[59] Speer proved to be ambitious, unrelenting and ruthless. "It is not charity; I don't like that . The second season of the PBS series looks at Hitler's planning and the battle that would ultimately cripple the Third Reich. [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. [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. Described by associates as ice cold. On 23 May, two weeks after the surrender of German forces, British troops arrested the members of the Flensburg Government and brought Nazi Germany to a formal end. [23][24], In the English version of his memoirs, Speer says that his political commitment merely consisted of paying his "monthly dues". For Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, AS+P completes the planning of the Ministry of Commerce and Investment (MCI). For propaganda Hitler claimed during the topping-out ceremony on 2 August 1938, that he had ordered Speer to complete the new chancellery that year. [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. [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. [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. "[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. Son of Albert Friedrich Speer and Luise Mathilde Wilhelmine (Hommel) Speer. On 27 January 1938, Speer received plenipotentiary powers from Hitler to finish the new chancellery by 1 January 1939. According to Speer's daughter Hilde Schramm, "One by one my sister and brothers gave up. (Black and white photographs from Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth by Gitta Sereny, published by Picador) To date, the foundation has given more than 500,000 in grants to more than 100 Jewish women for projects. [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. Inside the Third Reich begins with an account of Speer's childhood, followed by a description of his role as Heinrich Tessenow's assistant at the Technical University of Berlin. [166] Another myth centered around a faked plan to assassinate Hitler with poisonous gas. His father, who died in 1947, despised the Nazis and was silent upon meeting Hitler. First published in 1969, it appeared in English translation in 1970. William. This movie is based on Speer's autobiography of the same name. [29] Speer modified Werner March's design for the Olympic Stadium being built for the 1936 Summer Olympics. His architectural skills made him increasingly prominent within the Party, and he became a member of Hitler's inner circle. Before that, Speer worked as the chief architect in Hitler's Nazi . Concerned about retaining power, he did not appoint a deputy and continued to direct work of the Armaments Ministry from his bedside. [64] Another factor that produced the boom in ammunition was the policy of allocating more coal to the steel industry. 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." Albert Speer's account of all his experiences during the war was to me, totally fascinating. [96] In January 1945, Speer told Goebbels that armaments production could be sustained for at least a year. See answer (1) Copy. Das Cytoskelett; Vergleich Pflanzenzelle - Tierzelle: Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten; Vergleich der Eigenschaften von prokaryotischen und eukaryotischen Zellen [40] Speer was involved virtually from the beginning. Speer liked the scenario so much that he wrote it into his memoirs. As an example, he wanted to be given power over all armaments issues under Hermann Gring's Four Year Plan. I thought he was to be relieved quite early from the Kessel, from influence of Albert Speer. Instead, he issued the "Nero Decree" on 19 March, which called for the destruction of all infrastructure as the army retreated. 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. After August 1944, oil from the Romanian fields was no longer available. [33] He was to report directly to Hitler, and was independent of both the mayor and the Gauleiter of Berlin. happened. [55] At the same time, Hitler also appointed Speer as head of the Organisation Todt, a massive, government-controlled construction company. [2] In 1918, the family leased their Mannheim residence and moved to a home they had in Heidelberg. 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". [5] Speer was active in sports, taking up skiing and mountaineering. Po vlce byl bhem Norimberskho procesu odsouzen jako vlen zloinec ke 20 letm vzen. Carefully measuring distance travelled each day, he mapped distances to the real-world geography. body was never found or returned to the family and there are some 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. 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 battle is infamous as one of the largest . [156] Speer took his myth-making to a mass media level and his "cunning apologies" were reproduced frequently in post-war Germany. Paradoxically, when Speer died in 1981, he was described by the New York Times as a . [60] Speer set out to gain control not just of armaments production in the army, but in the whole armed forces. [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. like so many other Germans his [101], By mid-March, Speer had accepted that Germany's economy would collapse within the next eight weeks. I was searching for information about Ernst (?) The Speer houses are on the right side. Albert Speer was the Nazi Party's chief architect, a close confidant of Adolf Hitler and the brains behind the Nazi military production machine. The myth began to fall apart in the 1980s, when the armaments miracle was attributed to Nazi propaganda. Land had been purchased by the end of 1934 and starting in March 1936 the first buildings were demolished to create space at Vostrae. During the winter of 194142, in the light of Germany's disastrous defeat in the Battle of Moscow, the German leadership including Friedrich Fromm, Georg Thomas and Fritz Todt had come to the conclusion that the war could not be won. 