“Reichsautobahnen” set between nature and technology –an international and interdisciplinary perspective on motorways of the Third Reich
This work contributes to the history of landscape architecture and engineering. The construction of the Third Reich autobahns called “Reichsautobahn” initiated the collaboration of the fields of landscape architecture and road engineering. In this public project the national socialist vision of “Deutsche Technik” - a technology in tune with nature - was accomplished.
However, the idea of blending motorways with the landscape was no truly German invention, in the United States of America landscape engineers had already carried out a similar idea as “parkway design”.
The cultural mandate of the German “landscape counsellors”, conflicting views about landscape design and issues of planning and construction are being discussed within an interdisciplinary and international context. Aesthetic as well as cultural and technical aspects of landscape design in terms of motorway construction are being reflected upon.
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