Paul Lennart Sprute
Research Associate | Contemporary History and Archive
03362 793-203
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Since 2020 Paul Sprute is a research associate in the junior research group Histories of the Built Environment in the research area Contemporary History and Archive. Between 2020 and 2023, Paul Sprute worked in the "Freigeist" research project "Conquering (with) Concrete: German Construction Companies as Global Players in Local Contexts" on his PhD thesis "Harbouring Globalisations" on post-colonial projects of port constructions in West Africa built by German construction companies. Since 2024, Paul Sprute is a post-doc researcher in the research project "Constructing Transport Architecture in West Africa: A multiscalar history of materialities, territories and actors" in cooperation with the Universiteit Gent and the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan.

Paul Sprute graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the Universität Bremen and holds a master’s degree in Global History from the Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In his master’s thesis, he researched the afterlife of the GDR’s international solidarity in the activities of the association Solidaritätsdienst International.

Projects

Ongoing Third-party Funded Projects

Third-party funded project 01/2020 - 12/2024
Conquering (with) Concrete. German Construction Companies as Global Players in Local Contexts.

Global construction companies impact our futures. Yet, the role of these global players and their persistent presence in different regions has barely been reflected upon. This project uses German construction companies as a prism to address a wide spectrum of economic, political, environmental or cultural impacts in specific local contexts throughout the long 20th century and aims to critically analyse success stories and moments of failure. This choice is triggered by the label ‘Made in Germany’, which was established in the late colonial period and remains an unquestioned marker of quality. Focusing on production cycles, the research team scrutinises global flows of capital, labour, know-how and construction materials, primarily in West and Southern Africa as well as Latin America.<br/><br/> more info

Third-party funded project 11/2023 - 11/2026
Constructing Transport Architecture in West Africa. A Multi-Scalar History of Materialities, Territories and Actors / Construire l'architecture des transports en Afrique de l'Ouest. Une histoire multiscalaire des matérialités, des territoires et des acteu (CTRAAF)

The joint German-Flemish-Ivorian project CTRAAF examines the genealogies, materialisations and legacies of various forms of transport architecture in West Africa from the 1950s to the 1980s. At this time, a large wave of infrastructure projects was being promoted throughout West Africa. Transport infrastructures were nation building projects. CTRAAF examines ideas and realisations of transport architecture in this context, as well as the agency and power of political actors shaping it.<br/><br/>Le projet commun germano-flamand-ivoirien CTRAAF examine les généalogies, les matérialisations et les héritages de diverses formes d'architecture des transports en Afrique de l'Ouest entre les années 1950 et 1980. À cette époque, une grande vague de projets d'infrastructure a été promue dans toute l'Afrique de l'Ouest. Les infrastructures de transport étaient des projets de construction nationale. Le CTRAAF examine les idées et les réalisations de l'architecture des transports dans ce contexte, ainsi que l'agence et le pouvoir des acteurs politiques qui la façonnent. more info

Completed Qualification Projects

Harbouring Globalisations: Post-Colonial Projects of German Port Constructions and West African Hinterland Connections, 1950s-1970s

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Selected Publications by Year

