Latest / Ridiculous History / The Atlantropa Project, Part Two: What Happened to the Supercontinent?

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The Atlantropa Project, Part Two: What Happened to the Supercontinent? · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: much for tuning in. That is Mr Max Williams. They
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: called me ben bolland no, I can't believe we've done
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: it again. We accidentally made an awesome two parter or
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: you know we we did it. We did it, and
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: we're not gonna apologize for it either. So just here
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: here's your part to enjoy it or don't see if
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: we care, No, we actually really do care. Please enjoy it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Here's part two of the story of the weird European
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: guy that trained the meadicterranean to make a super continent.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about how how how does
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: one manage this right? So it's it's put into place,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: everything goes off without a hitch, everything's built, you know,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: with the cooperation of all parties. Who's in charge? If
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: if Europe kind of led the project and it's one
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  Speaker 1: of one of their guys that's sort of at the helm,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: how does this thing get staffed? And then what kind
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of governing body has to be created to keep it humming? Right?
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  Speaker 1: Because this would require a giant hydroelectric power plant that
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  Speaker 1: would be situated in the Gibraltar Dam that would supply
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  Speaker 1: power uh for Europe and Africa. The idea was that
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  Speaker 1: it would be run by an independent body who would
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: have the power to switch off the energy supply to
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  Speaker 1: any individual country uh that created a threat to peace.
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  Speaker 1: How about that? I mean, this really is some Star
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Trek type, Max, It wasn't there a period and Star
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Treker a season or or one of the iterations where
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: like they don't even have currency because they're also interconnected
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and like that's sort of the Federation's job is to
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: keep the rogue you know, states or whatever, from like
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: screwing up this intergalactic piece that is a common misnumber.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: So the Federation does not have currency. No one works
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: for money, but like something like the Frengy Alliance, they
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: use gold Press latinum as their currency. I just tricked
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: you and just showing everybody what a nerd you are, bro,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and I'm proud of how this currency. Watch a great
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: episode of d S nine last night. Yeah, well, I
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: think other people might not know Max. Well, they need
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to do their research. Then, okay, what do you think
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: about the best character of all time? But Max, though, seriously,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: like I mean, do you see connections here between the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: kind of idyllic utopian world of Star Trek and what
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  Speaker 1: this guy is trying to achieve. I mean, the more
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: I'm reading into this, the less fascist it seems like.
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  Speaker 1: It actually seems pretty even handed and if every and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: played along could have some positive outcomes. Yeah, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it definitely does have that kind of utopian thing, but
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  Speaker 1: it's really in that guy's it's like the utopian four
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  Speaker 1: a very select amount of people, and it's really it's
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  Speaker 1: closer to Star Trek as in it's very much in
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: sci fi with this work. I mean, like just the
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  Speaker 1: impact of like what you would do to this to like,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: you know, the environment is terrible, and do you want
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to put one more fun Star Trek little note in
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: here because people forget this, but Star Trek being very
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: much a nineteen six to show the origin stories of
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the Federation comes from World War Three, which is the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: nuclear war that kills off almost all mankind. So it
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: comes kind of from that same fear base we're all
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: going to like mutually assured like annihilation that like this
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: plan kind of has well because that's what this guy's
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: kind of thinking. It's like if we go to war again,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: We're probably all just gonna die. Yeah, the old idea
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: of like World War two spot with nuclear weapons, world
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: War three will be fought with sticks and stones. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a real fear. And he wanted to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: He wanted to get into the hearts and minds of people,
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  Speaker 1: so he was trying. He's like one of those really
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: thirsty investigative journalists or pundits or ted talkers I call them.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: If he wants time on radio programs. He wants to
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: give talks. He even has an atlant Tropa symphony commissioned.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: There's Atlan Tropa poetry. He was hoping that if he
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: gets enough popular support, and he gets enough of the
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Hoi poloy talking about this, then the politicians will follow suit.
