About Albert Speer: German Architect, Minister of Armament and War Production in Nazi Germany (1905-1981)
Albert Speer (; [ˈʃpeːɐ̯] (); 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) as Nazi Germany’s Minister of Armament and War Production for most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, he was convicted at the Nuremberg trials and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
A trained architect, Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931. His architectural skills made him increasingly prominent within the party and a member of Hitler’s inner circle. Hitler instructed him to design and build buildings including the Reich Chancellery and the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg. In 1937, Hitler appointed Speer as Berlin’s chief building inspector. In this capacity he was in charge of the Central Resettlement Department, which evicted Jewish tenants from their homes in Berlin. In February 1942, Speer was appointed Reich Minister of Armament and War Production. Using doctored statistics, he advertised that he had created an “arms miracle” widely credited with keeping Germany in the war. In 1944, Speer formed a working group to increase the production of fighter jets. It played a major role in exploiting slave labor for the German war effort.
After the war, Speer was one of 24 “major war criminals” arrested at the Nuremberg trials and accused of crimes against the Nazi regime. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity, largely for using slave labor, narrowly avoiding the death penalty. After serving his entire term, Speer was released in 1966. He wrote two autobiographies based on his writings while in prison, Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret Diary. Speer’s book was a success; the public was fascinated by the interior landscape of the Third Reich. Speer died of a stroke in 1981. Few of his personal architectural works remain.
Through his autobiography and interviews, Speer carefully crafted the image of a man who deeply regretted his failure to uncover the heinous crimes of the Third Reich. He continues to deny clear knowledge and responsibility for the Holocaust. In the decades following the war, this image dominated his historiography, giving rise to the “Speer Myth”. The first theme of the myth is that, after his appointment as Minister of Armaments, he revolutionized the German war machine. The second theme is that he is an apolitical technocrat. Beginning in the 1980s, this myth began to fall apart. The armament miracle was attributed to Nazi propaganda.Adam Toots in the price of destruction The idea that Speer is an apolitical technocrat is “ridiculous”.Martin Kitchen, writing Speer: Hitler’s Architectpointing out that much of the increase in German arms production was actually due to the system established by Speer’s predecessor (Fritz Todd), and that, in addition, Speer was closely involved in the “final solution”.
Early life and personal life
Speer was born into an upper-middle-class family in Mannheim. He was the second of three sons of Luise Máthilde Wilhelmine (Hommel) and Albert Friedrich Speer. In 1918, the family rented their Mannheim residence and moved into their home in Heidelberg. Henry T. King, deputy prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials, who later wrote a book about Speer, said: “Speer’s family lacked love and warmth in his youth.” His brothers Ernst and Hermann Bullied him throughout his childhood. Speer is a keen sportsman and enjoys skiing and mountaineering. He followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and studied architecture.
With the hyperinflation crisis of 1923 limiting his parents’ income, Speer started his architectural studies at the University of Karlsruhe, not a more acclaimed institution. After the crisis eased in 1924, he transferred to the “more prestigious” Technical University of Munich. In 1925 he transferred again to the Technical University of Berlin, where he studied with Heinrich Tessenow, whom Speer greatly admired. After passing the exam in 1927, Speer became Tessenow’s assistant, a high honor for a 22-year-old man. So Speer taught some of his courses while continuing his own graduate studies. In Munich, Speer and Rudolf Walters, who also studied with Tysono, began a close friendship that lasted more than 50 years.
In mid-1922, Speer began pursuing Margret Weber (1905–1987), the daughter of a successful craftsman who employed 50 workers. Speer’s class-conscious mother disapproved of the relationship, arguing that the Webbs were socially disadvantaged. Despite opposition, the two married in Berlin on August 28, 1928. Seven years later, Margaret was invited to live with her in-laws. The couple would have six children, but Albert Speer became increasingly estranged from his family after 1933. He remained so even after his release from prison in 1966, despite their efforts to forge closer ties.
Party architects and government workers
Joined the Nazis (1931–1934)
Speer showed Hitler a project in Obersalzburg.
In January 1931, Speer applied to join the Nazi Party, and on March 1, 1931 became party member No. 474,481. That same year, as perks dwindled during the Great Depression, Speer gave up his position as Tessenow’s assistant and moved to Mannheim, hoping to make a living as an architect. After he failed to do so, his father offered him a part-time job as his property manager. In July 1932, the Spells went to Berlin to help out. House of Parliament election. While they were there, Nazi party official Karl Hanke recommended the young architect to Josef Goebbels to help renovate the party’s Berlin headquarters. After the commission was completed, Speer returned to Mannheim, where he remained when Hitler took office in January 1933.
