Technoscientific Synergies between Germany and Spain in the Twentieth Century: Continuity amid Radical Change

This article describes the collaborations between German and Spanish scientists and engineers in the twentieth century. Special attention is devoted to the mechanisms by which these relations were established and the changes they underwent in conjunction with both the domestic and international political situation over three historical moments: World Wars I and II and the Spanish Civil War. Institutional and personal links were important in both countries to work around international isolation during the 1920s, 1940s, and 1950s, in that they contributed especially to the shaping of the Spanish technocratic elite under the Franco dictatorship during the 1940s and 1950s. In the twentieth century, several German groups, always with the agreement of authorities in Madrid and military circles in Berlin, and later Bonn, used Spain as a testing ground for activities first banned by the Treaty of Versailles (June 1919), and then by the Allied High Commission (1946) and the Treaty of Paris (May 1955) with the accession of the Federal Republic of Germany to NATO.

The present study, which is based principally on an analysis of sources in German and Spanish archives, shows how scientific and technological communities can relate to one another through their own channels, regardless of social and political contexts.¹ In the German case, the change was from an authoritarian state (Kaiserreich, until 1918) to a parliamentary democracy (Weimer Republic, 1919–1933), then again to a totalitarian state (Nazi Germany, 1933–1945), and once again to a parliamentary democracy (Federal Republic of Germany, 1949). In the Spanish case, the country went from a monarchy (Alfonso XIII, 1902–1931), with a period of conservative, monarchic dictatorship (Primo de Rivera, 1923–1931), to a liberal, leftist republic (Second Republic, 1931–1939), and then to a fascist dictatorship (Franco, 1939–1975). The relationships between the respective technical communities were maintained throughout—and despite—these changes in government.

Political and cultural relations between Germany and Spain have been the subject of several studies, with a particular focus on politics and economics.² These studies do not take into account the question of probable continuity spanning different political periods (Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, German Federal Republic, Spanish monarchy, Second Republic, and Francoism); scientific relations and the mechanisms of scientific and technical knowledge transfer between the two countries are still neglected. Only recently have they begun to be considered as significant issues, and so far only from the Spanish perspective.³ In the same way, the attempt by German authorities to circumvent the political ban on certain technological developments imposed by the Allied forces following the armed conflicts of the twentieth century (first the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, and later, Allied control in 1946) has not been fully considered. Instead, most studies have focused on the military collaboration of Germany with the Soviet Union during the 1920s. Moreover, the study of the role of German specialists after World War II remains restricted and focuses solely on the American Paperclip Project and the emigration of German specialists to the Soviet Union.⁴ On the other hand, with the exception of a few outstanding studies, the history of Spanish science and technology during the twentieth century, and in particular during the Franco period, remains to be written.⁵ Consequently, the role of scientific and technological elites in Spain, particularly that of the military, has not been studied. In this sense, the example considered here allows us to analyze the relationship between technocratic communities from different countries outside of the broader context of political and social ruptures, following their own mechanisms and the role of the military elite in the modernization of technology and science.

The Situation in Germany and Spain during the 1920s and 1930s and Military Collaboration

In 1919, after World War I, Spain, which had remained officially neutral during the war, continued to search for its place in the new international scene.⁶ Indeed, it still had not recovered from its great crisis at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1898, after Spain's defeat by the United States in the Spanish-American War...