2024
Sprute, P. (2024, Apr 1). Eine Reise in die Geschichte der Bong Mining Company. Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung.
Jeldes, M., Motylińska, M., Sprute, P., Richter, J., & Litvinenko, K. (2024, Apr 15). Auslandsbau. Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung. https://leibniz-irs.de/publikationen/irs-publikationsreihen/irs-aktuell/auslandsbau
Motylińska, M., Fivez, R., Jeldes, M., & Sprute, P. (2024). Swimming in an Ocean of Materials. Architecture Beyond Europe, (23). http://journals.openedition.org/abe/16278
Motylińska, M., Fivez, R., Jeldes, M., & Sprute, P. (Eds.) (2024). Material Constraints. (Architecture Beyond Europe, Special Issue; No. 23). https://journals.openedition.org/abe/
2023
Sprute, P. L. (2023). Settlements of Post-Socialist Development? Reconstructing East German Solidarity through Housing Projects in the Global South after 1990. In M. Motylinska, C. Bernhardt, & A. Butter (Eds.), Between Solidarity and Economic Constraints: Global Entanglements in Architecture and Planning in the Cold War Period (pp. 241-266). (Rethinking the Cold War; Vol. 12). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110658491-011
2022
Sprute, P. (2022). Rezension zu: Beese, Sebastian: Experten der Erschließung. Akteure der deutschen Kolonialtechnik in Afrika und Europa 1890–1943. Paderborn 2021. H-Soz-u-Kult. https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-98206
Sprute, P. (2022). “From the Pit to the Port”: Navigating the Bong Mining Company Site in Liberia Through a Children’s Drawing. Architecture Beyond Europe, (20). https://doi.org/10.4000/abe.13347
2021
Sprute, P. L. (2021). Ariane Komeda, Kontaktarchitektur: Kolonialarchitektur in Namibia zwischen Norm und Übersetzung. Architecture Beyond Europe, (18). https://doi.org/10.4000/abe.9939
Sprute, P. L. (2021). Diaries of Solidarity in the Global Cold War: The East German Friendship Brigades and their Experience in ‘Modernizing’ Angola. In E. Burton, A. Dietrich, I. R. Harisch, & M. C. Schenck (Eds.), Navigating Socialist Encounters: Moorings and (Dis)Entanglements between Africa and East Germany during the Cold War (pp. 293-318). (Africa in Global History; No. 2). De Gruyter. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110623543-012/pdf
  • https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110623543-012/pdf
    • 2020
    Sprute, P. L. (2020). Die Nachleben der Solidarität: Ideen und Praktiken des »Solidaritätsdienst International« im vereinigten Deutschland. Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, (60), 261-280. https://www.fes.de/afs/baende#c209742
    Sprute, P. L. (2020). "Daß ich die Kraft zur Solidarität noch habe...". Weitwinkel, 3(1), 21-22. https://www.sodi.de/fileadmin/sodi_files/publikationen/weitwinkel/WEITWINKEL_2020_1.pdf
  • https://www.sodi.de/fileadmin/sodi_files/publikationen/weitwinkel/WEITWINKEL_2020_1.pdf

    • Selected Publications by Type

    Journal Issue / Special Issue
    Motylińska, M., Fivez, R., Jeldes, M., & Sprute, P. (Eds.) (2024). Material Constraints. (Architecture Beyond Europe, Special Issue; No. 23). https://journals.openedition.org/abe/
    Journal Article
    Motylińska, M., Fivez, R., Jeldes, M., & Sprute, P. (2024). Swimming in an Ocean of Materials. Architecture Beyond Europe, (23). http://journals.openedition.org/abe/16278
    Sprute, P. (2022). “From the Pit to the Port”: Navigating the Bong Mining Company Site in Liberia Through a Children’s Drawing. Architecture Beyond Europe, (20). https://doi.org/10.4000/abe.13347
    Sprute, P. L. (2020). Die Nachleben der Solidarität: Ideen und Praktiken des »Solidaritätsdienst International« im vereinigten Deutschland. Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, (60), 261-280. https://www.fes.de/afs/baende#c209742
    Contribution to Anthology
    Sprute, P. L. (2023). Settlements of Post-Socialist Development? Reconstructing East German Solidarity through Housing Projects in the Global South after 1990. In M. Motylinska, C. Bernhardt, & A. Butter (Eds.), Between Solidarity and Economic Constraints: Global Entanglements in Architecture and Planning in the Cold War Period (pp. 241-266). (Rethinking the Cold War; Vol. 12). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110658491-011
    Sprute, P. L. (2021). Diaries of Solidarity in the Global Cold War: The East German Friendship Brigades and their Experience in ‘Modernizing’ Angola. In E. Burton, A. Dietrich, I. R. Harisch, & M. C. Schenck (Eds.), Navigating Socialist Encounters: Moorings and (Dis)Entanglements between Africa and East Germany during the Cold War (pp. 293-318). (Africa in Global History; No. 2). De Gruyter. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110623543-012/pdf
  • https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110623543-012/pdf
    • Contribution to Special Interest Journal
    Sprute, P. L. (2020). "Daß ich die Kraft zur Solidarität noch habe...". Weitwinkel, 3(1), 21-22. https://www.sodi.de/fileadmin/sodi_files/publikationen/weitwinkel/WEITWINKEL_2020_1.pdf
  • https://www.sodi.de/fileadmin/sodi_files/publikationen/weitwinkel/WEITWINKEL_2020_1.pdf
    • Publication (Science Communication)
    Sprute, P. (2024, Apr 1). Eine Reise in die Geschichte der Bong Mining Company. Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung.
    Jeldes, M., Motylińska, M., Sprute, P., Richter, J., & Litvinenko, K. (2024, Apr 15). Auslandsbau. Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung. https://leibniz-irs.de/publikationen/irs-publikationsreihen/irs-aktuell/auslandsbau
    Review in Journal
    Sprute, P. (2022). Rezension zu: Beese, Sebastian: Experten der Erschließung. Akteure der deutschen Kolonialtechnik in Afrika und Europa 1890–1943. Paderborn 2021. H-Soz-u-Kult. https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-98206
    Sprute, P. L. (2021). Ariane Komeda, Kontaktarchitektur: Kolonialarchitektur in Namibia zwischen Norm und Übersetzung. Architecture Beyond Europe, (18). https://doi.org/10.4000/abe.9939

