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Cars, Aesthetics and Urban Development

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Knowledge, Technology & Policy

Abstract

The aim of this presentation is, first, to examine the role of aesthetics in creating the experiential effects of the attractions of Autostadt at Wolfsburg in Lower Saxony in Germany. Secondly, Autostadt will be seen in a perspective of urban and regional development which will include a reference to how Volkswagen AG has contributed to the development of the city of Dresden in Saxony by launching a production of luxury limousines at the centre of the city. In conclusion, the experiential design applied in both cases will be evaluated and put in perspective of urban environmental development.

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Notes

  1. My translation. Henceforth I translate all German expressions and quotations apart from proper names. Please note that the original spelling of certain corporate names like e.g. “ErlebnisWelt”; “KonzernForum” has been retained.

  2. Among many folders and material in the information centre at Autostadt, you find a discreet folder that informs that a place of remembrance of forced labour in the Volkswagen Factory is planned in a former air-raid shelter in the factory. However, you do not get the historical facts behind the first Volkswagen car, the famous Beetle or “der Käfer”. The fact was that it was developed by Ferdinand Porsche and came into existence because Adolf Hitler, with reference to the successful concept of the “Volksempfänger” radio, wanted to develop a car within economic reach of the average worker. All this was in fulfilment of the overall objectives of his KdF-movement, “Kraft durch Freude”. Briefly, the national socialist recreational community “Kraft durch Freude” was founded on 27 November 1933 as a sub-branch of the “Deutsches Artbeiter Front” (DAF). It was the most popular organisation of the Nazi regime. Among its most important projects were apart from the KdF-wagen extensive travel- and tourist activities. The idea was that the workers, through the activities of the KdF-organization, should be integrated into the “Volksgemeinshaft”, and further, the idea was to boost production without raises in payment through relaxation and recreation (see e.g. http://www.dhm.de/).

  3. Michel Foucault defines a dispositif as “…a thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic proposition—in short, the said as much as the unsaid […] The apparatus itself [the dispositive] is the system of relations that can be established between these elements” (Foucault 1980: 194).

  4. In English, “ExperienceWorld”. It is important to realize, however, that the English term “experience” covers two meanings in German. The first meaning corresponds to the German term “Erlebnis” by which is meant the result of direct participation or observation of an event. The second meaning corresponds to the German term “Erfahrung” by which can be understood the accumulated funds of knowledge and competences a person might have gathered through life. It seems that the experiential strategies unfolded at Wolfsburg and Autostadt can primarily be covered mainly by the first meaning, viz. Erlebnis (see also Jantzen and Vetner 2005: 252).

  5. As is well known, the central city of Dresden was bombed and completely destroyed on 13 February 1945 by the British Royal Air Force and the US Air Force.

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Allingham, P. Cars, Aesthetics and Urban Development. Know Techn Pol 21, 115–123 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-008-9053-9

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