"[4] His brothers, Ernst and Hermann, bullied him throughout his childhood. She married Prince Albert who was her cousin. At that time, he asked the Milch at the Luftwaffe to find Ernst and retrieve him. by. He was acquitted on the other two counts. Speer was formally arrested on May 23rd. Before that, Speer worked as the chief architect in Hitler's Nazi . He was aided editorially by Wolf Jobst Siedler, Ullstein and Propylaen, and Joachim Fest. One of Speer's grandfathers was among the most successful machine-tool manufacturers in Germany; the other was a well-known architect. He was 76 years old. It takes the reader inside Nazi Germany on four different levels: Hitler's inner circle, National Socialism as a whole, the area of wartime production and the inner struggle of Albert Speer. Sauckel had whole villages in France, Holland and Belgium forcibly rounded up and shipped to Speer's factories. In the summer of 1942 Paulus advanced toward Stalingrad with 250,000 men, 500 tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars, and 25,000 horses. Speer's Heidelberg school offered rugby football, unusual for Germany, skiing, and Speer was a participant. Minister for Armaments. Trevor-Roper frequently refers to Speer as "a technocrat [who] nourished a technocrat's philosophy", one who cared only for his building projects or his ministerial duties, and who thought that politics was irrelevant, at least until Hitler's Nero Decree which Speer, according to his own telling, worked assiduously to counter. Instead, development turned to a "uranium motor", for use in the navy's submarines. Born 1906 [location unknown] Ancestors. He goes on to say that at the Nuremberg Trial he stated he "had to share the total responsibility for all that had happened", and that he "was inescapably contaminated morally". "[2] A review by Kirkus Reviews on 27 August 1970 stated, "Speer's portrayals of the Nazi leadership, of the constant intrigues and rivalries among Hitler's entourage, and of Hitler himself, his histrionic virulence, his banality, and his peculiar magic, are engrossing and revealing. [15] Instead, he revised his Spandau writings into two autobiographical books, Inside the Third Reich (in German, Erinnerungen, or Reminiscences[140]) and Spandau: The Secret Diaries. "[115] Speer's attorney, Hans Flchsner, successfully contrasted Speer from other defendants[116] and portrayed him as an artist thrust into political life who had always remained a non-ideologue. Founded in 1999. Speer was able to have his writings sent to Wolters, however, and they eventually amounted to 20,000 pages. He met Hitler and toured the damaged Chancellery before leaving Berlin to return to Hamburg. [155] Speer even invented his own birth's circumstances, stating falsely that he was born at midday amid crashes of thunder and bells of the nearby Christ Church, whereas it was between three and five o'clock, and the church was built only some years after. Supposing politics to be irrelevant, he turned aside and built roads and bridges and factories, while the logical consequences of government by madmen emerged. [69], As head of Organisation Todt, Speer was directly involved in the construction and alteration of concentration camps. [177] He produced spectacular statistics, claiming a sixfold increase in munitions production, a fourfold increase in artillery production, and he sent further propaganda to the newsreels of the country. Described by associates as ice cold. Albert Speer, (born March 19, 1905, Mannheim, Baden, Germanydied September 1, 1981, London, England), German architect who was Adolf Hitler's chief architect (1933-45) and minister for armaments and war production (1942-45). Until 2 September 1943 the position's official name was Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions. This carried with it the rank of State Secretary in the Reich government and gave him extraordinary powers over the Berlin city government. Detailed plans were completed in July 1937 and the first shell of the new chancellery was complete on 1 January 1938. [179], Little remains of Speer's personal architectural works, other than the plans and photographs. [96] In January 1945, Speer told Goebbels that armaments production could be sustained for at least a year. [15], In January 1931, Speer applied for Nazi Party membership, and on 1 March 1931, he became member number 474,481. [37] Speer hired Wolters as part of his design team, with special responsibility for the Prachtstrasse. German architect of the Nazi period (1933-45). bio je arhitekt i ministar naoruanja u nacistikoj Njemakoj. Speer's own staff described the conditions there as "hell". Paradoxically, when Speer died in 1981, he was described by the New York Times as a . Inside the Third Reich (German: Erinnerungen, "Memories") is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Adolf Hitler's main architect before this period. [107] Speer visited the Fhrerbunker on 22 April for the last time. His formal title was changed on 2 September 1943, to "Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production". In this capacity he was responsible for the Central Department for Resettlement that evicted Jewish tenants from their homes in Berlin. BERLIN When Hilde Schramm inherited several paintings collected by her father, Hitler's chief architect and Armaments Minister Albert Speer, she was only sure of one thing: she did not want. [139] Although he stated he hoped to resume an architectural career, his sole project, a collaboration for a brewery, was unsuccessful. [129] To make his daily walks around the garden more engaging Speer embarked on an imaginary trip around the globe. [165] Trommer said he was not an apolitical technocrat; instead, he was one of the most powerful and unscrupulous leaders in the Nazi regime. Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, commonly known as Albert Speer (March 19, 1905 - September 1, 1981), was an architect, author and high-ranking Nazi German government official, sometimes called "the first architect of the Third Reich ." Naval armaments were not under Speer's supervision until October 1943, nor the Luftwaffe's armaments until June of the following year. [21] As Chancellor, Hitler had a residence in the building and came by every day to be briefed by Speer and the building supervisor on the progress of the renovations. FRANKFURT Albert Speer Jr., an internationally prominent architect who sought throughout his life to distance himself from the dark legacy of his father, a member of Adolf . [82] In mid-January 1944, Speer had a lung embolism and fell seriously ill. letters that exist between ernst and the parents which he wrote and Hitler commissioned him to design and construct structures including the Reich Chancellery and the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. I myself must carry this out. The public was fascinated by an inside view of the Third Reich and a major war criminal became a popular figure almost overnight. [152], After his release from Spandau, Speer portrayed himself as the "good Nazi". [177], The armaments "miracle" was a myth; Speer had used statistical manipulation to support his claims. The building was able to hold 340,000 people. This delayed the program, and Speer was unable to remedy the situation. [120], On 18 July 1947, Speer was transferred to Spandau Prison in Berlin to serve his prison term. The large capital investment was not repaid in military effectiveness. [153] He was well-educated, middle class, and bourgeois, and could contrast himself with those who, in the popular mind, typified "bad Nazis". shelved 32,158 times. Victoria married. [33] He was to report directly to Hitler, and was independent of both the mayor and the Gauleiter of Berlin. With Rutger Hauer, John Gielgud, Maria Schell, Blythe Danner. Speer was aided in shaping the works by Joachim Fest and Wolf Jobst Siedler from the publishing house Ullstein. The houses still look very much the same. albert speers younger brother ernst was killed at Stalingrad Speer's desperate mother called Speer . [155] In addition to the myth that he was an apolitical technocrat, he claimed he did not have full knowledge of the Holocaust or the persecution of the Jews. Albert Speer Jr. was born on July 29, 1934, one year after Hitler had consolidated power in Germany. In consequence, despite tank production having the highest priority, relatively little of the armaments budget was spent on it. body was never found or returned to the family and there are some [126] In Spandau Diaries, Speer aimed to present himself as a tragic hero who had made a Faustian bargain for which he endured a harsh prison sentence. Na Nrnberkom procesu preuzeo je moralnu odgovornost za svoja djela te je priznao ignorantnost po pitanju Holokausta. [157] In return they were paid handsomely in royalties and other financial inducements. [26], The image of the good Nazi was supported by numerous Speer myths. This article is about the book. This miracle was brought to a halt in the summer of 1943 by, among other factors, the first sustained Allied bombing. He used his writings from the time of imprisonment as the basis for two autobiographical books, Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret Diaries. [40] Speer was involved virtually from the beginning. Thanks! Speer states that even if Germany concentrated all of its resources, it would have been 1947 before they could have had an atom bomb. In 1918, moved to Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg, Heidelberg, Germany. He has risen to the top of the . At the southern end of the avenue, a great triumphal arch, almost 400 feet (120m) high and able to fit the Arc de Triomphe inside its opening, was planned. The family learned of this through some letters Ernst sent. While dozens of submarines were built, few ever entered service. Speer joined the National Socialist Party in January 1931; he wrote "I was not choosing the NSDAP, but becoming a follower of Hitler, whose magnetic force had reached out to me the first time I saw him and had not, thereafter, released me." [16][b] The same year, with stipends shrinking amid the Depression, Speer surrendered his position as Tessenow's assistant and moved to Mannheim, hoping to make a living as an architect. [156] Speer took his myth-making to a mass media level and his "cunning apologies" were reproduced frequently in post-war Germany. Concerned about retaining power, he did not appoint a deputy and continued to direct work of the Armaments Ministry from his bedside. "It is not charity; I don't like that . Summary: "Inside the Third Reich is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Adolf Hitler's main architect before this period. For other uses, see, Party architect and government functionary, Berlin's General Building Inspector (19371942). [20], Shortly after Hitler came into power, he began to make plans to rebuild the chancellery. Speer studied at the technical schools in Karlsruhe, Munich, and Berlin, and acquired an architectural license in 1927. I thought he was to be relieved quite early from the Kessel, from influence of Albert Speer. "[16] The historian Magnus Brechtken, discussing Speer, said he did not give anti-Jewish public speeches and that his anti-Semitism can best be understood through his actionswhich were anti-Semitic. By July 1943 Speer's armaments propaganda became irrelevant because a catalogue of dramatic defeats on the battlefield meant the prospect of losing the war could no longer be hidden from the German public. Today: Still there. Albert Speer, the Nazi architect who built a Cathedral of Light for Hitler and commanded millions of prisoners in the forced production of weaponry, had a comfortable second life. The myth began to fall apart in the 1980s, when the armaments miracle was attributed to Nazi propaganda. The complicated architecture of Albert Speer, Jr. From being the son of a Nazi to becoming one of the world's foremost architects, this 82-year-old urban planner has been on top of the German planning world for more than half a century. After hearing Hitler speak at a Berlin . [177] The rational position to adopt was to seek a political solution that would end the war without defeat. He was charged with planning for war, planning a war of aggression, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. This is followed by an epilogue dealing with the end of the war in Europe and the resulting Nuremberg trials, in which Speer was sentenced to a 20-year prison term for his actions during the war. The journalist described an invented scenario in which Speer had refused Hitler's orders and Hitler had left with tears in his eyes. The V-2's first target was Paris on 8 September 1944. [122] Speer's parents died while he was incarcerated. He added a stone exterior that pleased Hitler. the eldest went to visit his brother while in spandau prison and [121] There he was known as Prisoner Number Five. . Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (/ p r /; German: [pe] (); 19 March 1905 - 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during 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.. An architect by training, Speer joined the . [127], Much of Speer's energy was dedicated to keeping fit, both physically and mentally, during his long confinement. [44] The chancellery was completed in early January 1939. 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