Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Grandiose Plan to Drain the Mediterranean and Merge Europe and Africa Into One Supercontinent
Face2Face Africa ^ | Mar 15, 2021

Posted on 03/15/2021 1:30:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway

The Alantropa plan does sound absurd today to many, but in the 1920s, it was taken seriously by engineers, politicians, architects, and even the United Nations, at one point. There were hundreds of articles in the German and international press supporting the project, and currently, thousands of publications and lectures about Alantropa can be found in a special section in the archive of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The grandiose plan involved partially draining the Mediterranean Sea and uniting Europe and Africa into one supercontinent.

German architect Herman Sörgel, who was the brain behind the project, believed his plan was the only way to prevent another conflict. World War I had at the time plunged Europe into crisis. Europe’s future was uncertain. After having lost a lot of lives in the war, it was now faced with mass unemployment, poverty, overpopulation while an energy crisis was imminent.

Having experienced all these, Sörgel was convinced that his Alantropa project, which would among others create more land to develop more infrastructure, would help curtail these European problems while ensuring peace. Here’s how.

A brief history of the Griqua demanding recognition as first South Africans How some European regions came to have flags with the heads of Black men on them This Caribbean island risks splitting into two if nothing is done immediately Africa is splitting into two after tear in Kenya’s Rift Valley [Video]

In 1927, having been inspired by other gigantic engineering projects like the Suez Canal, a 42-year-old Sörgel developed his plan for Atlantropa, which he originally called Panropa. The plan involved building a network of dams. The biggest would be built across the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco, separating the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean. A second dam would be built across the Dardanelles which would shut off the Black Sea. A third dam would also be placed across the Strait of Sicily, linking Italy to Tunisia and cutting the Mediterranean in two, with different water levels on either side.

These dams would together link Europe to Africa via roads and railways, facilitating the transportation of African minerals and oil to European processing and production centers, a report noted. What’s more, each of the dams would provide hydroelectric energy, supplying Europe with all the power it needed. With a total of 660,200 km2 of new land expected to be reclaimed from the sea, Europe would also have an abundant supply of food from new farmland while Europe’s nations would also have space to expand.

Sörgel maintained that the scale of the Alantropa project, which requires cooperation between countries in terms of money and people power, would put aside the thoughts of getting involved in future conflicts. Again, labor would be needed for the project, giving jobs to the many unemployed at the time.

The German architect believed in Alantropa so much so that he did not only promote it vigorously through the press, films, talks, exhibitions, and poetry, but he also founded the Atlantropa Institute to make his plans known to all. Yet, he failed to talk about the “racist underpinnings” of his project. As part of Alantropa, the Congo River would be blocked, flooding Central Africa and its inhabitants. Ultimately, Alantropa would see Europeans ruling as the dominant race with Africans being a source of labor. Africa’s resources and land would also be at their disposal.

Fortunately, no one gave Sörgel any signs of wanting to invest in his project, despite its popularity. The Nazis, who believed in the concept of Lebensraum (territory to provide space to its members), thought the initiative was impossible and preferred to invade occupying countries to achieve their aim. World powers were also during the time more interested in nuclear power than in hydroelectricity. Thus, Alantropa was never realized. However, following Sörgel’s death in 1952, his idea lived on in science fiction as seen in Phillip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle and Grigory Grebnev’s novel, The Flying Station.


TOPICS: History; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: africa; alantropaplan; europe; germany; hermansorgel; lebensraum; mediterranean; thirdreich
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last

1 posted on 03/15/2021 1:30:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Dam up the Black Sea? Put a plug in the Suez Canal? Why not?


2 posted on 03/15/2021 1:33:43 PM PDT by Savage Beast (Dhritarashtra reigns! Duryodhana and Duhshasa rule! Truth-seekers be damned!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

The Germans can’t resist statist utopian schemes.


3 posted on 03/15/2021 1:35:17 PM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

I had never heard of Alantropa or Sörgel before, very fascinating, but RACISSS!


4 posted on 03/15/2021 1:36:29 PM PDT by PROCON (Our rights do not come from government, therefore they cannot take them away.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

This is a f***in’ great idea.


5 posted on 03/15/2021 1:36:55 PM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

6 posted on 03/15/2021 1:37:34 PM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
"The Nazis ... thought the initiative was impossible and preferred to invade occupying countries to achieve their aim."

Makes sense.

7 posted on 03/15/2021 1:39:13 PM PDT by fruser1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

average depth is 4,900 ft - almost a mile. LOL


8 posted on 03/15/2021 1:42:02 PM PDT by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

I thought everyone was worried about sea level rise.

What impact would that have on the rest of the world? Wouldn’t you need permission from every other coastal nation?


9 posted on 03/15/2021 1:45:04 PM PDT by PTBAA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

“but in the 1920s, it was taken seriously by engineers, politicians, architects, and even the United Nations, at one point.”


Error in the first sentence. United Nations didn’t exist in the 1920s.


10 posted on 03/15/2021 1:53:39 PM PDT by jerseyman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PGR88
Germans can’t resist statist utopian schemes.

Yea....Almost as stuuuupid as the "I'd like to buy the WORLD a coke" or white people should teach their chilin to be less white!

11 posted on 03/15/2021 1:54:07 PM PDT by crazy scenario (The burden of Damascus is next!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

That would turn much of Southern Europe into a desert because the land would be too far from a substantial body of water


12 posted on 03/15/2021 1:56:22 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Hillary Clinton =The Pig In A Pantsuit (The PIAPS))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fai Mao

Then the whole bunch can worship Tammus together and have a big old pagan holiday, which many in Europe commonly observe, and the “Holy Virgin” Proserpine and the god of hell Pluto.


13 posted on 03/15/2021 2:03:53 PM PDT by Colt1851Navy (What was wrong with Nixon?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

But then they wouldn’t have the Mediterranean Sea.


14 posted on 03/15/2021 2:11:46 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Pathetic Pierre Delecto, the Pestiferous Potentate of Enchanted Chones.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

A relative gave me a dystopian novel that occurs after this system occurs. I could not get into it. I could only see Europe flooded by water that could not exit via the Black Sea.


15 posted on 03/15/2021 2:20:35 PM PDT by vaskypilot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: plain talk

Actually it’s happened before.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090211122529.htm


16 posted on 03/15/2021 2:20:44 PM PDT by lizma2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: lizma2
"Actually it’s happened before."

Earth has been through quite a bit of change over billions of years. But man has never drained the Mediterranean Sea before.

17 posted on 03/15/2021 2:25:42 PM PDT by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

The Germans found a different, er, solution, to get their lebensraum.


18 posted on 03/15/2021 2:26:32 PM PDT by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jerseyman

I guess they meant The League of Nations.


19 posted on 03/15/2021 2:40:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: lizma2

I remember that.


20 posted on 03/15/2021 2:42:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-53 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson