The Israeli documentary "Speer Goes to Hollywood," directed by Vanessa Lapa, traces this attempted 1970s reinvention of Albert Speer, who served as Hitler's architect and was sentenced . [51] Speer used forced Jewish labor on these projects, in addition to regular German workers. Albert Speer was a close confidant of Hitler, and the Third Reich's most celebrated architect. Ultimately, when their emergence involved the ruin of all his work, Speer accepted the consequences and acted. He was able to curtail the discussion that the war should be ended. For a treatise on this aspect of the war including Speer's involvement see: Randall, Hansen, Last edited on 17 February 2023, at 08:56, Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production, Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions, "Trials of the War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, Volume II: The Milch Case", "Wartime reports debunk Speer as the good Nazi", "Letter proves Speer knew of Holocaust plan", "Historiker ber Albert Speer: "Er tat alles fr den Endsieg", "Rechtfertigung und Entlastung. Hitler became interested in Speer through his own interest in the arts. From 1946 to 1966, while serving the sentence in Spandau Prison, he penned more than 2,000 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. [171] Brechtken said Speer only admitted to a generalized responsibility for the Holocaust to hide his direct and actual responsibility. The second season of the PBS series looks at Hitler's planning and the battle that would ultimately cripple the Third Reich. 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. Oil production became so low that any possibility of offensive action became impossible and weaponry lay idle. This carried with it the rank of State Secretary in the Reich government and gave him extraordinary powers over the Berlin city government. [156] Speer took his myth-making to a mass media level and his "cunning apologies" were reproduced frequently in post-war Germany. [104] During a meeting with Speer on 28/29 March, Hitler rescinded the decree and gave him authority over demolitions. [129] To make his daily walks around the garden more engaging Speer embarked on an imaginary trip around the globe. The SS called this "Professor Speer's Special Programme". For early access to our videos, discounted merch and many other exclusive perks please support us as a Patron or Member.Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/the. With Rutger Hauer, John Gielgud, Maria Schell, Blythe Danner. Speer's full length portrait of Hitler has unnerving reality. However, his other brother Ernst had died in the Battle of Stalingrad, despite repeated requests from his parents for Speer to repatriate him. They paid for Toni Proost to go on holiday, and for bribes to those who might be able to secure Speer's release. 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. He was more forthright in an interview with William Hamsher in which he said he joined the party in order to save "Germany from Communism". [148] In October 1973, he made his first trip to Britain, flying to London to be interviewed on the BBC Midweek programme. [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. Speer was loyal to Hitler, and his experience building prisoner of war camps and other structures for the military qualified him for the job. Those who feigned illness, slacked off, sabotaged production or tried to escape were denied food or sent to concentration camps. "[142] He supported Hermann, his brother, financially after the war. The existing Berlin railroad termini were to be dismantled, and two large new stations built. by PanzerKavallerie 27 Jul 2005, 16:15, Post Albert Speer Jr. was born on July 29, 1934, one year after Hitler had consolidated power in Germany. All of the Germanic peoples will be included in it. Finally, Speer states, "Because I failed at the time, I still feel, to this day, responsible for Auschwitz in a wholly personal sense. Speer II is more than an urban planner. 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. For Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, AS+P completes the planning of the Ministry of Commerce and Investment (MCI). Speer has paid his penance for his part of the inner circle and had come to the realization of Germany's reality during WWII. Speer was aided in shaping the works by Joachim Fest and Wolf Jobst Siedler from the publishing house Ullstein. He suffered a stroke and died in London on 1 September. One thing that happened in early 1840 of Victoria time was that [26], Speer also sought to portray himself as an opponent of Hitler's leadership. The journalist had unwittingly collaborated in one of his myths. There was no communication. After August 1944, oil from the Romanian fields was no longer available. [82] In mid-January 1944, Speer had a lung embolism and fell seriously ill. [29] Speer insisted that as many events as possible be held at night, both to give greater prominence to his lighting effects and to hide the overweight Nazis. [83] His political rivals used the opportunity to undermine his authority and damage his reputation with Hitler. Having served his full term, Speer was released in 1966. [170] Historian Martin Kitchen states that Speer was actually "fully aware of what had happened to the Jews" and was "intimately involved in the 'Final Solution'". He was aided editorially by Wolf Jobst Siedler, Ullstein and Propylaen, and Joachim Fest. [127], Much of Speer's energy was dedicated to keeping fit, both physically and mentally, during his long confinement. The concrete cylinder, 14 metres (46ft) high, was used to measure ground subsidence as part of feasibility studies for a massive triumphal arch and other large structures planned within Hitler's post-war renewal project for the city of Berlin as the world capital Germania. [96] In January 1945, Speer told Goebbels that armaments production could be sustained for at least a year. [81], In response to the Allied Big Week, Adolf Hitler authorized the creation of a Fighter Staff