[117], Speer was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, principally for the use of slave labor and forced labor. Speer believed his greatest work, the one that would truly stand the test of time was the Zeppelinfeld in Nrnberg, which held up to 340,000 people, and the Cathedral of Lights he orchestrated for nighttime Nazi rallies with 130 anti-aircraft searchlights placed around it. 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 ." [155] Isabell Trommer writes in her biography of Speer that Fest and Siedler were co-authors of Speer's memoirs and co-creators of his myths. Profile manager: Gordon Becker [ send private message ] "[4] His brothers, Ernst and Hermann, bullied him throughout his childhood. Described by associates as ice cold. - London, 1. rujna 1981.) [66], As Minister of Armaments, Speer was responsible for supplying weapons to the army. [57] Speer succeeded Todt not only as Reich Minister but in all his other powerful positions, including Inspector General of German Roadways, Inspector General for Water and Energy and Head of the Nazi Party's Office of Technology. This formed a key element of the myths Speer encouraged. Another myth posits that Speer revolutionized the German war machine after his appointment as Minister of Armaments. bio je arhitekt i ministar naoruanja u nacistikoj Njemakoj. [132] Willy Brandt was an advocate of his release,[133] putting an end to the de-Nazification proceedings against him,[134] which could have caused his property to be confiscated. Four years into their relationship, in September 1981, Speer died. [1] In 1944, Speer established a task force to increase production of fighter aircraft. These centered on a three-mile-long grand boulevard running from north to south, which Speer called the Prachtstrasse, or Street of Magnificence;[35] he also referred to it as the "NorthSouth Axis". The family learned of this through some letters Ernst sent. Germany's armaments production had already begun to result in increases under his predecessor, Todt. It began in 1932 but had not supplied any weaponry. Startseite; Cytologie. Speer, Albert, born 19-03-1905 in Mannheim, Baden Wrttemberg, as second of three brothers, Hermann born 1902 and Ernst born 1906, of Albert Friedrich Speer and Louise Mathilde Wilhelmine Speer (born Hommel). He remained so even after his release from imprisonment in 1966, despite their efforts to forge closer bonds. Speer, Jr., an eighty-two-year-old with a perennially serious expression and a fondness for energetic hand motions, is one of Germany's best-known urban planners. German architect of the Nazi period (1933-45). 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 . Study now. [146] Adam Tooze in his book The Wages of Destruction said Speer had manoeuvred himself through the ranks of the regime skillfully and ruthlessly and that the idea he was a technocrat blindly carrying out orders was "absurd". 46.104 since 1942 - according to himself he declined all Ehrenrnge offered, but in the end accepted the Rank of a SS-Mann. [43], During the Chancellery project, the pogrom of Kristallnacht took place. [77] By July 1943, he had gained control of armaments production for the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. [162], After Speer's death, Matthias Schmidt published a book that demonstrated that Speer had ordered the eviction of Jews from their Berlin homes. [151] His daughter, Margret Nissen, wrote in her 2005 memoirs that after his release from Spandau he spent all of his time constructing the "Speer Myth". [26], Speer also sought to portray himself as an opponent of Hitler's leadership. [96] In January 1945, Speer told Goebbels that armaments production could be sustained for at least a year. At the end of July 1942, a lack of fuel brought Paulus to a halt at Kalach. Speer enthusiastically supported the program and in March 1942 made an order for A4 rockets, the predecessor of the world's first ballistic missile, the V-2 rocket. 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. ", The main body of the book effectively ends when Speer, by this point having joined Karl Dnitz's government seated in Schleswig-Holstein, receives news of Hitler's death. [123], In 1949, Wolters opened a bank account for Speer and began fundraising among those architects and industrialists who had benefited from Speer's activities during the war. [36] At the northern end of the boulevard, Speer planned to build the Volkshalle, a huge domed assembly hall over 700 feet (210m) high, with floor space for 180,000 people. Among those who pledged support for his sentence to be commuted were Charles de Gaulle and US diplomat George Wildman Ball. An architect by training, Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931. [5] Speer was active in sports, taking up skiing and mountaineering. [159], Speer had carefully constructed an image of himself as an apolitical technocrat who deeply regretted having failed to discover the monstrous crimes of the Third Reich. In 1942, he was named Minister of Armaments and Munitions, assuming significant responsibility for the German war economy. This image dominated his historiography in the decades following the war, giving rise to the "Speer Myth": the perception of him as an apolitical technocrat responsible for revolutionizing the German war machine. However, his other brother Ernst had died in the Battle of Stalingrad, despite repeated requests from his parents for Speer to repatriate him. There were so many corpses at the Dora underground factory, for example, that the crematorium was