I never liked the German steel industry. Thyssen and Krupp have made a lot of war material for the Third Reich and Hitler. It would have been better to focus on German philosophy: Kant, Schopenhauer, Adorno. Instead, cannons were manufactured.
In our neighborhood there were a few widows: Their men were dropped into liquid iron. For a while propellers for ships were manufactured. The big trucks at night left our whole house trembling. The stench of sulfur belongs to the unpleasant accompaniment of iron production. And that the wrong people became very rich. At last the furnaces were sold to China. Tens of thousands of people had to come up with a fuller spiritual work.
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I think one of the problems was that German philosophers were used as a tool to promote the Nazi mentality and allow for such war profiteering. I’ll agree with you that more attention should have been paid to Kant, Schopenhauer, and Adorno. Sadly there were those who chose to warp the words of Nietzsche. Heidegger’s open non-opposition the the Third Reich didn’t help much either.
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yes you are right: from Nietzsche to Heidegger: Germany had some wrong philosophers too. I liked the opponents to the Third Reich: Theodor Adorno, Karl Jaspers, maybe soon I’ll write about Hannah Arendt again – there was just a movie about her!
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that is an amazing image…
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in France, there’s no steel industry anymore too. But noone, except in the equivalent of Die Linke, … noone is speaking of what happened in Germany in the past 10 years for the steel industry. Nothing is black or white….
In France too, industry made some very bad things during WW2. We call that “Collaboration”, but it was denoucement of jews, unionists, … Violence and War, as usual in human history. And fighting against bull-fighting this week-end was fighting against the violence inside Humans.
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“…And fighting against bull-fighting this week-end was fighting against the violence inside Humans…” – exactly!
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Thank you for waking up this sleepy Monday morning with a touch of philosphical debate around a pretty, poignant image.I decline to comment on the war (being married to a Jewish man who was born before it) so sticking with philosophy, after Kierkegaard it has be to Martin Buber: I-Thou and there would be no wars
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I like the pictures… don’t agree with your view of steel, but of course everyone sees things in a different way. Never cared much for Hannah Arendt, and probably won’t see the movie. It was enough, reading the book.
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ready now my article about Hannah Arendt and the “banality of evil” and similar topics:
https://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/the-ridiculous-desire-for-career-advancement/
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I read it. But we see things very differently.
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“In our neighborhood there were a few widows: Their men were dropped into liquid iron.” Am curious about this statement. Why? Or rather for what?
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there were continuing death tolls during this dangerous work – and I always thought: why are they working there under those bad conditions? nowadays we hear that coal mines in China are not safe at all or other miners in Africa or South America. Too much helpless followers of profit makers … – last example: the more than 1,000 women killed in a building in Bangladesh: because an owner did not use enough steel for the building to make it cheaper – and him: richer. We always should ask ourselves: what a character of factory-owner are we making richer while doing our job …
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What a sad image, and story too. How things have changed over the years. Thanks for the philosophical take on them too. Gave me lots to ponder on.
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Men were dropped in liquid iron???
By accident because of unsafe working conditions?…or were they not accidents?
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unsafe working conditions – nowadays exported to China …
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