It is with a heavy heart that I appear before you today on behalf of the management of the company to pay our last respects to those who lost their lives in the appalling catastrophe which has taken place here. For me personally, who built the Oppau factory, the task is doubly difficult, since this tragedy concerns my life-work to which I cling with every fibre of my being and whose development 1 have watched from the very start, together with my fellow-workers who have stood by me loyally in joy and sorrow throughout the long years of its growth.