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==The project==
==The project==
The ultimate, utopian goal of the project was to solve all the major problems of European civilization by the creation of a new continent, "Atlantropa", consisting of [[Europe]] and [[Africa]] and to be inhabited by Europeans. Sörgel was convinced that to remain competitive with the [[Americas]] and an emerging, [[Oriental]] "Pan-Asia", Europe must become self-sufficient, and this meant possessing territories in all climate zones – hence colonizing Africa was necessary. The lowering of the Mediterranean would enable the production of immense amounts of electric power, guaranteeing the growth of industry. Vast tracts of land would be freed for [[agriculture]] – including the [[Sahara]] desert, which was to be irrigated (Sörgel mistakenly thought much of the Sahara to be substantially beneath sea level). The massive public works, envisioned to go on for more than a century, would relieve [[unemployment]] and the acquisition of new land would ease the pressure of [[overpopulation]], which Sörgel thought the fundamental cause of political unrest in Europe. Sörgel also believed the project's effect on the climate could only be beneficial. The [[Middle East]], under the control of a consolidated Atlantropa, would be an additional energy source and a bulwark against the [[Yellow peril]].
The ultimate, utopian goal of the project was to solve all the major problems of European civilization by the creation of a new continent, "Atlantropa", consisting of [[Europe]] and [[Africa]] and to be inhabited by Europeans. Sörgel was convinced that to remain competitive with the [[Americas]] and an emerging, [[Oriental]] "Pan-Asia", Europe must become self-sufficient, and this meant possessing territories in all climate zones – hence colonizing Africa was necessary. The lowering of the Mediterranean would enable the production of immense amounts of electric power, guaranteeing the growth of industry. Vast tracts of land would be freed for [[agriculture]] – including the [[Sahara]] desert, which was to be irrigated (Sörgel mistakenly thought much of the Sahara to be substantially beneath sea level). The massive public works, envisioned to go on for more than a century, would relieve [[unemployment]] and the acquisition of new land would ease the pressure of [[overpopulation]], which Sörgel thought were the fundamental causes of political unrest in Europe. Sörgel also believed the project's effect on the climate could only be beneficial. The [[Middle East]], under the control of a consolidated Atlantropa, would be an additional energy source and a bulwark against the [[Yellow peril]].


The publicity materials produced for Atlantropa by Sörgel and his supporters contain plans, maps, and scale models of several dams and new ports on the Mediterranean, views of the Gibraltar dam crowned by a 400-metre tower designed by [[Peter Behrens]], projections of the growth of agricultural production, sketches for a pan-Atlantropan power grid, and even provisions for the protection of [[Venice]] as a cultural landmark. Concerns about climate change, earthquakes, attacks, and the fate of [[African culture]] are rather offhandedly dismissed.
The publicity materials produced for Atlantropa by Sörgel and his supporters contain plans, maps, and scale models of several dams and new ports on the Mediterranean, views of the Gibraltar dam crowned by a 400-metre tower designed by [[Peter Behrens]], projections of the growth of agricultural production, sketches for a pan-Atlantropan power grid, and even provisions for the protection of [[Venice]] as a cultural landmark. Concerns about climate change, earthquakes, attacks, and the fate of [[African culture]] are often ignored as being uninportant.


The project never gained substantial support, not even from the [[Nazism|Nazi]] regime despite its fantastic scale and eurocentric expansionism. After the [[Second World War]] the invention of [[nuclear power]] and the end of [[colonialism]] left Atlantropa a technologically and politically obsolete curiosity, although the Atlantropa Institute remained in existence until [[1960]].
The project never gained substantial support despite its fantastic scale and eurocentric expansionism. Under the [[Nazi]] regime the plan was ridiculed as it was against the idea of a Eurasian German Empire. The Italians never supported the idea as their cities are currently so dependant on the coastlines. After the [[Second World War]] interest was peaked as the allies saught to create closer bonds with Africa and combat communisim, but the invention of [[nuclear power]], the cost of rebuilding, and the end of [[colonialism]] left Atlantropa technologically and politically unnessicary, although the Atlantropa Institute remained in existence until [[1960]].


==Atlantropa in fiction==
==Atlantropa in fiction==

Revision as of 16:53, 20 February 2007

Atlantropa was a gigantic engineering and colonization project devised by the German architect Herman Sörgel in the 1920s and propagated by him until his death in 1952. Its central feature was a hydroelectric dam to be built across the Strait of Gibraltar, and the lowering of the surface of the Mediterranean Sea by as much as 200 metres.

