In the utopian literature of the fin-de-siècle, engineers represent recurring literary characters. This article highlights their role as voices of progress (Fortschritt). Focussing on Theodor Hertzka’s Freiland (1889) and Theodor Herzl’s AltNeuLand (1902), it differentiates these voices of progress according to their semantic and temporal structure, as well as their use of media, thereby illuminating differences within the concept of progress.