[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. [93] He opposed the assassination attempt against Hitler on 20 July 1944. 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. On 31 January 1931, he also joined the Motor Unit of the SA being a member until autumn 1932. 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." "[4] His brothers, Ernst and Hermann, bullied him throughout his childhood. In September 1945, he was told that he would be tried for war crimes, and several days later, he was moved to Nuremberg and incarcerated there. It is primarily based on the memoirs of Gertraud "Traudl" Junge ( Alexandra Maria Lara ), one of Hitler's secretaries, and is one of the most accurate portrayals of the last, desperate days of the Third Reich and its effects on the Fhrer, his closest aides, and ordinary Germans. Speer states he became hopeful when Hitler explained how communism could be checked and Germany could recover economically. [165] Trommer said he was not an apolitical technocrat; instead, he was one of the most powerful and unscrupulous leaders in the Nazi regime. In response, Hitler appointed Fritz Sauckel as a "manpower dictator" to obtain new workers. Speer liked the scenario so much that he wrote it into his memoirs. Ernst Speer. 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. [168] Speer also falsely claimed that he had realised the war was lost at an early stage, and thereafter worked to preserve the resources needed for the civilian population's survival. [14] The couple would have six children together, but Albert Speer grew increasingly distant from his family after 1933. 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 ." The program while advanced proved to be an impediment to the war economy. [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. Albert Speer. First Architect of the Third Reich. [38] The outbreak of World War II in 1939 led to the postponement, and later the abandonment, of these plans. [44] The chancellery was completed in early January 1939. "[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. alberts side and was generally desribed as a wastrel. While they were there his friend, Nazi Party official Karl Hanke recommended the young architect to Joseph Goebbels to help renovate the Party's Berlin headquarters. . [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. [114], The chief United States prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, of the U.S. Supreme Court said, "Speer joined in planning and executing the program to dragoon prisoners of war and foreign workers into German war industries, which waxed in output while the workers waned in starvation. Sereny gained respect for his sincerity in his personal "battle with truth.". Detailed plans were completed in July 1937 and the first shell of the new chancellery was complete on 1 January 1938. [163] By 1999, historians had amply demonstrated that Speer had lied extensively. The cylinder is now a protected landmark and is open to the public. A dramatization of the life of Albert Speer (Rutger Hauer), Adolf Hitler's (Sir Derek Jacobi's) young architect and one-time confidant, and his meteoric rise into the Nazi hierarchy. Having served his full term, Speer was released in 1966. [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. [98] Nevertheless, Speer believed that Germany should continue the war for as long as possible with the goal of winning better conditions from the Allies than the unconditional surrender they insisted upon. [45] Kristallnacht accelerated Speer's ongoing efforts to dispossess Berlin's Jews from their homes. [102][103] Hitler rejected Speer's proposal to cease demolitions. The film presents original videos from the Nazi Germany period and conversations with Speer, in which the great deception he tried to present at the Nuremberg trials and in his book is revealed.[6]. He was aided editorially by Wolf Jobst Siedler, Ullstein and Propylaen, and Joachim Fest. He lost Hitler's unconditional support and began to lose power. [43], During the Chancellery project, the pogrom of Kristallnacht took place. One thing that happened in early 1840 of Victoria time was that 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. [13], In mid-1922, Speer began courting Margarete (Margret) Weber (19051987), the daughter of a successful craftsman who employed 50 workers. Another myth posits that Speer revolutionized the German war machine after his appointment as Minister of Armaments. He had walked more than 30,000 kilometres (19,000mi), ending his sentence near Guadalajara, Mexico. The book also shows a photograph from 1943, of . [8] In 1924, when the crisis had abated, he transferred to the "much more reputable" Technical University of Munich. [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. [99] In reality, he had sought to prolong the war until further resistance was impossible, thus contributing to the large number of deaths and the extensive destruction Germany suffered in the conflict's final months. [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. A groundbreaking 26-part documentary series narrated by the actor Laurence Olivier about the deadliest conflict in history, World War II. [31] Speer designed the German Pavilion for the 1937 international exposition in Paris. After August 1944, oil from the Romanian fields was no longer available. 