French influence on the development of applied mechanics in Germany in the nineteenth century

This paper concerns French‐German Interaction in the technological sciences at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Through an examination of the cases of Baader and Wiebeking, I will examine concepts of knowledge transfer in applied mechanics at the transnational level. The early attempts of German engineers such as Baader, Langsdorf, Woltmann, Wiebeking, Tulla, Reichenbach and to a lesser degree Eytelwein and Gerstner, to establish close contacts with French engineers, were often guided by the desire to participate in the powerful social position of French scientists. This desire forced a change in the relationship between theory and technology in the German‐speaking countries. The full impact on applied mechanics, in fact, was not fully felt until the second half of the century. The active role of several representatives of the first generation of nineteenth‐century German technologists in opening technology to the style of French science‐based engineering is largely underestimated.