committee. "[118], Speer was credited with an "armaments miracle". ", 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. [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. The relationship will always amaze. Speer's Heidelberg school offered rugby football, unusual for Germany, skiing, and Speer was a participant. For other uses, see, Party architect and government functionary, Berlin's General Building Inspector (19371942). He coveted control of the production of armaments for the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine as well. [1]:488498,569, Speer's involvement with concentration camp prisoners as a work force came about when Hitler agreed to Himmler's proposal they be used for the secret V-2 project. He had claimed that he was unaware of Nazi extermination plans, and the Allies had no proof that he was aware. [34] Hitler ordered Speer to develop plans to rebuild Berlin. The idea for this myth came to him after he recalled the panic when car fumes came through an air ventilation system. [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. The large capital investment was not repaid in military effectiveness. by punktlich02 29 Oct 2009, 11:35, Return to The Dieter Zinke Axis Biographical Research Section. August 1, 2017. 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 . Many more buildings were planned. Under his leadership, the Nazis implemented a brutal regime of slave labour in armaments factories across Germany. In February 1942, Speer was appointed as Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. Sereny gained respect for his sincerity in his personal "battle with truth.". Before World War II, Speer helped propel the Nazi vision of grandeur and superiority. The family learned of this through some letters Ernst sent. In 1918, moved to Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg, Heidelberg, Germany. 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". His brothers names were Charles, Albert, Louis (Ludwig), 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. [59] Speer proved to be ambitious, unrelenting and ruthless. [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. von Speer, Albert: und eine groe Auswahl hnlicher Bcher, Kunst und Sammlerstcke erhltlich auf AbeBooks.de. [179], Little remains of Speer's personal architectural works, other than the plans and photographs. Albert Speer, Germany Architect. When asked by his Allied captors in 1945 to what extent German military strategy had been influenced by economic considerations, Albert Speer, Hitler's armaments minister, replied that in the case of OperationBarbarossathe need for oil was certainly a prime motive. Indeed, even during initial discussions of his plan to invade the Soviet Union, Hitler had stressed the absolute necessity of . Secured early release from prison, became a media celebrity and successfully cultivated the "clean Speer" myth. [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. [105] Speer ended them, though the army continued to blow up bridges. This formed a key element of the myths Speer encouraged. Sept. 21, 2017. 4.10 avg rating 13,205 ratings published 1969 86 editions. [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. [158] Kitchen said he had deceived the Nuremberg Tribunal and post-war Germany. Though stockpiling of materials and other work continued, this slowed to a halt as more resources were needed for the armament industry. Speer studied at the technical schools in Karlsruhe, Munich, and Berlin, and acquired an architectural license in 1927. [157] In return they were paid handsomely in royalties and other financial inducements. [44] The chancellery was completed in early January 1939. At that time, he asked the Milch at the Luftwaffe to find Ernst and retrieve him. Before that, Speer worked as the chief architect in Hitler's Nazi . [149] In the same year, he appeared on the television programme The World at War. Albert Einstein lived in the USA, so was not where the holocaust Madonna Speaks Out Following Brother Anthony Ciccone's Death Thanking Him for His 'Important . 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. Naval armaments were not under Speer's supervision until October 1943, nor the Luftwaffe's armaments until June of the following year. In his writings, Speer claimed to have finished five thousand books while in prison. Speer liked the scenario so much that he wrote it into his memoirs. He also cites the use of the V-2 as a terror weapon, rather than continued development of the ground-to-air defensive Waterfall rocket. 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. 1971. The Battle of Stalingrad was a brutal military campaign between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during World War II. Entrance to Spandau Prison, 1951. 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). [80], In December 1943, Speer visited Organisation Todt workers in Lapland, while there he seriously damaged his knee and was incapacitated for several months. [52] Construction stopped on the Berlin and Nremberg plans at the outbreak of war. The exterior walls survived, but they were eventually dismantled by the Soviets. Speer's books were a success; the public was fascinated by an inside view of the Third Reich. [177] The rational position to adopt was to seek a political solution that would end the war without defeat. Which he succeeded in doing, with or without Hitler. Speer states that even if Germany concentrated all of its resources, it would have been 1947 before they could have had an atom bomb. [92] The rockets were built at an underground factory at Mittelwerk. 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. House Albert Speer (4) Location: Take the road in front of the Gutshof back uphill to the Berghof. Inside the Third Reich. It became instrumental in exploiting slave labor for the benefit of the German war effort. [87], The Fighter Staff committee was instrumental in bringing about the increased exploitation of slave labor in the war economy. 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