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  Speaker 1: But this did seem really yeah, well, utopian in the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: not good sense of the word, like utopian itself means
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: something that is optimistic but likely unachievable, and this in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: this sense. One thing that one thing that really stood
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: out to me weren't doing research about this is that
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it fundamentally alters the social hierarchy and the the order
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: of power. So now you can be you can be
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: descended from millennia long line of rulers, but the real
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: power is going to be whomever it is at the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: top that can turn the grid on or off. So
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: it's like imagine like the president of the US has
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: to ultimately pay obesience to what we hear we have
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: something called Georgia power, but to have to pay obesience
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: to like Federated Pan American power, and they don't get
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: to make the calls anymore. So that's that if anything,
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  Speaker 1: seemed like the the most difficult part of the equation,
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  Speaker 1: like they were like, sure you could build a giant
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  Speaker 1: damn but getting people to agree with each other, oh, no,
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  Speaker 1: man know, And there's there was a lot of like
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  Speaker 1: require that was absolutely like a deal breaker for this
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  Speaker 1: whole project is the idea that they could get people
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  Speaker 1: out of the very least like strong arm them into
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  Speaker 1: agreeing because it would require an investment from um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the participating nations that would have been so hefty, right
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  Speaker 1: that it would have left them without enough funds or
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  Speaker 1: you know, human capital to actually participate in an a
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  Speaker 1: war and in the first place, right, So there was
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  Speaker 1: all of these very like high minded ideological kind of
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: things built into this this whole project. And when you're
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: talking about like the sort of fine line between a
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: utopia and a dystopia, or like what is a utopia
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  Speaker 1: for some is a dystopia for others at the bottom,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: it reminds me of what I think is one of
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the greatest reboots, sequels, whatever you want to call it,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: of all time, Max mad Max Fury Road, where you
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: have this warlord immorton Joe, who essentially controls the water
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  Speaker 1: supply and is able to kind of keep all of
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: these you know, poorer people just at is back and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: call and kind of like, you know, worshiping at his
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  Speaker 1: feet literally like a god because he gives them a
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  Speaker 1: drop of water every now and then, and like the
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  Speaker 1: suptances are so bad. Exactly, yeah, exactly. Um. And this,
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  Speaker 1: you know, is the kind of thing that on paper
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  Speaker 1: maybe seems, oh it's such a great idea. I don't know,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I've been like praising parts of it in theory, but
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  Speaker 1: it's the kind of thing where like humans are inherently
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  Speaker 1: corrupt and corruptible. Uh. And I think if there was
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  Speaker 1: a person with their hand on the button or the switch, uh,
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  Speaker 1: and they had what would seem like some eugenics kind
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  Speaker 1: of ideas like it would appear Sorgel has or that's
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: sort of the way he's thinking of African people, for example,
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  Speaker 1: could be a very dangerous equation. The residents of Portugal
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: will cease all political protests and dissent if they want
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  Speaker 1: to survive the window. Exactly like that kind of Portugal
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  Speaker 1: is a terrible example. Norway would be a better example.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Portugal's got pretty nice weather, but exactly, Yeah, I have
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  Speaker 1: a friend who just moved to Portugal and I can't
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: wait to go visit. But yeah, yeah, we should go.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: We should go and do a live show. Right to us?
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Tell us where we should do a live show. When
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: we ask ourselves whether this plan is really feasible, is
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: where we run into something interesting, because nothing in history
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  Speaker 1: occurs in a vacuum. As we so often say, this
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  Speaker 1: guy wasn't the only guy trying to change the world
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  Speaker 1: through the power of damns. From n three to nineteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty two, engineers in the Netherlands actually built a damn
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  Speaker 1: between a place called the zuidr siurd she apologies and
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  Speaker 1: the North Sea. And this the Netherlands is awesome at
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  Speaker 1: reclaiming land. So he saw circles, saw people successfully reclaiming
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  Speaker 1: land from the ocean, and hele that despite the massive size,
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  Speaker 1: the massive scale of this project, it would be feasible.
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  Speaker 1: He probably thought it was gonna be easier than it was,
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  Speaker 1: just because you know, in the brainstorming process, anything is possible.
