In a style similar to the French Futurist Predictions I posted previously, the Germans were also quite adept at envisioning the future.
What did Germans think life would be like in the year 2000? Find out after the jump!
The Moving Pavement
House Being Moved By Train
Televised Outside Broadcasting
Personal Flying Machines
Weather Control Machine
Combined Ship and Railway Locomotive
Undersea Tourist Boats
Roofed Cities
Personal Airships
Summer Holidays at the North Pole
Police X-Ray Surveillance Machine
Submitted by: Unknown
Via: paleofuture
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Surprisingly some of these look rather good and some we already have.
The Moving Pavement: Pretty close to what’s used certain sections of airports for travel between terminals.
House being moved by train: Close. We use internal combustion trucks instead.
Televised Outside Broadcasting: Live TV broadcasts.
Combined Ship and Railway Locomotive: Amphibious Landing Vehicles.
Undersea Tourist Boats: Yep, got those. Subs at coastal resorts.
Police X-Ray Surveillance Machine: It’s not X-rays, but infrared.
So, pretty close on quite a few.
We can combine both the personal airships and personal flying machines to get private planes.
personal plane cars exist. If you’re a multi-millionare.
Personal helicopters, too.
Moving pavement & houses -I thought of Heinlein’s Roadcities!
The Roads Must Roll!!
+1
+2
+3
+4. Silence! I concur!
P.S. Nerdy girls rule!
Um actually the police do have X-Ray that can see into your house through the walls.
Did that guy in the top photo (the one before the jump) have his feet replaced with a waterwheel???
And all I could think of with the “Weather Control Machine” was: COOOOBRAAAAA!
I’m tickled by the fact that the women are still wearing hopelessly impractical clothing, and horses are still a central means of transport.
The lady in yellow with her personal flying machine is wearing bloomers. What more do you want?
Not to mention, small-scale reciprocating steam power is still widespread.
Imagine this if you will, meine Fruenden: A wonderful, glass-roofed city, full of horse-power. With that kind of methane build-up (not to mention the smell!) the first glass-roofed city in the world would also likely be the first glass-roofed city in geo-synchronus orbit!
You mean “meine Freunde.” The translations on the pictures themselves are also not all correct but close enough. ^-^
I love these, especially since it’s my last name and I’m from Germany.
That explains why your avatar is a Swastika in disguise! Muahahahha!
Germans. Pfft.
See, they were worried about global warming back then too.
And note how there are no persons of a certain middle-eastern extraction?
No wonder its a German vision of future.
The police officer in the last scene looks like he is wearing a fez.
I wish bloggers would stop using the annoying ‘after the jump’ catch phrase. Its awkward and severely interrupts the flow of the article. In this instance,it makes no sense.There is no break,no ads,no ‘jump’. Why write it in the first place?
Since this is a historical meme site, would you prefer the even more archaic “below the fold”?
…zhe germans….silly
As a former merchant mariner, I’m impressed by the ships-on-rails. I was actually on one. Well, not for very far. This one drydock we went in to, the bottom of it came right up out of the water, with the ship cradled up on it — yes, with all of us still on it — and a pair of monster tractors pulled the whole dam ship on tracks out to the middle of the parking lot where the drydock crew worked on her. Stunning experience.
I’m currently a merchant mariner (1st asst. engr.). Your ship must not have been all that big. Mine is hard-pressed to fit in a floating drydock; we usually go to a graving dock.
They got the near-constant product placement right too. Although there’s worse products than chocolate.
It only took one zeppelin to blow up and everyone gave up on the technology.
I’m thinking that steamship+locomotive combination is the best steampunk idea ever.
Why, oh why we don’t have personal flying machines? I really would like that prediction come true.
Also, no juden.
The US can thank Germany for it’s technological superiority.
When Germany was united, they did a massive investment in universities and technology; this was what almost made the nazis create the bomb.
After WWII alot of these german engineers was brought to the US and thus founded NASA and a bunch of other stuff.
So thank you Germany! Western civilisation rules!
Germany ought to thank Britain and the US for the fact that it is a stable, productive society today.
From 1933 to 1945, the Nazis invested heavily in universities and technology with the goal of making war and ultimately destroying Western civilization.
Hitler’s surviving papers show that he was not overly interested in building atomic bombs. The destruction by the Norwegian Resistance, with the help of British commandos, of several facilities which were making deuterium ended the Nazis’ nuclear ambitions.
One of the many benefits the Allies gave to both Germany and Japan following their crushing defeat in WW2 was some not-so-subtle “nation-building” (yes, we are capable of doing that if we apply ourselves to the task) which resulted in the former Axis members becoming what they are today – peaceful, prosperous nations vice warmongers.
Wernher von Braun did not create NASA. But he certainly did play a big part in helping our space program. Following WW2, the US had most of the largest, most capable industrial organizations in the entire world. We also had tons of the best engineers and researchers. Although we recruited many top German scientists to work in the US, unlike the Soviets we did not need their help to move ahead from there.
We all ought to be thanking the Allies – particularly Britain, which held the fort alone during most of ’40 and ’41 – for maintaining Western civilization.