Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Illustrations
- Editors
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Archives
- 1 The Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism
- SECTION I RESEARCH AND PERSONNEL POLICIES
- SECTION II RACIAL RESEARCH
- SECTION III EASTERN RESEARCH, LIVING SPACE, BREEDING RESEARCH
- SECTION IV MILITARY RESEARCH
- 11 Ideology, Armaments, and Resources: The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Metal Research and the “German Metals,” 1933–1945
- 12 Calculation, Measurement, and Leadership: War Research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Fluid Dynamics, 1937–1945
- 13 Chemical Weapons Research in National Socialism: The Collaboration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes with the Military and Industry
- 14 Nuclear Weapons and Reactor Research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics
- SECTION V THE POSTWAR “POLITICS OF THE PAST”
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - Ideology, Armaments, and Resources: The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Metal Research and the “German Metals,” 1933–1945
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Illustrations
- Editors
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Archives
- 1 The Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism
- SECTION I RESEARCH AND PERSONNEL POLICIES
- SECTION II RACIAL RESEARCH
- SECTION III EASTERN RESEARCH, LIVING SPACE, BREEDING RESEARCH
- SECTION IV MILITARY RESEARCH
- 11 Ideology, Armaments, and Resources: The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Metal Research and the “German Metals,” 1933–1945
- 12 Calculation, Measurement, and Leadership: War Research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Fluid Dynamics, 1937–1945
- 13 Chemical Weapons Research in National Socialism: The Collaboration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes with the Military and Industry
- 14 Nuclear Weapons and Reactor Research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics
- SECTION V THE POSTWAR “POLITICS OF THE PAST”
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Since 1933, and even more so during this war, here in Germany we differentiate between domestic materials and thrift materials. The domestic metals include, first of all, iron and steel in all their forms, followed by the light metals aluminum and magnesium as well as the highly valued, most important heavy metal, zinc. … In this German team of metals, aluminum and magnesium are the weighty forwards and halfbacks who decide the number of victorious goals.
Because of the experience of World War I, a main focus of National Socialist economic and technology policy was the erection of a blockadeproof “armed state.” Since the availability of raw materials was especially poor with regard to the metals important for armaments, considerable efforts were made to extract metallic substitutes from domestic natural resources. Of the nonferrous metals, the application of zinc, aluminum, and magnesium was pushed in order to replace such metals as copper, bronze, and brass in armaments production. Beyond calculations about materials strategy, National Socialist technology ideologues stylized the philosophy of substitute materials as an element of their “techno-policy.” Moreover, in this process the research of German metals scientists served as proof of the superiority of “German technology.”
The alloys connoted by the disagreeable term “substitute material” (Ersatzstoff) were assigned the ideologically correct term “domestic material” (Heimstoff) which could be extracted from the “soil of the home country” (Heimatboden) or the “native clod” (heimische Scholle).
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- The Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism , pp. 253 - 282Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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