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  Speaker 1: But he also he would always point out the Netherlands example,
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  Speaker 1: and he's like, look, these folks are using dams and
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  Speaker 1: engineering and the power of technology to create homes, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and they created the province of Flevolence, which is now
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  Speaker 1: home to four hundred thousand people. So on some scale
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  Speaker 1: this works, there is validity to it. The question is
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  Speaker 1: can you do it with you know, the Mediterranean Sea?
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  Speaker 1: Can you? Indeed, uh, Sorcill certainly believed you could. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he thought it was gonna be a snap. Um. He
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  Speaker 1: very much was high on his own supply of engineering
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  Speaker 1: prow ass because he had modeled it after you know,
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  Speaker 1: some of the projects we just talked about that we're
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  Speaker 1: already underway on a much much much smaller scale. Damning
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  Speaker 1: the Mediterranean, on the other hand, was going to be
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  Speaker 1: a much more tricky concern, I think, because the waters
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  Speaker 1: come in from these two major arteries, the Atlantic coming
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  Speaker 1: in from the Straight at Gibraltar in the west and
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  Speaker 1: the Black Sea coming in from the Dardanells on the east.
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  Speaker 1: Like we said, so he thought that just by like
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  Speaker 1: cutting off the flow of these two straits, the Mediterranean
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  Speaker 1: would easily reduce its sea level. So he decided to
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  Speaker 1: give it a go. He was completely convinced that this
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  Speaker 1: would work in the same way that you know, smaller
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  Speaker 1: damning operations had worked. So we have to think though,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we today when we think of
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  Speaker 1: like really really impressive feats of engineering and concerning dams,
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  Speaker 1: we think of things like China's three gorgeous dams or
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  Speaker 1: the Hoover Dam for example. Um, these are just absolutely
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  Speaker 1: megalithic structures that are you know, sites to behold under themselves.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't have any contemporary analogs to what he was doing.
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  Speaker 1: This would have been a very first of its kind.
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  Speaker 1: One thing, however, that Sorcal did not consider, was the
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  Speaker 1: impact on the environment. Like Max was talking about, the
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  Speaker 1: increased salinity of the water that would have remained in
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  Speaker 1: the Mediterranean Sea could have in fact killed off a
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  Speaker 1: ton of the plant and animal life and the patterns
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  Speaker 1: of rain because such a massive body of water lowering
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  Speaker 1: it that much could have actually affected precipitation patterns and
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  Speaker 1: it could have potentially left um, you know, folks in
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  Speaker 1: the wake of the giant damn at Gibraltar, UM very
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  Speaker 1: very exposed to things like tsunamis or earthquakes or you know,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: terrorist attacks, something we would have thought of today. UM
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: highly recommend a great article on big think dot com
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  Speaker 1: that kind of goes through some of the what ifs
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  Speaker 1: of this whole scenario by the very talented Frank Jacobs.
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  Speaker 1: So we talked about the public, how did how did
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the like in Germany field? They loved it. They were
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  Speaker 1: all about this. He was a media darling. He even
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  Speaker 1: founded the atlant Tropa Institute to promote this utopian idea.
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  Speaker 1: But you're saying, Ben, I just googled. I just googled.
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  Speaker 1: The Mediterranean still a thing. There's no Atlan Tropa. You're right.
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  Speaker 1: At Lan Tropa never took off because he did not
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  Speaker 1: get the support of one big demographic in Germany at
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  Speaker 1: the time, which unfortunately was the Nazi Party. They wanted
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: to expand, for sure, that was one of their things,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: but they wanted to expand more eastward than south, and
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  Speaker 1: once they seized power in Germany. Sorgel did try to
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  Speaker 1: pitch the idea to him, but they said, now, we're
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: not really interested in building dams. We want to conquer
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the Leban tromp uh the old fashioned way. We want
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: to invade places. We want to take over these neighboring countries.
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  Speaker 1: And then, oddly enough I didn't know this, but for
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  Speaker 1: a time after World War Two, for like a very
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: brief time, the European Allied powers were like, I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: Sorgel pitch it to us, how how do we drain
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the Mediterranean? And you know we're styling here a bit, folks,
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  Speaker 1: But imagine like part way through his pitch, people start,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: you know, looking at each other's sidelong and they're like, wow, I,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: um no, this is crazy. We can't we can't do this. Uh.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: And we've got to rebuild regular Europe before we make
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: at land tropa. And that's you know, there's a valid
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: criticism of the plan. But then something else happens. Nuclear
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: power comes into the fray. This is pre Chernobyl. So
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of people when they're thinking of peaceful nuclear power,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: they're thinking of it as a superior solution to hydro electricity.
