Herman Sörgel (2 April 1885 – 25 December 1952) was a German architect from Bavaria. He was known for pioneering the

Atlantropa Atlantropa, also referred to as Panropa, was a gigantic engineering and colonisation idea that was devised by the German architect Herman Sörgel in the 1920s, and promoted by him until his death in 1952. The project was devised to contain seve ...

project, which was initially conceived as a solution to the economic and political turmoil gripping Europe in the early 20th century. Atlantropa called for dams built across the

Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...

, the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

, and between

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and

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. The dams would provide hydroelectric power and would be overseen by a newly formed independent body with the authority to discontinue energy to any country posing a threat to peace. Sörgel actively promoted his ideas until his death in 1952.

Early life

Herman Sörgel was born in

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

, Bavaria, Germany in 1885 to Bavarian parents. From 1904 to 1908 Sörgel studied architecture at The Technical University in Munich.

Written publications

Some of his publications included: * * * * * * *

Atlantropa

Sörgel was the originator of the idea of

—a utopian continent created by damming the

, the Dardanelles, and the

Congo river The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

. His idea called for the damming, and thus lowering, of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

level and then making use of the difference between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic sea levels to generate

hydro-electric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other Renewabl ...

. Sorgel's idea to lower sea levels would increase the dry land areas around the Mediterranean and provide overland access to Africa. Damming the Congo river would refill the basin surrounding

Lake Chad Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...

providing fresh water to irrigate the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

and shipping access to the African interior. Besides creating new bodies of land, the mass amounts of hydro-electric energy that would be generating, could account for 50% of Europe's energy needs at the time. While Sörgel was dreaming up the idea, he never took into consideration how other countries would react or change. The Levant would increase by 50%. Sörgel would also have to go through multiple Middle Eastern countries to get to Africa where most of the major changes would take place.

Death

Sörgel died at the age of 67 shortly after having been struck by a car while on his bicycle en route to a lecture at a German university in Munich. The accident happened on a road "as straight as a die" and the driver of the car was never found.

References

19th-century German architects Technical University of Munich alumni Authors of utopian literature Road incident deaths in Germany 1885 births 1952 deaths 20th-century German architects {{Germany-architect-stub