German and French Diesel Engineering 1920 - 1940
The Grammar of Technology
German and French Diesel Engineering,
1920-1940
By MIKAEL HARD AND ANDREAS KNIE
The Grammar of Technology
German and French Diesel Engineering,
1920-1940
MIKAEL HARD AND ANDREAS KNIE
At a meeting of the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI, German Engineering Society) in 1925 Imanuel Lauster, an honorary doctor of engineering, expressed his "deep satisfaction" with the latest successful developments in diesel engineering. As a board member of the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Niirnberg (M.A.N.), he was pleased to note that it was German engineers and companies that deserved the credit for this success. Lauster claimed that "the diesel engine in its present form is still a German engine" and hoped that "it will remain so."1
Lauster did not utter these words in connection with any kind of celebration or anniversary. His assertion of the German character of the diesel engine at that time was meant as an exhortation to retain Teutonic hegemony in the field of diesel engineering. Growing international interest in the engine was threatening to shift the initiative away from German firms to foreign companies. Lauster's address could be interpreted as a desperateattempt to build a German coalition that could withstand foreign competition and influence. A couple of years later, similar attempts would actually lead to the design of a German "uniform diesel" (Einheitsdiesel)
Dr. Hard is professor of the history of technology at the Technical University Darmstadt and coeditor, with Andrew Jamison, of The Intellectual Appropriation of Technology: Discourses on Modernity, 1900-1939 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998). Dr. Knie is senior researcher at Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung (WZB). His most recent book is Mbglichkeitsraume: Grundrisse einer modernen Mobilitatspolitik und Verkehrspolitik (Vienna, 1997), written with Weert Canzler. This article draws on two research projects: "The Development of Technology in Organizational Contexts," financed by the German Ministry for Research and Technology, and "Closures and Openings in the History of the Automobile," financed by the Swedish Transport and
Communications Research Board. The authors thank Patrick Fridenson and three reviewers for invaluable comments.
? 1999 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved.
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