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  Speaker 1: Sorgel doesn't give up. He defends these ideas all the
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: way to his deathbed, well not really his deathbed, all
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the way to the street, all the way to his
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: last bicycle ride when he is hit fatally by a
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: car in nineteen fifty two while on the way to
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: hold a speech on you guessed it, the Atlanta Tropa Project,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and of just a few years after his death in
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty the institute, the atlant Tropa Institute officially was closed,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: gone but not forgotten. I think the legacy is there, right, No, right, Max,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: there's a We've got an epilogue here, there's an epilogue. Yeah,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: for sure. Um definitely lives on in UH. You know
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: some other creative minds and imaginations. For example, Philip K. Dick,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the the author of The Man in the High Castle,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: creates a world where the Nazis or the access Powers
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: rather one World War two UH, and the US gets
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: cut up into three different regions, with the Nazi kind
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: of puppet government in the east and then an area
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: under Japanese occupation in the west, and a neutral buffer
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: zone between the two. And of course that's the television
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: show version, which is loosely based on the book by
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Philip K. Dick published in nineteen sixty two, and in
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Philip K. Dick's novel, the Acxis Powers actually drained the
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Mediterranean in order to create new tracts of farmland, which
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: is another big part all the land that it would
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: free up if you lower the water level of the Mediterranean.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: And of course this book is widely considered to be
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: a commentary on fascism. Uh and um, I think we
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: see how the idea of a utopia, when the intention
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: is to kind of like other certain parts of the world,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: you know, canon in and of itself, be a form
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: of fascism. Yeah, it's weird because science fiction authors in
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: general for a long time love bringing this concept up.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: It's one of those just fantastic what if alternative history stories.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Soviet sci fi writer Grigory Grebnev also speculated on another
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: future where it wasn't the Axis Powers that built the
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Damn but the Socialist revolution. And in his story, there's
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: a small band of Nazi terrorists who are hiding out
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: in the North Pole and they they want to launch
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: an attack on this damn system because it's a glorious
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: achievement of the revolution. To learn more about that, check
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: out an article by our friends at Atlas Obscura. I
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: love it, you guys, if you're listening, you always kill
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: it with the titles the Bunker's real life plan to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: drain the Mediterranean, emerge Africa in Europe by tune lambricks.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: And then, of course you know we mentioned who mentioned
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: the star Trek the motion picture analog here with Admiral Kirk.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: I think by that point standing on a huge dam
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: near gibral r and the damn blocks the Atlantic Ocean
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: from the Mediterranean. So Roddenberry was definitely aware of this.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: We see it in multiple other works of sci fi.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: But these days, in real terms, you're probably only gonna
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: see ideas about the atlant Tropa project in museums. You
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: might see it in German high schools actually, where it's
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: used as a question on a physics exam. The question
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: is something like it requires you to calculate the lowering
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: of the water level in the Mediterranean. And the real
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: screwy part of this that question, when you're taking this
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: exam is the question mentions the project as if it
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: is actually going to happen, and that you, the kid
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: taking the test, can help the Atlantropa project by solving
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the math problem. It's really weird, but it's such a
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: fascinating story, even if it's not feasible. I do at
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: the very heart of it, you know, I'm trying to
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: be more optimistic these days, guys. I do like the
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: idea that science can unify people in a way that
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: politics could not, and maybe save us as a species
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: from these corners we seem to continually paint ourselves in. Oh,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I love it. I love all the choices you've made here,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: max Um. This is a story though that I think
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: there's an interesting job of combining kind of like ideology
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: and science and um politics kind of all into one
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: crazy scheme that was maybe a little bit beyond the
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: powers of all of those things to actually accomplish, right
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: because the science that I mean, you know, could you
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: do this? You know? I mean, why have we not
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: done this yet? If it was such a great idea.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I think we've talked about some of the the drawbacks
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: for sure, in terms of like how it could affect
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: the salinity of the water and the floria and fun
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: on all that. But you know, it's interesting. I always wonder, like,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: why do we not use more hydro electric power. And
