November 13, 2012, in the afternoon, Dr. Dirk Forschner was invited to the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences to give a lecture named “Steam Locomotive Operation in China in the second half of the 1930s”.
The lecture presented a survey of a sales man’s photographic oeuvre and explained the background of the railways and its traction devices.
Dirk Forschner focused on the German locomotives, mainly delivered before world war one and still in operation and the lecture will have an eye on the technical changes of the latter. And he also tried to reach people interested in technology transfer Germany to China, history of economics and history of technology.
For four years now, Dirk Forschner is employed at TU Berlin, holding lectures on the history of Chinese Railways, Chinese Locomotive manufacturing and the introduction in the operation of steam engines and others.
Since 2011, Dirk Forschner is taking part of the DFG (Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft/German Research Foundation) project “Making Technology Appropriate”. Being part of this project Dirk Forschner is responsible for the field of steam locomotives and steam road rollers exported from Germany to China.

Dirk Forschner was giving his lecture

Discussion on the lecture