Only one year after the end of World War II, Hermann Wirtz founded Chemie Grünenhtal GmbH in Stolberg, near Aachen. Today the company is called Grünenthal GmbH. Chemie Grünenthal GmbH was the pharmaceutical arm of Dalli‐Werke Mäurer & Wirtz. The company Mäurer & Wirtz specialised in soaps, laundry and cleaning detergents and body care products.
Source: Anklageschrift (indictment) from 1967, today archived at the National Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia in Duisburg, Germany (Rheinland Division, Gerichte Rep. 139, No. 1–396), p. 45.
The indictment document referred to is one of the most important sources for original information and research on the Thalidomide scandal. It was issued in 1967 by the Aachen prosecution and charged Grünenthal’s managing director and eight senior Grünenthal employees with involuntary manslaughter, physical injury resulting from negligence, malicious injury and offences against the drug law. Today the indictment is archived at the National Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia in Duisburg, Germany, Rheinland Division, Gerichte Rep. 139, No. 1–396.