Nazi Volksgemeinschaft Technology

Gottfried Feder, Fritz Todt, and the Plassenburg Spirit

John C. Guse (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

XXI, 309 Seiten

2024
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-031-32058-3 (ISBN)

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This book traces how Gottfried Feder and Fritz Todt made technology essential to the Nazi 'world view'. They groomed engineers with a racist technical ideology that prepared them to later supervise slave labor and the Holocaust. Their concepts evolved from völkisch technocracy to an idealized harmony of man, machine and nature, and were eclipsed by Albert Speer's total war. Partially due to willing 'self-coordination' from engineers, they gained political control over the engineering profession. Destined to be pillars of the Volksgemeinschaft, engineers were indoctrinated with Nazi principles of Aryan superiority at the Reich School of Technology, the Plassenburg. Nazi propaganda announced a bright future through technology, furthering a sense of normalcy in Germany, despite the ruthless exclusion of those unwanted.

John C. Guse studied at universities in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and at Bonn, Germany. He was a Director at the American School of Paris and inspecteur délégué for the French International Baccalaureat. His publications concern Fritz Todt, propaganda for Nazi technology, and a 'forgotten' internment camp in France.

1. Introduction.- 2. Gottfried Feder and Völkisch Technocracy.- 3. The Militant League of German Architects and Engineers.- 4. Feder to Todt: Limited Gleichschaltung of Engineers, 1933-1934.- 5. Gottfried Feder and Settlement: New Cities for The Volk.- 6. The Autobahn: Technology, Nature, Heimat, and Art.- 7. Fritz Todt and The Reordering of German Technology, 1935-1937.- 8. Educating Engineers: The Plassenburg School and Deutsche Technik.- 9. The Nazi "Voyages of Technology".- 10. Fritz Todt, War Minister, 1939-1943.- 11. Fritz Todt's "Speaker System".- 12. Albert Speer and the End of "German Technology".- 13. Technology for Pleasure And Death.- 14. Conclusion.

John Guse's study on Todt's brand of ideology for Nazi engineers, as well as Gottfried Feder's more radical version, is ... a welcome addition to investigations into a key member of Hitler's elite. ... Guse describes with admirable clarity and detail how Todt, the "skilled bureaucratic infighter," forged a brilliant career ... . Guse conducts a meticulous examination of Nazi technical ideology and describes convincingly how it helped turn many engineers into perpetrators. (Charles Dick, Central European History, May 13, 2025)

John Guse s book is the culmination of many years worth of research, and it shows: the depth of his research is hugely impressive . the book provides as much information about the leading Nazi technologists as most scholars and interested readers will need to know. it makes a compelling case for the importance of technology in understanding the complexities and paradoxes of the Nazi regime. (Dan Stone, Journal of Modern History, Vol. 97 (2), June, 2025)

... Nazi Volksgemeinschaft Technology schließt mithin gelungen eine wichtige Forschungslücke . ... Guses Buch dürfte auf absehbare Zeit das Standardwerk über die nationalsozialistische Technikideologie und Technopolitik sein. (Torsten Meyer, in: German Studies Review, Jg. 48, Heft 1, Februar 2025)

In a concise yet thoroughly documented narrative, Guse demonstrates how Feder and Todt attempted to organize technology in the service of an almost utopian vision of a collective German identity that supposedly overrode class and other social distinctions . Guse shows how various visions of how to build technology in and for the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft experienced varying success, but in the end all these visions of constructing a Volksgemeinschaft technology were subordinated to the destruction unleashed by Nazi ideology. (Richard H. Beyler, H-Net Reviews, h-net.org, November 6, 2024)

Historians have rarely engaged with the question of how German engineers interacted with Nazi ideology. John Guse s book confronts this question directly by analyzing the regime s two most prominent engineers, Gottfried Feder and Fritz Todt. By taking Fritz Todt s commitment to National Socialism seriously, Guse provides a much more critical and insightful analysis of the engineer than previous authors. (Mark Walker, H-Net Reviews, h-net.org, July, 2024)

Guse summarizes decades of research and adds his own interpretations. His subtle distinctions between völkisch technocracy and a spiritual revolution are welcome. The author ably interweaves the changing meanings of ideology with analyses of the power politics of Nazi Germany. Guse s book offers significant insights regarding Todt and the politics of technology in Nazi Germany. (Thomas Zeller, European Review of History - Revue européenne d'histoire, July 23, 2024)

... Insgesamt gibt das Buch von Guse einen guten Einblick in die Bedeutung der Technologie in der NS-Zeit mit spannenden Einzelbefunden und fügt sich in die einschlägigen Forschungsarbeiten zu diesem Themenfeld ein. (Andreas Haka, in: Technikgeschichte, Jg. 91, Heft 2, 2024)

This book is a good survey of the transition from a völkisch technocracy à la Feder to totalitarian Deutsche Technik à la Todt, supported by archival documents from ten archives and research institutions, with a clear focus on a few key figures, the Reich School of Technology, and the technopolitical journal Deutsche Technik. (Klaus Hentschel, Technology and Culture, Vol. 65 (3), July, 2024)

... Insgesamt bietet Guse die bis heute beste und umfassendste Analyse der NS-Technikideologie. Er hat bis auf wenige Ausnahmen nicht nur den aktuellen Forschungsstand, sondern auch weitere umfängliche Quellenbestände ausgewertet. Guse demaskiert Fritz Todt als Mittäter Hitlers und liefert damit einen überaus wertvollen Beitrag zur politischen Bildung der Ingenieure heute vor allem auch im Kontext der aktuellen politischen Entwicklungen. (Helmut Maier, in: H-Soz-Kult, hsozkult.de, 13. Juni, 2024)

Insgesamt präsentiert er ein Werk, das sich methodisch auf der Höhe der Zeit befindet, stringent einen äußerst interessanten und durchdachten Ansatz verfolgt und unser Verständnis über die Funktionslogik der NS-Herrschaft in einem marginalisierten Themenfeld bereichert. (Christian Packheiser, in: sehepunkte, sehepunkte.de, Jg. 24, Heft 6, 2024)

Erscheinungsdatum	13.11.2024
Zusatzinfo	XXI, 309 p. 22 illus.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	148 x 210 mm
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
Schlagworte	Albert Speer • deutsche Technik • Plassenburg School • volkisch • Volksgemeinschaft
ISBN-10	3-031-32058-1 / 3031320581
ISBN-13	978-3-031-32058-3 / 9783031320583
Zustand	Neuware