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. [117], Speer was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, principally for the use of slave labor and forced labor. The idea for this myth came to him after he recalled the panic when car fumes came through an air ventilation system. Four years into their relationship, in September 1981, Speer died. This delayed the program, and Speer was unable to remedy the situation. [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. Speer asked Wolters to destroy the material he had omitted from his donation but Wolters refused and retained an original copy. By the time Prisoner Number 5Albert Speerwalked out of Spandau Prison on 1 October 1966, he was known to the world as the "Good Nazi.". [75] By April 1943, Sauckel had supplied 1,568,801 "voluntary" laborers, forced laborers, prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners to Speer for use in his armaments factories. [60] Speer set out to gain control not just of armaments production in the army, but in the whole armed forces. As a Nazi Party member, she had greatly enjoyed dining with Hitler. It was only on the urgent advice of his publisher that he added a mention of seeing the ruins of the Central Synagogue in Berlin from his car. [176] In 2007, The Guardian reported that a letter from Speer dated 23 December 1971, had been found in a collection of his correspondence with Hlne Jeanty, the widow of a Belgian resistance fighter. No buildings designed by Speer during the Nazi era are extant in Berlin, other than the 4 entrance pavilions and underpasses leading to the Victory Column or Siegessule,[180] and the Schwerbelastungskrper, a heavy load-bearing body built around 1941. [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. "[1]:498507, In a 23 August 1970 review published in The New York Times, John Toland wrote that the book "is not only the most significant personal German account to come out of the war but the most revealing document on the Hitler phenomenon yet written. [60] It did not immediately dawn on his political rivals that his calls for rationalization and reorganization were hiding his desire to sideline them and take control. After serving. Concerned about retaining power, he did not appoint a deputy and continued to direct work of the Armaments Ministry from his bedside. Speer was appalled by this order, and persuaded several key military and political leaders to ignore it. "[118], Speer was credited with an "armaments miracle". [155] Speer was photographed with slave laborers at Mauthausen concentration camp during a visit on 31 March 1943; he also visited Gusen concentration camp. [113] Speer was indicted on four counts: participating in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace; war crimes; and crimes against humanity. Speer described the personalities of many Nazi officials, including Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Gring, Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Hess, Martin Bormann, and, of course, Hitler himself. Oil production became so low that any possibility of offensive action became impossible and weaponry lay idle. [88] The SS provided 64,000 prisoners for 20 separate projects from various concentration camps including Mittelbau-Dora. Speer's Heidelberg school offered rugby football, unusual for Germany, skiing, and Speer was a participant. It is considered to be one of the most detailed descriptions of the inner workings and leadership of Nazi Germany but is controversial because of Speer's lack of discussion of Nazi atrocities and questions regarding his degree of awareness or involvement with them. Thanks! [119] While three of the eight judges (two Soviet and American Francis Biddle) advocated the death penalty for Speer, the other judges did not, and a compromise sentence was reached after two days of discussions. Initially, the funds were used only to support Speer's family, but increasingly the money was used for other purposes. Entrance to Spandau Prison, 1951. After one of these briefings, Hitler invited Speer to lunch, to the architect's great excitement. [7], Speer began his architectural studies at the University of Karlsruhe instead of a more highly acclaimed institution because the hyperinflation crisis of 1923 limited his parents' income. Die Zelle. [42] Shortages of labor meant the construction workers had to work in ten-to-twelve-hour shifts. A scene from 'Rise of the Nazis' Photo: 72 Films. Finally, Speer states, "Because I failed at the time, I still feel, to this day, responsible for Auschwitz in a wholly personal sense. [110] After Hitler's death, Speer offered his services to the so-called Flensburg Government, headed by Hitler's successor, Karl Dnitz. Gring was reluctant to grant this. by PanzerKavallerie 27 Jul 2005, 16:15, Post - London, Anglia, 1981. szeptember 1.) The building was able to hold 340,000 people. He was able to curtail the discussion that the war should be ended. In 1942, he was named Minister of Armaments and Munitions, assuming significant responsibility for the German war economy. By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. [65] Production of every type of weapon peaked in June and July 1944, but there was now a severe shortage of fuel. From 1946 to 1966, while serving the sentence in Spandau Prison, he penned more than 2,000 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. This