Atlantropa

Atlantropa is the name of a monumental dam project in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Dardanelles, which has planned from 1928 until his accidental death in 1952 and published the German architect Herman Soergel and geopolitics.

• 2.1 Advantages
• 2.2 disadvantages
• 2.3 See also

• 3.1 Sörgel writings Atlantropa
• 3.2 Other Authors

Conception

The concept was based on the observation that continuously flows water from the Atlantic and the Black Sea into the Mediterranean because there evaporates more water than its tributaries compensate. Through a dam of this inflow should on the one hand be reduced to lower the sea level for land reclamation, on the other hand the rest of inflow should be used to generate electricity by hydropower.

In the early 1920s began Sörgel together with the Swiss engineer Bruno Siegwart the planning of the dam Atlantropa on the Straits of Gibraltar. You did not choose in the planning for the narrowest part, but for about 20 kilometers to the west of it located. After Sörgel records alone, the foundation should be 2.5 kilometers wide and up to 300 meters high. The construction period was estimated to be ten years. In four layers per 200,000 workers should be employed. Unclear were the logistical problems of building material procurement and transport workers. Presumably, the demand for cement would have made ​​the world market almost impossible task.

Shaping

The name of the project is the same also for the visionary goal of the project is to form a continuous continent from what is now Europe and Africa, via a largely reclaimed Mediterranean. Sörgel planned a two drop areas. So should a land bridge Sicily, today's Italy and North Africa, Tunisia connect more closely with each other. Thus, a continuous rail link between Berlin, Rome and Cape Town should be made possible.

In such bipartite Mediterranean would in the final stage, the water level should be lowered by up to 100 meters in the western part, in the eastern part to 200 meters. The water area of the Mediterranean would be shrunk by 20 percent and 500,000 km ² territory had been won; an area roughly the size of Spain.

For Venice Sörgel planned in his project of a dam and an artificial lake, which was to preserve the Venetian lagoon in front of the " drying out ".

Objectives

The project should solve several problems simultaneously. It should gain valuable new territory, creating habitat and jobs and provide electrical power for the whole of Europe. Not least, the creative forces of the European nations should by this colonization, running over several generations major project bundled positively and thereby renewed military conflict in Europe be avoided. 1940, the association " Atlantropa Institute " was founded after much planning, which was operated even after the death of Sörgel until 1960, trying to raise money for the realization of the project.

Atlantropa in the discussion

Viewed from the present research status of, you can see today in the major project next to his efficiency increasingly more difficulties and dangers. Nevertheless, on the implementation of a similar project, the foreclosure of the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean by means of a dam to prevent the sea level rise in the Mediterranean, thinking.

Benefits

The benefit of the project would have been next to the land reclamation greater independence of European energy supplies and lower consumption of fossil fuels to generate electrical energy. Added would be the economic integration and an industrial building from North Africa.

Disadvantages

Geologically the dam apart from the risks of plate tectonics would have been exposed to an increased risk of tsunamis. An effect of the immense pressure change is hardly estimated from the volcanically and seismically active regions such as Italy, Greece or Turkey. Due to the desertification of the edge zones of the Mediterranean Sea, the rainfall in North Africa have decreased and thus crop yields. In security terms, to consider also is a great vulnerability to terrorist attacks, accidents and excessive dependence on a single dam - which would, however, not greater than, for example, the Egyptian Aswan Dam.

In addition, serious ecological consequences ( destruction of the habitat of thousands of species) would be expected, in particular by increasing the salinity of the residual sea. Furthermore, the influence on the climate in the Mediterranean region is likely to be extremely difficult to estimate.

The political consequences would have been unforeseeable, since the boundaries of all Mediterranean countries have moved.

The project would have an impact on international trade in goods by ship traffic, as this would have been massively restricted and affected by a variety of locks.

Due to the displacement of the water in the Mediterranean, the sea level would rise by about one meter around the world, so that cities such as New York or Hamburg would increasingly struggle with flooding.