Atlantropa 3956034 225052683 2008-07-11T17:35:44Z 79.97.28.68 /* Atlantropa in fiction */ [[Image:Map of the Atlantrop Projekt.png|thumb|Outline Map (german)]] '''Atlantropa''' was a [[Macro-engineering|gigantic engineering]] and colonization project devised by the [[Germany|German]] [[architect]] [[Herman Sörgel]] in the 1920s and propagated by him until his death in 1952. Its central feature was a [[hydroelectricity|hydroelectric dam]] to be built across the [[Strait of Gibraltar]],<ref>"Atlantropa: A plan to dam the Mediterranean Sea." 16 March 2005. <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.xefer.com/iuncturae/2005/03/72 Archive.]</span> Xefer. Retrieved on [[4 August]] [[2007]].</ref> and the lowering of the surface of the [[Mediterranean Sea]] by as much as 200 metres.<ref>"Atlantropa."23 June 2006. <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.economy-point.org/a/atlantropa.html Information on Atlantropa.]</span> Economy Point. Retrieved on [[4 August]] [[2007]].</ref> ==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 with the help of three sea-sized man made lakes throughout Africa. 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.<ref name="a"> "Atlantropa." <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/10/atlantropa.php Issue 10 Spring 2003.]</span> Cabinet Magazine. Retrieved on [[4 August]] [[2007]].</ref> Concerns about climate change, earthquakes, attacks, and the fate of [[African culture]] are often ignored as being unimportant. 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 were so dependent on the coastlines. After the [[Second World War]] interest was piqued as the allies sought to create closer bonds with Africa and combat communism, but the invention of [[nuclear power]], the cost of rebuilding, and the end of [[colonialism]] left Atlantropa technologically and politically unnecessary, although the [[Atlantropa Institute]] remained in existence until 1960.<ref name="a" /> ==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. <ref name="a" /> 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]] remnants 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. In [[Philip K. Dick]]'s classic [[alternate history]] novel ''[[The Man in the High Castle]]'' (1962) mention is made in passing of Nazi Germany draining the Mediterranean as just one of several gargantuan projects. The Mediterranean sea is also mentioned as drained in [[Sir Arthur C. Clarke]]'s [[Rendezvous with Rama]], in the context of the spectacular archaeological discoveries it enabled. 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 Mediterranean sea bottom transformed into fertile agricultural land. However, during a cataclysmic 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. Discussion of the project also rates a chapter in John Knittel's 1939 novel ''Power for Sale.'' There is a passing reference to a huge hydroelectric dam spanning the Straits of Gibraltar in the [[Alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] novel ''Under the Yoke'' by [[S. M. Stirling]]. Although the word "Atlantropa" is never used and there is no mention of lowered sea levels in the Mediterranean, Stirling's novels of the [[Draka]] are something of an inversion of Sörgel's vision, in that it is Africa that subsumes Europe to create the new composite continental entity, with the ''guiding light'' coming from [[Pretoria]] rather than [[Munich]]. In the [[Dan Simmons]] novels [[Ilium (novel)|Ilium]] and [[Olympos (novel)|Olympos]] the Mediterranean has been dammed and drained. In the PC game Railroad Tycoon II: The Next Millennium, a dam is built across the Straits of Gibraltar in one of the missions. In the [[Harry Turtledove]] short story "Tales from the Bottom Land" the area of the Mediterranean Sea is a desert through natural causes - the Straits of Gilbrator have naturally closed thousands of years earlier. The story has the protagonist try to stop a terrorist plot to open up the natural dam to the Atlantic Ocean through use of a nuclear weapon. ==See also== *[[Aral Sea]] *[[Gibraltar Tunnel]] *[[Gibraltar Bridge]] *[[Three Gorges Dam]] *[[Trans Global Highway]] ==References== {{reflist}} *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 *Gall, Alexander (2006). Atlantropa: A Technological Vision of a United Europe, in: Networking Europe. Transnational Infrastructures and the Shaping of Europe, 1850–2000, edited by Erik van der Vleuten and Arne Kaijser. Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications, p. 99–128. ISBN 0-88135-394-9 *Günzel, Anne Sophie (2007). Das “Atlantropa”-Projekt – Erschließung Europas und Afrikas (2nd edition). München: Grin. ISBN 3-638-64638-6 *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 ==External links== *[http://www.phoenix.de/test_bildergalerie/109092.htm Pictures from 2006 the WDR/Phoenix television documentary] *[http://flyvbjerg.plan.aau.dk/whatisamegaproject.php What is a Megaproject?] *[http://www.cad.architektur.tu-darmstadt.de/d_projects/atlantropa.html Reconstructions of parts of Atlantropa at the University of Technology in Darmstadt] *[http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/10/atlantropa.php Cabinet Magazine Article on Atlantropa] *R.B. Cathcart, "Land Art as global warming or cooling antidote", Speculations in Science and Technology, 21: 65-72 (1998) *R.B. Cathcart, "Mitigative Anthropogeomorphology: a revived 'plan' for the Mediterranean Sea Basin and the Sahara", Terra Nova: The European Journal of Geosciences, 7: 636-640 (1995). *R.B. Cathcart, "What if We Lowered the Mediterranean Sea?", Speculations in Science and Technology, 8: 7-15 (1985). *R.B. Cathcart, "Macro-engineering Transformation of the Mediterranean Sea and Africa", World Futures, 19: 111-121 (1983). *R.B. Cathcart, "Mediterranean Basin-Sahara Reclamation", Speculations in Science and Technology, 6: 150-152 (1983). [[Category:Unbuilt buildings and structures]] [[Category:Macro-engineering]] [[Category:Megastructures]] [[de:Atlantropa]] [[es:Atlantropa]] [[fr:Atlantropa]] [[it:Atlantropa]] [[he:אטלנטרופה]] [[nl:Atlantropa]] [[ja:アトラントローパ]] [[pl:Atlantropa]] [[pt:Atlantropa]] [[fi:Atlantropa]]