miracle was brought to a halt in the summer of 1943 by, among other factors, the first sustained Allied bombing. [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. His first draft was written from March 1953 to 26 December 1954. By Thomas Rogers 23 May 2017 [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. [5] Speer was active in sports, taking up skiing and mountaineering. Through his autobiographies and interviews, Speer carefully constructed an image of himself as a man who deeply regretted having failed to discover the monstrous crimes of the Third Reich. [53] Speer's offices undertook building work for each branch of the military, and for the SS, using slave labor. His claim was revealed to be false in a private correspondence written in 1971 and publicly disclosed in 2007. Many more buildings were planned. Albert Speer (n.Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, 19 martie 1905 d. 1 septembrie 1981) a fost un arhitect german care a fost, pentru o parte din al Doilea Rzboi Mondial, ministrul al narmrii i produciei de rzboi pentru al Treilea Reich.Speer a fost arhitectul preferat al lui Adolf Hitler, nainte de a ocupa posturi ministeriale.i-a asumat responsabilitatea pentru crimele . His mother died in 1952. They're private residences. Martin Kitchen, writing in Speer: Hitler's Architect, stated that much of the increase in Germany's arms production was actually due to systems instituted by Speer's predecessor (Fritz Todt) and furthermore that Speer was intimately involved in the "Final Solution". She married Prince Albert who was her cousin. [citation needed], At the Nuremberg Trials, Speer was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his use of prisoners in the armaments factories while Minister of Armaments. He originally wanted to become a mathematician, but his father advised against the wish, suggesting that he would "lead a life without money, without a position, and . [55] On 8 February 1942, Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions Fritz Todt died in a plane crash shortly after taking off from Hitler's eastern headquarters at Rastenburg. [5], Another kind of criticism is the claim that Speer pretended that he was unaware of the extermination camps and presented the figure of a "good Nazi". [171] Brechtken said Speer only admitted to a generalized responsibility for the Holocaust to hide his direct and actual responsibility. He assumed his German readers would not be so gullible and told them the Nazi Party offered a "new mission". like so many other Germans his [77] His close relationship with Hitler provided him with political protection, and he was able to outwit and outmaneuver his rivals in the regime. ", 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. [18], The organizers of the 1933 Nuremberg Rally asked Speer to submit designs for the rally, bringing him into contact with Hitler for the first time. Neither the organizers nor Rudolf Hess were willing to decide whether to approve the plans, and Hess sent Speer to Hitler's Munich apartment to seek his approval. Albert Speer in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland", Francisco Boix identifies Speer at Nuremberg, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Speer&oldid=1139875005, This page was last edited on 17 February 2023, at 08:56. Speer's illness coincided with the Allied "Big Week", a series of bombing raids on the German aircraft factories that were a devastating blow to aircraft production. Speer arrived there the previous evening and accepted Todt's offer to fly with him to Berlin. One of Speer's grandfathers was among the most successful machine-tool manufacturers in Germany; the other was a well-known architect. [22] Speer quickly became part of Hitler's inner circle; he was expected to call on him in the morning for a walk or chat, to provide consultation on architectural matters, and to discuss Hitler's ideas. [177] The rational position to adopt was to seek a political solution that would end the war without defeat. This led to the development of Germany's first cyclotron. In his writings, Speer claimed to have finished five thousand books while in prison. An upcoming BBC documentary is set to highlight the remarkable story of Albert Goering the brother of Nazi minister and air force chief Hermann Goering who is said to have saved hundreds of. Instead, he issued the "Nero Decree" on 19 March, which called for the destruction of all infrastructure as the army retreated. 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. But the children-my two brothers and I-had to use the back stairs. I knew that these must be Berlin Jews who were being evacuated. Inventing for Speer the post of General Inspector of Buildings, Hitler steadily promoted him to the point where other Nazi leaders and rivals believed that he might well become Hitler's successor. The family learned of this through some letters Ernst sent. William. Two senior servants of the Third Reich, Albert Speer, Hitler's Armaments Minister, and Baldur von Schirach, former leader of the Hitler Youth and Gauleiter of Vienna, were released at midnight. This through some letters Ernst sent including Mittelbau-Dora Propylaen, and later the abandonment of... `` [ 118 ], Speer claimed to have finished five thousand while! 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