BASF

Purple is the color of Kings.

The color purple, one of BASF dyestuffs productions

On the 4th of September, we woke up at 10:00am, got dressed, ran to catch up with tram number 3 -later to find it wasn't worth the blood rush since we were the first to arrive at the Haupbahnhof-.  In each German city the Hauptbahnhof is the main trains/buses station, and the city's gate to it's visitors. In these stations one can find all sorts of small restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, books shops, vender machines, tickets machines and of course information and tourisits desks. Having been at multiple cities Hauptbahnhofs i also noticed that the surrounding area around them is usually beautifully arranged to reflect the city's style, and sometimes one can find the city's symbol displayed at the entrance of the station.

A Hauptbahnhof in Germany

Everyone who had registered for the BASF chemical company's tour had arrived by 11:00am. We then walked to a nearby station and took tram 7 that stops directly infront of this company. Stepping out, we could see diffirent buildings, signs and flags on the right and left of the road, all carrying the BASF logo. We walked to gate number 4 and enterd a long modern building, that later appeared to be the visitors center.

One of the company's many buildings (taken by my husband)

BASF was founded in this city (Mannheim) in 1856, initially for dye production. BASF is now the biggest chemical company in the world, it recruits more than 105,000 employees and has 385 production sites worldwide [s]. In the visitors center, arranged in four floors we were introduced to many of the company's chemicals, dyestuffs and plastic productions. With an available staff in each floor you can have your questions answered, and see some simple chemical experiences being conducted. The walls were covered with black and white pictures that tell the story of the company, one wall picture, for instance, showed how health insurance before being known was actually given to the company's employees and their families. Another interesting activity was the photo machine, we in turn stood and picked some strange hair cuts and each interested visitor was give a printed picture of him wearing four different hair cuts of his pick. They also displayed how detergents worked in cleaning clothes, and how meat is cooked from the inside. All the information on all the products and videos were displayed to the visitors in both languages, German and English, which was very pleasant. After that we took a bus tour around the huge company, but unfortunately the tour guide only spoke in German, and not until she would mention some 6 or 7 figure number would she catch our attention.

BASF 

After spending approximately three hours in the company, we left our visitors ID-cards on the reception desk, took a small BASF-note book as a gift, and split from the group to have a short walk in the city center before going home.