The project

The ultimate, utopian goal of the project was to solve all the major problems of European civilization by the creation of a new continent, "Atlantropa", consisting of Europe and Africa and to be inhabited by Europeans. Sörgel was convinced that to remain competitive with the Americas and an emerging, Oriental "Pan-Asia", Europe must become self-sufficient, and this meant possessing territories in all climate zones – hence colonizing Africa was necessary. The lowering of the Mediterranean would enable the production of immense amounts of electric power, guaranteeing the growth of industry. Vast tracts of land would be freed for agriculture – including the Sahara desert, which was to be irrigated (Sörgel mistakenly thought much of the Sahara to be substantially beneath sea level). The massive public works, envisioned to go on for more than a century, would relieve unemployment and the acquisition of new land would ease the pressure of overpopulation, which Sörgel thought were the fundamental causes of political unrest in Europe. Sörgel also believed the project's effect on the climate could only be beneficial. The Middle East, under the control of a consolidated Atlantropa, would be an additional energy source and a bulwark against the Yellow peril.

The publicity materials produced for Atlantropa by Sörgel and his supporters contain plans, maps, and scale models of several dams and new ports on the Mediterranean, views of the Gibraltar dam crowned by a 400-metre tower designed by Peter Behrens, projections of the growth of agricultural production, sketches for a pan-Atlantropan power grid, and even provisions for the protection of Venice as a cultural landmark. Concerns about climate change, earthquakes, attacks, and the fate of African culture are often ignored as being uninportant.

The project never gained substantial support despite its fantastic scale and eurocentric expansionism. Under the Nazi regime the plan was ridiculed as it was against the idea of a Eurasian German Empire. The Italians never supported the idea as their cities are currently so dependant on the coastlines. After the Second World War interest was peaked as the allies saught to create closer bonds with Africa and combat communisim, but the invention of nuclear power, the cost of rebuilding, and the end of colonialism left Atlantropa technologically and politically unnessicary, although the Atlantropa Institute remained in existence until 1960.

Atlantropa in fiction

In Gene Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the Strait of Gibraltar has been dammed. Roddenberry may have borrowed the idea from Sörgel via the popular works of Willy Ley, whose book Engineers' Dreams describes both Atlantropa and Sörgel's other grand design, the forming of an inland sea in central Africa.

The idea has a central role in the 1950 novel by Soviet science fiction writer Grigorii Grebnev The Flying Station which was popular in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, and was also translated to Hebrew. It depicts a future where Socialist Revolution is triumphant world-wide and leads humanity to undreamed happiness and prosperity, but must still fight off neo-Nazi remanants who skulk near the North Pole and plot to sabotage the Revolution's most prestigious project – the erecting of a huge dam at Gibraltar. Evidently, the book took up the technical details of Sörgel's idea while diametrically reversing its underlying geopolitical implications.

SF writer David Mason's The Shores of Tomorrow (1971), with the theme of conflict between numerous timelines of alternate history which found means of invading each other, includes a technologically-advanced world where a project similar to Sörgel's had been realised thousands of years ago and the former Meditterranean sea bottom transformed into fertile agricultural land. However, during a cataclismic power struggle between various protagonists the dam at the Gibraltar-analogue is blown up and the valleys flooded by the Atlantic waters, with immense loss of life.

See also

Bibliography

  • Gall, Alexander (1998). Das Atlantropa-Projekt: die Geschichte einer gescheiterten Vision. Herman Sörgel und die Absenkung des Mittelmeers. Frankfurt a.M.: Campus. ISBN 3-593-35988-X
  • Sörgel, Herman (1929). Mittelmeer-Senkung. Sahara Bewässerung (Paneuropa-Projekt) Leipzig: Gebhardt.
  • Sörgel, Herman (1932). Atlantropa (3rd, illustrated edition). Zürich: Fretz & Wasmuth.
  • Sörgel, Herman (1938). Die drei grossen "A". Großdeutschland und italienisches Imperium, die Pfeiler Atlantropas. [Amerika, Atlantropa, Asien]. München: Piloty & Loehle.
  • Sörgel, Herman (1942). Atlantropa-ABC: Kraft, Raum, Brot. Erläuterungen zum Atlantropa-Projekt. Leipzig: Arnd.
  • Sörgel, Herman (1948). Atlantropa. Wesenszüge eines Projekts. Vorwort von John Knittel. Stuttgart: Behrendt.
  • Voigt, Wolfgang (1998). Atlantropa: Weltbauen am Mittelmeer. Ein Architektentraum der Moderne. Hamburg: Dölling und Galitz. ISBN 3-933374-05-7
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