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 . In July1932, the Speers visited Berlin to help out the Party before the Reichstag elections. Speer studied at the technical schools in Karlsruhe, Munich, and Berlin, and acquired an architectural license in 1927. Speer's joint undertaking with the SS leadership resulted in the creation of Mittelwerk (Central Works) for underground production of the V-2. The book was a worn, thick burgundy paperback, spine splintered in three parts, tiny print . Efforts were made and a search of Ernst's unit ended in failure. 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. [15], In January 1931, Speer applied for Nazi Party membership, and on 1 March 1931, he became member number 474,481. In February 1942, Speer was appointed as Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. On 31 January 1931, he also joined the Motor Unit of the SA being a member until autumn 1932. Speer described the personalities of many Nazi officials, including Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Gring, Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Hess, Martin Bormann, and, of course, Hitler himself. [154] In his memoirs and interviews, he had distorted the truth and made so many major omissions that his lies became known as "myths". Hitler commissioned him to design and construct structures including the Reich Chancellery and the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. At the end of 1933, he contracted Paul Troost to renovate the entire building. Under his leadership, the Nazis implemented a brutal regime of slave labour in armaments factories across Germany. [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. Em 1946, ele foi julgado em Nuremberga e sentenciado a 20 anos de priso por sua participao no regime nazista, principalmente pelo uso de trabalho escravo nos campos de concentrao. House Albert Speer (4) Location: Take the road in front of the Gutshof back uphill to the Berghof. It will begin in Norway and extend to northern Italy. [90] By this time, 140,000 people were working in Speer's underground factories. Minister for Armaments. [174], Speer did not deny being present at the Posen speeches to Nazi leaders at a conference in Posen (Pozna) on 6 October 1943, but claimed to have left the auditorium before Himmler said during his speech: "The grave decision had to be taken to cause this people to vanish from the earth",[175] and later, "The Jews must be exterminated". Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (/pr/; German: [pe] (listen); 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. The cylinder is now a protected landmark and is open to the public. [30] Nuremberg was the site of many official Nazi buildings. [145], Speer's memoirs were a phenomenal success. 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. As a Nazi Party member, she had greatly enjoyed dining with Hitler. like so many other Germans his body was never found or returned to . I am sure that an oppressive feeling struck me as I drove past. [20], Shortly after Hitler came into power, he began to make plans to rebuild the chancellery. The film began a process of demystification and critical reappraisal. The journalist described an invented scenario in which Speer had refused Hitler's orders and Hitler had left with tears in his eyes. Albert Speer, l'architetto prediletto da Hitler, venne accusato per la deportazione e lo sfruttamento dei civili europei. Hello. He was 76 years old. 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. [105] Speer ended them, though the army continued to blow up bridges. [182], During the war, the Speer-designed Reich Chancellery was largely destroyed by air raids and in the Battle of Berlin. I knew that these must be Berlin Jews who were being evacuated. Speer died of a stroke in 1981. [174] Heinrich Breloer, discussing the construction of Auschwitz, said Speer was not just a cog in the workhe was the "terror itself". 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. Then it was too late; Germany had been destroyed. Included in the building works was material to build gas chambers, crematoria and morgues. Speer has paid his penance for his part of the inner circle and had come to the realization of Germany's reality during WWII. Albert Einstein lived in the USA, so was not where the holocaust In the summer of 1942 Paulus advanced toward Stalingrad with 250,000 men, 500 tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars, and 25,000 horses. [10] After passing his exams in 1927, Speer became Tessenow's assistant, a high honor for a man of 22. [150], He had remained married to his wife, but he had formed a relationship with a German woman living in London and was with her at the time of his death. Prisoners worked for Junkers, Messerschmitt, Henschel and BMW, among others. 