The Atlantropa Project

Wednesday, 20 February 2013 - 01:07 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Berlin
Reading Time:  5 minutes

Atlantropa project © Devilm25/cc-by-3.0

Atlantropa project © Devilm25/cc-by-3.0

Atlantropa, also referred to as Panropa, was a gigantic engineering and colonization project devised by the German architect Herman Sörgel in the 1920s and promulgated by him until his death in 1952. Its central feature was a hydroelectric dam to be built across the Strait of Gibraltar, which would have provided enormous amounts of hydroelectricity and would have led to the lowering of the surface of the Mediterranean Sea by up to 200 metres (660 ft), opening up large new lands for settlement, for example in a now almost totally drained Adriatic Sea.

Sörgel saw his scheme, projected to take over a century, as a peaceful European-wide alternative to the Lebensraum concepts which later became one of the stated reasons for Nazi conquest of new territories. Atlantropa would provide land and food, employment, electric power, and most of all, a new vision for Europe and neighbouring Africa.

The plan was inspired by the coeval understanding of the Messinian salinity crisis, a pan-Mediterranean geological event that took place 5 to 6 million years ago. The contemporary geologists proposed that the large salt deposits surrounding the Mediterranean coast were the result of its partial isolation by a shrinking of the seaways connecting to the Atlantic. Today it is a majority opinion among geoscientists that the Mediterranean underwent a significant drawdown during that period.

The Utopian goal 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 (who were supposed to flourish under the effects of the climate changes, as opposed to Africa’s native populations). 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. Asia would forever remain a mystery to Europeans, and the British would not be able to maintain their global empire in the long run – hence a common European effort to colonize Africa was necessary. The lowering of the Mediterranean would enable the production of immense amounts of electric power, guaranteeing the growth of industry. Unlike fossil fuels, this power source would not be subject to depletion. 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 material 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 provision for the protection of Venice as a cultural landmark. Concerns about climate change, earthquakes, attacks and the fate of African culture were often ignored as being unimportant.

Read more on Wikipedia Atlantropa. Photo by Wikipedia Commons.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Portrait: Steinway & Sons, manufacturer of grand pianos and pianos

Portrait: Steinway & Sons, manufacturer of grand pianos and pianos

[caption id="attachment_162558" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Steinway & Sons[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway, is an American and German piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan, New York Cit...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Champagne - Troyes

Theme Week Champagne - Troyes

[caption id="attachment_153552" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Old Town © KBWEi[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Troyes is a commune and the capital of the Aube department. It is located on the Seine river about 150 km (93 mi) southeast o...

[ read more ]

The port city of Brest

The port city of Brest

[caption id="attachment_153751" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Rue Saint-Malo maisons © Moreau.henri[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered ...

[ read more ]

Theme Week New Caledonia

Theme Week New Caledonia

[caption id="attachment_150403" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Île des Pins - Traditional pirogue © Bruno.Menetrier[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean...

[ read more ]

Krak des Chevaliers in Syria

Krak des Chevaliers in Syria

[caption id="attachment_225211" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Xvlun/cc-by-sa-2.5[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Krak des Chevaliers or Crac des Chevaliers, also called Ḥiṣn al-Akrād (literally "Fortress of the Kurds") and former...

[ read more ]

The Marlins Park in Miami

The Marlins Park in Miami

[caption id="attachment_169004" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © flickr.com - Roberto Coquis/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Marlins Park is a baseball park located in Miami. It is the current home of the Miami Marlins, the cit...

[ read more ]

Olympia in Greece

Olympia in Greece

[caption id="attachment_25011" align="aligncenter" width="590"] British Museum - Olympia Model © Joanbanjo/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Olympia, a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of th...

[ read more ]

The seaside town of Blackpool

The seaside town of Blackpool

[caption id="attachment_151646" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Central Pier © flickr.com - David P[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It ...

[ read more ]

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

[caption id="attachment_213614" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Institute of Systematic Botany © Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (also referred to as LMU or the University of...

[ read more ]

Manneken Pis in Brussels

Manneken Pis in Brussels

[caption id="attachment_232432" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © C.Suthorn/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Manneken Pis (Dutch for 'Little Pissing Man') is a landmark 55.5 cm (21.9 in) bronze fountain sculpture in central Br...

[ read more ]

Drottningholm Palace on Island Lovön in Lake Mälaren

Drottningholm Palace on Island Lovön in Lake Mälaren

[caption id="attachment_24966" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Drottningholm Palace © Sxenko/cc-by-2.5[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Drottningholm Palace (Swedish: Drottningholms slott) is the private residence of the Swedish royal ...

[ read more ]

Guadeloupe, the southernmost islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean

Guadeloupe, the southernmost islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean

[caption id="attachment_152969" align="aligncenter" width="590"] I'let du Gosier © bobyfume[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Guadeloupe is a Caribbean island located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 ...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top