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: I think it's probably largely because of reasons like what
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: we're talking about here, because I think to dates or
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: at least at this point in history, only around sev
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: of the world's power comes from hydro electricity. And you know,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: there are hard geographical limits to you know, just the
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: where you can build a dam, right, and it's kind
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: of like geothermal energy in that respect. But there's something
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: else they didn't think about, which is the Mediterranean ce
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: could disappear in the future. To paraphrase Dennis Reynolds, the
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: continental drift. You didn't think about the drift, you bitch. Sorry,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: gott to account for the drift. You've got to account
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: for the drift. Continental drift is a real thing. This
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: is a living, active planet. So we don't know kind
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: of long tail consequences might occur when we have fundamentally
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: altered the shape of the continents this way, because those
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: tectonic plates are still doing their thing. And and I
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: think Sorgal didn't really deeply consider what what the results
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: of this vast plan would be. Everybody, I think is
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: familiar with the idea of continental drift and tectonic plates.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: That's the reason why the continents today are located in
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the places they're located. As you're hearing today's show, the
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: African continent and the European continent are already very slowly
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: creeping toward each other across the Mediterranean, and eventually they're
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: going to collide. Eventually they are going to do Sorgel's
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: work for him, creating a men get continent called your Africa.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: And when these two continents meet, most geologists will tell
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: you that the Mediterranean is gonna close up and it's
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: gonna become mountainous because the land is hitting itself. You know,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I'm this is ridiculous. We're in an audio podcast. I
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: don't know why. I'm like illustrating this to you guys
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: with my hands, but that's like my hands are making
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: a mountain. Ah. Nothing like a good visual aid and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: a podcast, especially when you get meta with it to
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: describe it verbally. But let's hear a little bit from
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: another architect, another very well regarded architect named Eric Mendelssohn,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: who gives a kind of modern account of why this
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: was surprise, surprise, potentially a good idea. And before we
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: get that, also just want to note that there were
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: quite a few folks to believe this was a good idea,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: including the makers of a nineteen fifty film entitled at
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the New Continent, Land of the Future. I love those
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: epcut vibes, oh totally. And there are other architects who
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: were fanboys, like again Eric Mendelssohn and a guy named
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Peter Barons Uh. Mendelssohn was a German Jewish architect who
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: had to flee Germany in nineteen thirty three. Uh in
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two, a couple of months before he immigrated,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Mendelsson actually supported the Atlantropa plan in a manifesto type
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: fiery speech that he gave in Zurich. He believed that
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: atlant Tropa was a chance for the future and it
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: offered some hope to kind of dig the country out
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of this slump, the social crisis that Europe was in
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: the midst of. That kind of was already there. The
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: groundwork had been laid, but World War One had absolutely
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: blown up completely. Everything from the politics of the time
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: to the economics, to the architecture, all of these things
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: he believed were tied together and that this was going
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: to create a what he referred to as world restructuring
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: movement that was driven by something that he also revered
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: highly and thought was the only chance of saving the
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: soul I guess even of Europe, which was technology. Um
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: and Mendelssohn had this to say. The upcoming world will
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: allow the nations their characteristics, but unites them into a
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: comprehensive community. Because the problems of the new world affect
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: all people as one, we cannot retreat. The speed of
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: traffic is crowded, the nations close together, forces them into
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: larger units. In order to avoid getting crushed, we must
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: achieve a state of methodical exchange of food and capabilities
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: of production and ingenuity. From this great supernational tasks are
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: needed that create a new space, new territory, new workspace.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: The Canal de do Ma comes to mind, connecting Marseilles
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and Bordeaux, the Mediterranean and the English Channel. The pan
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Ropa project, which wants to recover Europe's actual fruit country.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: This one's a doozy ben. Why don't we split it up? Yeah,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: let's let's take part to your way. Yeah, this is
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: this is This is a long one, but we think
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: it's important. It's beautifully written, Mendelssohn continues, these are productive
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: technical global tasks that wants to finally logically value a