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. [77], Speer and his hand-picked director of submarine construction Otto Merker believed that the shipbuilding industry was being held back by outdated methods, and revolutionary new approaches imposed by outsiders would dramatically improve output. Secured early release from prison, became a media celebrity and successfully cultivated the "clean Speer" myth. [71] Speer and Sauckel cooperated closely to meet Speer's labor demands. He suffered a stroke and died in London on 1 September. Ernst Speer. [158] Speer, Siedler and Fest had constructed a masterpiece; the image of the "good Nazi" remained in place for decades, despite historical evidence indicating that it was false. This formed a key element of the myths Speer encouraged. Speer's full length portrait of Hitler has unnerving reality. [124], The prisoners were forbidden to write memoirs. [42] Shortages of labor meant the construction workers had to work in ten-to-twelve-hour shifts. [65] Production of every type of weapon peaked in June and July 1944, but there was now a severe shortage of fuel. [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. Thanks! 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. Speer was formally arrested on May 23rd. [54], In 1941, Speer was elected to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 2 (Berlin-West). [122] Speer's parents died while he was incarcerated. [31] Speer designed the German Pavilion for the 1937 international exposition in Paris. He was aided editorially by Wolf Jobst Siedler, Ullstein and Propylaen, and Joachim Fest. [84] Production of German fighter aircraft more than doubled between 1943 and 1944. By Thomas Rogers 23 May 2017 [171] Brechtken said Speer only admitted to a generalized responsibility for the Holocaust to hide his direct and actual responsibility. [77] His close relationship with Hitler provided him with political protection, and he was able to outwit and outmaneuver his rivals in the regime. [74] In occupied areas of the Soviet Union, that had been subject to partisan action, civilian men and women were rounded up en masse and sent to work forcibly in Germany. Fun facts: before fame, family life, popularity rankings, and more. [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. Yet each showed comparable increases in production despite not being under Speer's control. [3] Henry T. King, deputy prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials who later wrote a book about Speer said, "Love and warmth were lacking in the household of Speer's youth. Four years into their relationship, in September 1981, Speer died. Speer was born in Mannheim, into an upper-middle-class family. [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. [72] Hitler gave Sauckel a free hand to obtain labor, something that delighted Speer, who had requested 1,000,000 "voluntary" laborers to meet the need for armament workers. In the aftermath of the Night of the Long Knives, he had been commissioned to renovate the Borsig Palace on the corner of Vostrae and Wilhelmstrae as headquarters of the Sturmabteilung (SA). Speer cancelled some hours before take-off because the previous night he had been up late in a meeting with Hitler. By the autumn of 1942 however, the estimated period for developing a weapon had increased to three to four years, much too long to affect the war. Speer was aided in shaping the works by Joachim Fest and Wolf Jobst Siedler from the publishing house Ullstein. In her renowned biography, Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth, she describes her friend Schramm as "maybe the most moral person I have ever met". Air attacks on the transport network were particularly effective, as they cut the main centres of production off from essential coal supplies. alberts side and was generally desribed as a wastrel. It was for the maltreatment of these people, that Speer was principally convicted at the Nuremberg Trials. Stalingrad was a classic example where he refused to provide the equipment necessary to supply his army on the Eastern front during the terrible winter of 1941. During his life, he worked on redesigning city centers of . His formal title was changed on 2 September 1943, to "Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production". It's the end of an era: The company's founder Professor Albert Speer passes away in September aged 83. After he failed to do so, his father gave him a part-time job as manager of his properties. - Han var ikke sdan en morfar, man sad p skdet af, og . Speer provided Hitler with a memorandum on 15 March, which detailed Germany's dire economic situation and sought approval to cease demolitions of infrastructure. a nemzeti szocialista Nmet Birodalom fptsze, fegyverkezsi minisztere, a haditermels irnytja.. A hbor befejezse utn Nrnbergben egyetlen volt a brsg el lltott szemlyek kzl, aki elismerte felelssgt a msodik vilghbors esemnyekrt, hsz . Party before the Reichstag elections, despised the Nazis and was generally desribed as a terror weapon rather! And more of Mittelwerk ( Central works ) for underground production of the V-2 a... 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