GRGR(7): Engineers as ideologues

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

      [- Posted this stuff before, some months ago]

      
      The (mis)education of Mondaugen & Pökler:
      
      In the context of GR, it's useful to have  a look at Jeffrey Herf's       
      socio-historical German study "Reactionary modernism" (= condemning       
      liberalism while embracing the machine). From the chapter "Engineers as   
      ideologues" here are several outtakes, that shed some light on the       
      professional mentality of Pökler & Mondaugen:

      "Rathenau's writings in particular combined a technocratic vision of 
      productivity with spiritualized views of technology. [152] ... the 
      cultural politicians of German engineering began to reconcile technology 
      and culture in a nationalist synthesis long before WW I. And whatever 
      pragmatic interest interests motivated German engineers, their ideological 
      traditions also opened the door for nazification [153] ... The cultural 
      dilemma of Germany's engineers was the following: How could technology be 
      integrated into a national culture that lacked strong liberal traditions  
      and that fostered intense romantic and antiindustrial sentiments?         
      Technology would have to be legitimated without succumbing to            
      Enlightenment rationality. Just like the literati, the engineers wanted to 
      demonstrate  
      that technological advance was compatible with German nationalism's revolt 
      against positivism [154f.] (...) The cultural politics of the engineers 
      created a set of symbols, key words, and emotionally laden metaphors that 
      provided a bridge between the trade unuion consciousness of the engineers 
      and the more all-inclusive surge of German nationalism. (...) from the 
      1870s to the 1930s. Ludwig has labeled the traditions of the engineers in 
      this period the 'anticapitalism of the technicians', and he stresses four 
      main components. First, technology emanated from the deepest impulses of 
      German KULTUR and not from the disenchanted materialism of Western 
      ZIVILISATION; second, the cultural, political and economic crises of      
      modern German society were not due to the machine but to its misuse of    
      private capitalist interest; third, the welfare of the national community 
      could be protected only by a strong state, which ought to predominate over 
      private economic interests; and fourth, engineers had a central role to 
      play in providing the expertise necessary for Germany in an age of 
      technological warfare [155] ... Engineers strained for legitimacy with the 
      language of KULTUR. (...) Although a 'philosophy' of technology sounds 
      slightly ridiculous in the American, French, or British context, in       
      Germany it seemed perfectly appropriate. [157] ... [According to Edward 
      Mayer:]   
      Technology sprang from an 'instinct to re-form' (UMGESTALTUNGSTRIEB), a 
      part of 'human essence' that seeks to organize and harness nature. (...)  
      The text is replete with references to 'creative impulses'(SCHÖPFERISCHER 
      DRANG)and to a 'higher cosmic mission' (HÖHERE KOSMISCHE SENDUNG) that 
      pushes man to subdue a 'chaotic nature'. (...) In Wend's view, the history 
      of technology presented a process of 'increasing spiritualization'       
      (STEIGENDE VERGEISTIGUNG) of labor. [158] ...[Max] Eyth claimed that even 
      this so-called cultivated world was beginning to realize that there was 
      more GEIST in a beautiful locomotive or electric motor than in the most 
      elegant phrases of Cicero or Vergil. (...) [Julius] Schenk was a professor 
      at the TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE in Munich [- that's where Pökler & Mondaugen 
      met] and his book was composed of his lectures at the university. (...) He 
      claimed that both engineers and visual artists deal with creative forms 
      and images', that it was time for engineers to give up their inferiority 
      complex concerning the humanities, and that engineering professors should 
      accentuate the cultural value of construction (BILDUNGSWERT DES BAUENS). 
      [159]... Along with Spengler, [Manfred] Schroter [in 1934] saw technology 
      as filling the world with clear, distinct forms that comprised a dike 
      against the potential chaos and formlessness of modern liberal politics 
      and culture.[167] ... For Schroter, Germany, the country in the middle 
      between East and West, rejected the materialism of the Americans and 
      Russians. It was the only modern nation able to create a proper 
      relationship between technology and culture.[168] ... [According to 
      Friedrich Dessauer (1928)] Technology suffered as well [under 'the 
      predominance of the capitalist over the entrepeneur]. Technology had an 
      'essence', a life of its own that demonstrated 'the fullfillment of 
      natural laws'. (...)Technology was inherently linked to the idea of 
      service rather than profit.[171] ... [Heinrich Hardensett argued in 1926] 
      that technological advance did not lead to an disenchantment of the world 
      but to a revived understanding of the relation between reason and magic.  
      Technology had a deep religious impulse that persisted despite numerous   
      efforts, beginning with Galileo, to eliminate animism and magic from      
      technics. An irreducible 'unmagical magic' remained, evidence of the      
      inseperability of religion and technology. [182] ... Capitalist man       
      created a world of ephemeral, abstract values, whereas technical man      
      sought to create permanent, concrete objects that are 'cosmic, eternal and 
      godly'. He strives to 'transcend time and space through creation of form  
      ...and to transform variable incompleteness into eternal duration' [183f.] 
      ...".
                                Yours, Kai