such as [[Kodak]] and [[Ilford Photo|Ilford]]. As the plant was located in what was to become the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, the US forces then handed it over to the Soviet military administration, which dismantled large parts of the plant and moved it, with key German staff, to Svema in Shostka, Ukraine, where it formed the basis for the Soviet colour film industry.

AGFA was split into two companies each with one of the two plants: ''Agfa AG, Leverkusen'' in West Germany, and ''VEB Film und Chemiefaserwerk Agfa Wolfen'' in East Germany.  Agfa AG (Leverkusen), by then a subsidiary of [[Bayer]], subsequently merged with Gevaert (based in Mortsel, Belgium) in 1964 to form [[Agfa-Gevaert]].