Nazi Volksgemeinschaft Technology: Gottfrried Feder, Fritz Todt , and the Plassenburg Spirit

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. Preface Acknowledgments Contents About the Author Abbreviations List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Gottfried Feder and Völkisch Technocracy Chapter 3: The Militant League of German Architects and Engineers Chapter 4: Feder to Todt: Limited Gleichschaltung of Engineers, 1933–1934 Chapter 5: Gottfried Feder and Settlement: New Cities for the Volk Chapter 6: The Autobahn: Technology, Nature, Heimat, and Art Chapter 7: Fritz Todt and the Reordering of German Technology, 1935–1937 Chapter 8: Educating Engineers: The Plassenburg School and Deutsche Technik Chapter 9: The Nazi “Voyages of Technology” Chapter 10: Fritz Todt, War Minister, 1939–1943 Chapter 11: Fritz Todt’s “Speaker System” Chapter 12: Albert Speer and the End of “German Technology” Chapter 13: Technology for Pleasure and Death Chapter 14: Conclusion Bibliography Archival and Research Center Sources Published Primary Sources Contemporary Periodicals Consulted Selected Secondary Sources Index