The idea

It´s always fascinating to follow great minds and their visions.

What pushes them? Where do they get the power and courage from to stand up to all obstacles? And what makes them hold on to their ideas?

Herrmann Sörgel was one of those visionaries. Since the 1920s and beyond, he was fighting for his idea to build a massive dam between Gibraltar and the African coast, so as to separate the Mediterranean sea from the Atlantic ocean in order to drain it and win new land.

“Delusions of grandeur”, “hybris”, “absolute craziness” some called it. Others, significant personalities from the politics and economics in particular, were convinced by the scope and potential success of this project, and supported Sörgel and his institute who dedicated themselves to this task until after the end of WW II and Sörgel´s mysterious death in the beginning of the 1950s.