Engineers, intellectuals and the state: assessing technology in the Weimar Republic

Abstract

Dierkes, M., Knie, A. and Wagner, P., 1990. Engineers, intellectuals and the state: assessing technology in the Weimar Republic. Industrial Crisis Quarterly, 4: 155-174.Political debate about technological development has intensified in the Fed eral Republic of Germany since the 1970s, questioning in particular the ade quacy of the modes of regulation governing the use of new technologies. Against this background, this paper reassesses the discussion about the relation be tween technology and politics during the Weimar Republic, with a view to plac ing the present disputes in a broader political context.The analysis starts with a look at the mode of technological regulation in use at the end of the 19th century, which restricted political measures to the setting of legal frames and did not allow detailed guidelines to be laid down. Critical debates on this mode became one of the dominant political themes during the 1920s. Social science and philosophical discourses on the cultural crises of mass society had a particular impact in these debates. Proposals which stemmed from this intellectual milieu contrasted with the old concepts in their strong affinity to ideas of the authoritarian state. Some of these proposals are described, and related to the actual measures taken by parliament and government to regulate the introduction of new technologies.