overwhelmed. [12] In Munich Speer began a close friendship, ultimately spanning over 50 years, with Rudolf Wolters, who also studied under Tessenow. [76], Following his appointment as Minister of Armaments, Speer was in control of armaments production solely for the Army. [62], Speer was fted at the time, and in the post-war era, for performing an "armaments miracle" in which German war production dramatically increased. Albert Speer's account of all his experiences during the war was to me, totally fascinating. Speer described the personalities of many Nazi officials, including Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Gring, Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Hess, Martin Bormann, and, of course, Hitler himself. [1]:506,699701. This was probably the start of the downfall of the Reich. Ernst Speer. [125] He had completed his memoirs by November 1953, which became the basis of Inside the Third Reich. Speer liked the scenario so much that he wrote it into his memoirs. [88] The SS provided 64,000 prisoners for 20 separate projects from various concentration camps including Mittelbau-Dora. He was charged with planning for war, planning a war of aggression, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. This movie is based on Speer's autobiography of the same name. . He admitted only to being uncomfortable around Jews in the published version of the Spandau Diaries. Speer in response used his propaganda expertise to display a new dynamism of the war economy. He lost yet more authority. "It is not charity; I don't like that . The houses still look very much the same. Speer's desperate mother called Speer . Hitler appointed Speer, whose work for Goebbels had impressed him, to manage the building site for Troost. Despite this opposition, the two married in Berlin on 28 August 1928; seven years elapsed before Margarete was invited to stay at her in-laws' home. He was 76 years old. This carried with it the rank of State Secretary in the Reich government and gave him extraordinary powers over the Berlin city government. [78] In August 1943, he took control of most of the Ministry of Economics, to become, in Admiral Dnitz's words, "Europe's economic dictator". "[142] He supported Hermann, his brother, financially after the war. [174] Heinrich Breloer, discussing the construction of Auschwitz, said Speer was not just a cog in the workhe was the "terror itself". In the World War II, Hitler appointed him as the Minister of Armaments and War Production for Germany. Although survivor Francisco Boix testified at the Nuremberg trials about Speer's visit,[172] Taylor writes that, had the photo been available, he would have been hanged. From 1946 to 1966, while serving the sentence in Spandau Prison, he penned more than 2,000 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. [2] In 1918, the family leased their Mannheim residence and moved to a home they had in Heidelberg. It will begin in Norway and extend to northern Italy. all Albert Speer wanted was to feel important. I knew that these must be Berlin Jews who were being evacuated. never got along so good before or after. "[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. Trevor-Roper who calls Speer an administrative genius whose basic instincts were peaceful and constructive does take Speer to task, however, for his failure to recognize the immorality of Hitler and Nazism, calling him "the real criminal of Nazi Germany":[161], For ten years he sat at the very centre of political power; his keen intelligence diagnosed the nature and observed the mutations of Nazi government and policy; he saw and despised the personalities around him; he heard their outrageous orders and understood their fantastic ambitions; but he did nothing. [109] Speer was disappointed that Hitler had not selected him as his successor. Naval armaments were not under Speer's supervision until October 1943, nor the Luftwaffe's armaments until June of the following year. . It's the end of an era: The company's founder Professor Albert Speer passes away in September aged 83. [13], In mid-1922, Speer began courting Margarete (Margret) Weber (19051987), the daughter of a successful craftsman who employed 50 workers. For the television film based on the book, see, :55,71,7879,83,105,115116,138,188,651,674,696, Sarah Word from the British film magazine ", Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inside_the_Third_Reich&oldid=1132240858, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 7 January 2023, at 23:15. [100] Speer gained control over the railways in February, and asked Heinrich Himmler to supply concentration camp prisoners to work on their repair. The manuscript led to two books: first Erinnerungen ("Recollections") (Propylen/Ullstein, 1969), which was translated into English and published by Macmillan in 1970 as Inside the Third Reich; then as Spandauer Tagebcher ("Spandau Diaries") (Propylen/Ullstein, 1975), which was translated into English and published by Macmillan in 1976 as Spandau: The Secret Diaries. [34] Hitler ordered Speer to develop plans to rebuild Berlin. I presumably had a sense of somber events. Post the atmosphere was said the best ever it was actually worded they Speer with his children Albert and Hilde, front, and Margret, Arnold and Fritz, back. Sereny gained respect for his sincerity in his personal "battle with truth.". [ 88 ] the SS provided 64,000 prisoners for 20 separate projects from various camps... [ 96 ] in 1944, Speer was responsible for supplying weapons to the army the war... 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