Travis Russell

Edward Dimenberg, The Will To Motorization

The highway was a new frontier, with the potential to mobilize entire states or nations. Dimenberg�s “Will to Motorization” explains how two separate nations utilized this potential to unify modern societies. In The “Will to Motorization”, Edward Dimenberg defines the “centrifugal space” as “three great variables-Territory, communication, and speed.” Dimenberg explains the highway is as crucial to post-1930 cinema, as the train and the street were to earlier cinema.

Hitler boasted the practicality of the Autobahn as a great accomplishment and a national treasure. According to his plans, the Autobahn would eloquently unite the borders of Germany and present pastoral landscapes, providing a sense of national pride. Hitler emphasized that the Autobahn would provide employment for Germany after the 1930’s depression. However, the project initially employed only an acute percentage of the German population, and eventually prisoners from concentration camps.

Hitler was also concerned with the Autobahn as a national experience. Despite the availability and affordability of vehicles, Hitler suggested that one could picnic by the Autobahn, or traverse the countryside from city to city and everything in between. These issues helped shape the drafting and creation of the Autobahn.

The bridges were to be testaments to the modern vision and unity of a nation. Gas stations were erected as convenient stops along the national asphalt. For example, an old refurbished windmill turned gas station greeted passersby. Often projects were photographed by Renger-Patzsch and were testaments to form and technological rationality. These ideas epitomized the aesthetic of Hitler’s vision for national unity.

Across the Atlantic, U.S. highway projects were the focus of federal organizations, which also realized the potential of mobilizing a nation. Through Roosevelt’s programs like “The New Deal”, and organizations such as the Interstate Highway System, the highway would exceed previous local and regional planning and resources. The project was funded exponentially in several stages by “The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1944,” which was signed by Roosevelt. Eisenhower then signed an act of the same title in 1956. This funding enabled 780,989 miles of constructed roadways.

Bel Geddes “Futurama Pavilion” at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York presented a future city structured on eloquent clover-like pathways of the American highway. However by the 1950’s when the highway was no longer a model, production shed light on the federal government’s poor planning. Contrary to its intended use of alleviating urban traffic, the highways encouraged further suburbanization while congesting central parts of the city. This is an example of Dimenberg’s centrifugal space, and it was the focus of film noir after 1949. Such examples would be Hubert Cornfields’ 1957 “Plunder Road”. The film’s plot is centered a robbery which is foiled by the congestion of a freeway. ”Plunder Road” defies the conventions of film noir and evades the night and the city.

In retrospect, we can argue that much like the actions of the 19^th century, trading horsepower for industry and thrusting forward through rural landscape with accelerated speed was realized only with the best possible planning. Is the pitfall of the motorway fluidity, a result of poor planning, or an incorrect diagnosis of a mobile society? Have the motorways of the U.S. and Germany remained as mechanisms to unite a nation’s population under one ideal? Were the variables of centrifugal space neglected in the aspirations of both countries attempt to create a network of national motorways? How has the “Will to Motorization” affected the aesthetics of our motorways culture?