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: century of technological inventions. Such tasks finally bring man's reign
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: over technology so that technology serves him rather than enslaves him,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: because technology and machines are only tools in the hands
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: of man, simply a new element of his knowing about
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the world, as once water, fire, air, and syder. Because
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: if we recognize the elements, then we will overcome chaos.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: If we build from the elements, then a new world
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: will emerge. We'll skip ahead a little bit, get to
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the banger at the very end, he says, Therefore, we
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: believe in a new world in a life of reason
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and order and politics, economics, public life. The belief in
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the accuracy of this interpretation is the deep significance of need,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: the creative significance of this crisis. And we found that
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: via the excellent work Nol you mentioned earlier at the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: top Cabinet Magazine indeed wonderful source one that I don't
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: think we've spent much time with before this episode. So
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna check out some more stuff from Cabinet Magazine
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: dot org very soon. And the thing is you know,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: this wasn't the only massively you know, a big swing,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: large scale plan to add land to Europe by draining
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a major body of water, was it, Ben, No, you're right, no.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: We we mentioned the work in the Netherlands, but there
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: was another one taking place in the North Sea from
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: We're pulling this from Modern Mechanics magazine, September of nineteen
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: thirty and they actually name checked the Netherlands in this
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: quote as well, don't they. Yes. Indeed, the magazine comments
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: if the extensive schemes for the drainage of the North
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Sea are carried out according to the plan illustrated above,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: which was conceived by a group of eminent English scientists,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand square miles will be added to the
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: overcrowded continent of Europe. The reclaimed land will be walled
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: in with enormous dikes similar to the Netherlands dikes to
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: protect it from the sea, and the various rivers flowing
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: into the North Sea will have their courses diverted to
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: different outlets by means of canals. Who doesn't love a
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: good canal, Walk along a canal, you know, canal poetry.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: If anybody you can live in now boats. If anyone's
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: in the toast of London with Matt Barry, you know
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: about canal poetry and you know what else has been poetry?
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Ben Uh this two part episode on the one weird
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: European man's wild scheme to drain the Mediterranean and create
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: a new somewhat weirdly utopian, racist supercontinent. But big look
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: upon my works you mighty vibes. Yes, this is a
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: wild right, this is one of those that really rabbit
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: hold us. And I don't think we knew how how
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: deep this story would go into the strange thing is,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: just how widely accepted it was, as as a feasible
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: plan for so long, just like ridiculous history. Thanks as
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: always for tuning in everybody. Uh No, thank you so
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: much as always my main man there. Thank you of
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: course the super producer Max Williams, and thank you the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: one and only Casey Pegram. I've heard a lot of
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: check at or there's some noise on the internet asking
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: what happened to our good buddy. He is well, he
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: is healthy, and you may hear from him sooner than later. Yeah,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: I heard some tremors on that one too. Sorry, I've
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: been watching a lot of succession lately, so I only
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: speak in corporate douchebag LINGO. Now, huge things to super
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: producer Max Williams and his brother Alex Williams, who composed
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: this theme that you're hearing in your very ears right now.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickling the quister long mayhey, rain Um, and I
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: think we'll probably have him back before the year is
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: out to who knows, we will do some kind of
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: like year end thing. Podcast people do those, right, yeah,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: And and we're we're both people and podcast people. I'd
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: love to get the whole gang together, you know what
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I mean. We're still going to have our friends from
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Ridiculous Romance come aboard. We're gonna go check on their show.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: We might might even be able to sweet talk Gabe
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Lousier U in there as well. Shout out to you,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Gabe if you're tuning in, check out this day in
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: history class. What but a ride if I you know,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: I keep thinking, though the Metal Interranean isn't the worst
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: place to build a super continent. I guess it would
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: be easier than building one in the middle of the Pacific.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: But but now I'm just gonna think about that. How
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: do we tear it for I don't know bad. That's
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: some sci fi stuff right there too. Folks. Let us know.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: You can write to us at Ridiculous at iHeart media
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: dot com. We'll see you next time, folks. For more
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.