A silo containing 4,500 tonnes of a mixed ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded at a BASF plant in Oppau, Germany, killing 561 people. Workers had routinely used small dynamite charges to break up clay-like, compacted fertilizer cakes, incorrectly believing the mixture was non-explosive. The massive blast destroyed the surrounding town, formed a giant crater, and was heard over 180 miles away in Frankfurt.

The Oppau disaster forced a terrifying realization in European literature that common agricultural chemicals could suddenly morph into instruments of industrial devastation. It inspired expressionist poetry that focused on the fragile, unstable nature of modern chemical towns and human error.