In 1934, an exhibition called “Tropenschau” was added to the programme of the annual Leipzig Spring Fair. What might have appeared like a mere attempt of Nazi propaganda to reclaim, at least on the level of discourse, the German colonies lost in the aftermath of the First World War, was in fact an overview of technical solutions for building in the tropics and architectural models proposed by companies interested in conquering new markets, for instance in French, Italian or British colonies. Involved in the event was a network of architects and engineers with expertise from Egypt and Portuguese East Africa. The exhibition attracted considerable international attention. Simultaneously, associations such as the Society of German Engineers promoted the discipline of “Tropentechnik”, which also included architecture and urban planning (cf. van Laak 2004). And yet this particular episode seems to have faded into oblivion with the end of the Nazi era.

Georg Lippsmeier and his co-authors in their widely cited publication Tropenbau = Building in the Tropics (1969, second edition 1980) never explicitly refer to authors such as Karl Krüger or Friedrich Vick. This rupture has triggered my investigation. In my paper I uncover this supposedly forgotten network of (German) planning for the tropics. However, my aim is not biographical, as in the second part I will critically analyse the proposed designs and technological solutions, situating them in the broader context of international discourses on urban planning and tropical architecture, in order to understand colonial power relations and the economic rationales of the actors. Finally, I will trace hidden links between planning from the 1930s and the post-1945 discourse on tropical architecture. Thus, I intend to complicate the history of the inherently colonial concept of “Tropenbau”, and simultaneously to broaden knowledge about German networks involved in planning for the colonies (Osayimwese 2017).