    Talks

    2024
    The precarious stability of the (former) BMC's transport infrastructures in Liberia

    VAD-Conference 2024 - "Reconfiguration in Africa - And in African Studies"

    October/01/2024
    Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Mythologies and Materialities of Bilfinger’s & Berger’s Worldmaking in Angola and Nigeria

    The Business of Worldmaking

    September/20/2024
    Science and Research Centre Koper, Koper, Slovenia

    From the Trans-West African Coastal Highway to patterns of cross-border mobility between Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire

    Mobilität in der Geschichte Afrikas. Neue Zugänge zum »mobility turn«.

    June/06/2024
    Deutsches Historisches Institut, Paris, France

    2023
    Made in Germany? Julius Berger Nigeria PLC as a Prism for Myths and Materialities of German Construction Projects in Nigeria

    German Studies Association Annual Conference

    October/08/2023
    Montréal, Montréal, Canada

    Harbouring Globalizations: Projects of Post-Colonial Port Constructions and Hinterland Connections in West Africa

    April/19/2023

    Agents of neocolonialism?

    International Congress on Colonial and Postcolonial Landscapes

    January/20/2023
    Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lissabon, Portugal

    2022
    The Dispersed Archive of Bong Mining and Historiographical Silences Between Liberia and Germany

    From Archival Pasts Towards Archival Futures: Epistemologies, Decolonization and (Dis-)Placement

    November/12/2022
    Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

    Submerged Agencies: Concrete Port Constructions in the First Half of the 20th Century Between Material Demands and Contractors’ Interests

    Producción de infraestructura

    November/03/2022
    Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    The Materiality and Constructability of the Subway in Buenos Aires (1933–1944)

    Materiality and the History of Infrastructure

    July/20/2022
    Herrenhausen Symposium, Hannover, Germany

    Settlements of Post-Socialist Development: Reconstructing East German Solidarity through Housing Projects in the Global South after 1990

    Between Trade and Aid

    July/01/2022
    SFP 1199 Processes of Globalization under the Global Condition, Leipzig, Germany

    The (Eastern European) Afterlives of East German Solidarity: The Solidaritätsdienst International and its Re-Interpretation of East German Socialist Internationalism

    Comparing Cultures of Solidarity

    June/21/2022
    Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Channelling the Oil Boom through Tin Can Island: The Port Constructions of Julius Berger in Nigeria

    Research Seminar "Conquering (with) Concrete: German Construction Companies as Local Players in Global Contexts"

    June/08/2022
    Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

    2021
    Materialities of the Construction Process: International Contractors and the Subway in Buenos Aires

    Material Assemblages

    December/17/2021
    Herrenhausen Palace, Hannover, Germany

    Cementing the Ties: ZAB, CMEA and the Architecture of Multilateralism in Syria and Ethiopia

    EAHN Conference 2021

    June/05/2021
    Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    (Re)Constructing German Colonial Capitalism from its Margins: German Companies in Liberia

    Colonial Capitalism in Action

    May/05/2021
    Universität Hamburg, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Hamburg, Germany

    2020
    German Construction Companies and their Port Constructions between the Global and the Local

    November/05/2020

    Memberships

    • University Félix Houphouët-Boigny (External organisation)

    • DFG Network "Post-Colonial Business History" (External organisation)