The organizers of the 1933 Nuremberg Rally asked Speer to submit designs for the rally, which brought him his first contact with Hitler. Neither organizers nor Rudolf Hess would decide whether to approve the plans, and Hess sent Speer to Hitler’s apartment in Munich to seek his approval. This work earned Speer his first state position as the Nazi Party’s “Artist and Technical Display Specialist for Party rallies and demonstrations”.
Shortly after Hitler came to power, he began to formulate plans to rebuild the Chancellery. In late 1933, he contracted with Paul Troost to renovate the entire building. Hitler appointed Speer to manage the construction site for Trost, and he was impressed by the work he did for Goebbels. As chancellor, Hitler had a residence in the building, and he came here every day to be briefed by Speer and the building supervisor on the progress of the renovation. After one of the briefings, Hitler invited Speer to lunch, much to the excitement of the architect. Speer quickly became part of Hitler’s inner circle. He is expected to visit him in the morning for a walk or a chat, advising on construction issues and discussing Hitler’s ideas. Most of the time he was invited to dinner.
In the English version of his memoir, Speer said his political commitment consisted only of paying his “monthly dues.” He thought his German readers would be less gullible, and told them the Nazis offered a “new mission.” He was more forthright in an interview with William Hamsher, who said he joined the party to “save Germany from communism”. After the war, he claimed to have no interest in politics at all, joining almost by accident. Like many of those in power in the Third Reich, he was not a ideologue, although he was an openly anti-Semitic. Historian Magnus Brechtken, speaking of Speer, said that he did not give anti-Semitic public speeches and that his anti-Semitism was most culminated in his anti-Semitism. good understanding. Brechtken added that throughout Speer’s life, his core motivations were to gain power, to rule and to acquire wealth.
Nazi architect (1934–1937)
Cathedral of Light above Zeppelintribune
When Trost died on January 21, 1934, Speer effectively replaced him as the party’s chief architect. Hitler named Speer head of the building’s general office, making him nominally a Hess staffer.
After Trost’s death, one of Speer’s first commissions was Zeppelin Nuremberg Stadium.It was used in Nazi propaganda rallies and can be seen in a propaganda film by Lenny Riefenstahl victory of the will. The building can accommodate 340,000 people. Speer insisted on holding as many events as possible at night to accentuate his lighting effects and hide overweight Nazis. Nuremberg is home to many official Nazi buildings. More buildings are planned. If completed, the German stadium will have a capacity of 400,000 spectators. Speer modified the design of the Olympic Stadium that Werner March built for the 1936 Summer Olympics. He added a stone look that pleased Hitler. Speer designed the German Pavilion for the 1937 Paris International Exposition.
Chief Building Inspector, Berlin (1937–1942)
Hitler with Speer (left) and sculptor Arnold Blake in Paris in 1940
In 1937, Hitler appointed Speer as Chief Building Inspector of the Reich capital. This brought the position of Under-Secretary of State in the Imperial Government and gave him extraordinary powers over the city government of Berlin.It also makes Speer a House of Parliament, although the body at that time has not much effective power. Hitler ordered Speer to draw up a plan to rebuild Berlin.They are centered on a three-mile avenue that runs from north to south, which Speer calls Prachtstraße, or Magnificent Street; he also called it the “North-South Axis”.At the northern end of the boulevard, Speer plans to build Great Hall of the People, a huge domed auditorium, 700 feet (210 m) high, with a capacity of 180,000 people. At the southern end of the avenue, it is planned to build a huge triumphal arch nearly 400 feet (120 m) high, capable of fitting the triumphal arch within its opening. The existing Berlin railway terminal will be demolished and two large stations will be built. Speer hires Wolters as part of his design team, dedicated to Prachtstraße. The outbreak of World War II in 1939 caused these plans to be delayed and later abandoned.
Plans to build a new Imperial Chancellery have been underway since 1934. The land had been purchased at the end of 1934, and in March 1936 the demolition of the first buildings to create space in Voßstraße began. Speer was involved almost from the start. After the Night of the Long Knives, he was commissioned to renovate the Borsig Palace on the corner of Voßstraße and Wilhelmstraße as the organization’s headquarters. commando (South Africa). By May 1936, he had completed the preliminary work for the new Chancellery. exist…
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