The two most spectacular civil engineering projects of post-war Germany, the Kohlbrand bridge and the Elbe tunnel in Hamburg, were ceremonially opened about two years ago by the President and the Chancellor of the Federal Republic respectively. Despite great public interest, the press gave little or no background information on these two 'engineering feats of the century.' Their history dates back no more than forty years: a number of those originally involved in the projects are still alive. Forty years ago, living in the 'Thousand Year Empire', they in fact relied on this millenial pretension in their work; today, they are obscured by the glare of publicity surrounding one of their number, Albert Speer, commonly regarded as having been Hitler's architect. With few exceptions, an entire generation of architects, engineers and sculptors has hitherto maintained complete silence about events concerning several thousand people besides this one Nuremberg defendant.