The Autobahn and “Voyages of Technology”: Transportation Technology and Political Ideology National Socialism and "modernization" Contrast with communism and capitalism Relationship between National Socialism and the environment Example: the National Socialist Autobahn "According to contemporary claims, these roads blended into existing sceneries and highlighted the organic and harmonic relationship of National Socialist technology to nature." Why did the Nazis combine a program for road building with a public display of concern for nature? NS propaganda still colors current understanding of the Autobahn program Myth: the Autobahn alleviated unemployment Myth: it created a nation of car owners Polycratic structure of the NS state Fritz Todt: Inspector General of German Roads Why did the NS regime want to build the Autobahn quickly?
NS claimed a different approach to capitalism, one that would not destroy nature Heimatschutz movement Role of Jews The railway an "alien element" in the landscape Todt: "The German landscape is full of character. Therefore the motorways must assume a German character." Conflict between "landscape advocates" and engineers, who had traditionally avoided curves wherever possible. Munich landscape architect Alwin Seifert: a straight line or road was "unnatural." Technology had to be molded according to nature's laws After five years, the engineers embraced these ideas Following the inherent landscape patterns was easier and saved money Belief that more curves would suppress driver's boredom 1940: Autobahn only appropriate for Germany No effort to preserve the "remainders of natural beauty" in conquered Poland or Belgium Native "German" trees and shrubs planted alongside the Autobahn Using the Autobahn to restore "true German nature" But not too many plants Todt: the driving experience was most important
Drivers should be kept alert by looking at varying landscape designs Also cost concerns--plants came last, and did not help rearmament Zeller: No modernization, not really environmentally-friendly either "Voyages of Technology" After annexation of Austria Traveling propaganda exhibit to display German technology Nazi engineers using propaganda in the prewar period to convert their " Volk comrades" to a positive acceptance of modern technology. Also reinforced consumerist aspirations "Deutsche Technik" (German Technology): explicitly anti-Semitic Nazi technical rhetoric did not match results, for example the Volkswagen [Guse] But the symbolic and psychological impact of Nazi ideology was often crucial Austrian Voyage of Technology Karl-Otto Saur: The epitome of the ambitious Nazi Engineer Caustic, contemptuous, and "organizer par excellence"
Interior of trains used synthetic materials like cellulose, rayon, and synthetic leather, alloys to replace copper and brass ["German metals"], synthetic rubber for piping When the train stopped for presentations, the engineers set up further displays with photographs, drawings, and models covering the whole range of Nazi activity. The film: "Adolf Hitler's Highways through Germany" was screened Emphasis on economic improvement (in Austria) through technology Most of the technology on display was presented as strengthening the nation as a whole as opposed to benefiting individual households. Consumerism excited by new materials like fiberglass, plexiglas, and synthetic rubber Todt: Technology would help to attain Volk harmony Transforming the engineer: He must become a "political being," actively striving toward the wider goals that the Führer (Hitler) had established for the nation. Voyage of Technology in the Sudetenland Run on a grander scale Even a greater success than in Austria Had a stronger consumerist orientation than Austria Saur: The exhibits must be organized so that the visitor needed “the least possible expenditure of his own conceptual ability.” "Strength through Joy"
"Beauty of Labor" Many attracted by the free food Open anti-Semitism Associated with the excesses of capitalism Technology, neither the symbol of decadent modernization seen by “blood and soil” fanatics, nor simply a utilitarian tool for rapid economic development, would serve Volk cohesiveness. Proposed voyage through south-east Europe--halted Last voyage: a cruise to the Norwegian fiords "Reeducating" the engineer The role of technology in a National Socialist society was predicated on a dual transformation. The engineer was brought into the mainstream of the Volk community through reeducation (the Norwegian voyage), and Germans were taught the value of technology to the community (the Austrian and Sudeten voyages). The collectivist impulse in National Socialism embraced the engineer and projected a society in which man, machine, and nature functioned in harmony. It was, however, an exclusionist society, and the blatant anti-Semitism of Nazi engineers shows how technology was linked to the racist, genocidal core elements of Nazi ideology.
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