Heinrich Oster

Heinrich Oster (9 May 1878 – 29 October 1954) was a German chemist, executive at BASF and IG Farben and convicted Nazi war criminal.

Early years Oster was the son of Oberstleutnant Heinrich Oster and served as a volunteer for a year in the army himself in 1898 before studying chemistry at the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg and the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, obtaining his doctorate in 1905. He immediately went to work for Agfa and remained with them until 1914 when he returned to the army to serve in the First World War. Oster held sponsoring membership of the Schutzstaffel from 1935 to 1939, a position which entitled him to officer rank in the black uniformed movement. He did not become a full member of the Nazi Party itself until 1940. In 1939 he was awarded a First Class War Merit Cross.

Post-war Oster was arrested by the occupying American forces in 1946 and the following year was charged with war crimes as part of the IG Farben trial. In 1948 he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for "plunder and spoliation".

Following his release in 1949 he took on a position on the board at Gelsenberg AG.