Informatization and Computerization of Production Engineering in the Federal Republic of Germany, since 1945

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Martina Heßler
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 384703618

The project aims at investigating West-German production engineering since 1945. It will focus on research into and concepts of informatization and computerization of industrial production and the fully automated factory of the future. It will contribute to the history of engineering sciences. Until now its postwar history has been largely overlooked.The project will scrutinize the remarkable changes engineering sciences experienced since 1945. The development of production engineering shows, that the deployment of computer technology had significant effects on the discipline`s general orientation. Furthermore, production engineering has high relevance for industrial work. Computer based technologies, production methods, the organization of labor, in short, the socio-technical regime of the postwar factory, can hardly be understood without the impact of and entanglement with production engineering. However, the project does not aim at investigating industrial work itself, but will look through the lens of respective research efforts.The project does, of course, not aim at writing an internalistic history of engineering sciences. Instead it will analyze how industrial, political and societal demands, expectations but also resistances shaped research, and how production engineers tried to influence political decisions and societal debates, respectively. In addition, West-German developments will be situated within international trends and networks. Finally, the project will contribute to the history of knowledge production and draw on the idea of knowledge paths, a concept that follows the notion of path dependency.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants