Ingenieurssolipsismen in Großstadtutopien der 1920er Jahre

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of two dystopian novels: Yevgeny Zamyatin’s Мы (We, 1924/25) and Thea von Harbou’s Metropolis (1925/26). Both novels stand out by engineers as protagonists. Their respective behaviour is driven by their use of building powers, their creative fantasy, but also by their ambition to rule within a seemingly well-ordered world. However, at the diegetic level, a fundamental ambivalence between the positive understanding of the engineer’s contribution to progress and his restricted and selfish solipsism remains unsolved.