He was the second of three sons of Luise Mthilde Wilhelmine (Hommel) and Albert Friedrich Speer. [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. After August 1944, oil from the Romanian fields was no longer available. [19] This work won Speer his first national post, as Nazi Party "Commissioner for the Artistic and Technical Presentation of Party Rallies and Demonstrations". Speer states he became hopeful when Hitler explained how communism could be checked and Germany could recover economically. Martin Kitchen, a British historian, says that the choice was not surprising. [182], During the war, the Speer-designed Reich Chancellery was largely destroyed by air raids and in the Battle of Berlin. [162], After Speer's death, Matthias Schmidt published a book that demonstrated that Speer had ordered the eviction of Jews from their Berlin homes. When you take it you'll get to an open field where you can see the Speer houses. [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. [28], One of Speer's first commissions after Troost's death was the Zeppelinfeld stadium in Nuremberg. 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. [183], This article is about the Nazi minister. He set about extending his power and influence with unexpected ambition. This is an apolitical forum for discussions on the Axis nations and related topics hosted by the Axis History Factbook in cooperation with Christian Ankerstjernes Panzerworld and Christoph Awender's WW2 day by day. [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director of submarine construction Otto Merker believed that the shipbuilding industry was being held back by outdated methods, and revolutionary new approaches imposed by outsiders would dramatically improve output. William. [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. [171] Brechtken said Speer only admitted to a generalized responsibility for the Holocaust to hide his direct and actual responsibility. See answer (1) Copy. Of the 60,000 people who ended up at the camp 20,000 died, due to the appalling conditions. Hitler commissioned him to design and construct structures including the Reich Chancellery and the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. Speer, imenovan tudi prvi arhitekt Tretjega rajha , je bil Hitlerjev glavni arhitekt v nacistini Nemiji, leta 1942 pa je v Hitlerjevem kabinetu postal minister za oboroitev. By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. [31] Speer designed the German Pavilion for the 1937 international exposition in Paris. 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. Gring was reluctant to grant this. Hitler appointed Speer, whose work for Goebbels had impressed him, to manage the building site for Troost. [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. . Beginning in 1948, Speer had the services of Toni Proost, a sympathetic Dutch orderly to smuggle mail and his writings. It was for the maltreatment of these people, that Speer was principally convicted at the Nuremberg Trials. [77] By July 1943, he had gained control of armaments production for the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. [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. Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer ( Mannheim, 19. oujka 1905. [137], Speer's release from prison was a worldwide media event. [53] Speer's offices undertook building work for each branch of the military, and for the SS, using slave labor. Minister for Armaments. 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. 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. Hitler appointed Speer as head of the Chief Office for Construction, which placed him nominally on Hess's staff. [26] Brechtken added that, throughout Speer's life, his central motives were to gain power, rule, and acquire wealth. Ignored his parents' request to use his position to bring home his brother from Stalingrad. ", 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. It's the end of an era: The company's founder Professor Albert Speer passes away in September aged 83. Thanks! The cylinder is now a protected landmark and is open to the public. In consequence, despite tank production having the highest priority, relatively little of the armaments budget was spent on it. Albert Speer was a young architect initially seduced by the speeches and rhetoric of Hitler. This led to the development of Germany's first cyclotron. Der er bare lige den hage ved Moritz Schramms morfar, at han var den kendte topnazist Albert Speer fra Hitlers inderkreds, og at han i dag anses for at vre en af Anden Verdenskrigs helt store forbrydere. 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. After one of these briefings, Hitler invited Speer to lunch, to the architect's great excitement. This was probably the start of the downfall of the Reich. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Finally, Speer states, "Because I failed at the time, I still feel, to this day, responsible for Auschwitz in a wholly personal sense. A groundbreaking 26-part documentary series narrated by the actor Laurence Olivier about the deadliest conflict in history, World War II. [122] Speer's parents died while he was incarcerated. Four years into their relationship, in September 1981, Speer died. He suffered a stroke and died in London on 1 September. After serving. [30] Nuremberg was the site of many official Nazi buildings. [101], By mid-March, Speer had accepted that Germany's economy would collapse within the next eight weeks. After the war, Speer was among the 24 "major war criminals" arrested and charged with the crimes of the Nazi regime at the Nuremberg trials. [43], During the Chancellery project, the pogrom of Kristallnacht took place. bio je arhitekt i ministar naoruanja u nacistikoj Njemakoj. 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. In this position, Speer used millions of forced laborers to raise economic production. - London, 1. rujna 1981.) Contributor: C. Peter Chen ww2dbase Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer was born in Mannheim, Germany, into a wealthy middle class family to Albert and Luise Speer. [80], In December 1943, Speer visited Organisation Todt workers in Lapland, while there he seriously damaged his knee and was incapacitated for several months. When the commission was completed, Speer returned to Mannheim and remained there as Hitler took office in January1933. "[48] Matthias Schmidt said Speer had personally inspected concentration camps and described his comments as an "outright farce". Speer studied at the technical schools in Karlsruhe, Munich, and Berlin, and acquired an architectural license in 1927. Post [85] The growth, however, consisted in large part of models that were becoming obsolescent and proved easy prey for Allied aircraft. [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. [121] There he was known as Prisoner Number Five. 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. [5], Following his release from Spandau, Speer donated the Chronicle, his personal diary, to the German Federal Archives. August 1, 2017. [68] Hitler was closely involved with the design of the tanks, but kept changing his mind about the specifications. In 1942, he was named Minister of Armaments and Munitions, assuming significant responsibility for the German war economy. He assumed his German readers would not be so gullible and told them the Nazi Party offered a "new mission". Naval armaments were not under Speer's supervision until October 1943, nor the Luftwaffe's armaments until June of the following year. [167] Brechtken wrote that his most brazen lie was fabricated during an interview with a French journalist in 1952. The V-2's first target was Paris on 8 September 1944. Albert Speer Jr., one of the most important German architects and urban planners, died unexpectedly on September 15, 2017 in Frankfurt. Progress was slow because fuel was rationed and Army Group A were given priority. [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. [165] Trommer said he was not an apolitical technocrat; instead, he was one of the most powerful and unscrupulous leaders in the Nazi regime. Yet each showed comparable increases in production despite not being under Speer's control. 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. After joining the Nazi Party in 1930, Speer became Adolf Hitler's personal architect. [51] Speer used forced Jewish labor on these projects, in addition to regular German workers. [47] Speer denied he knew they were being put on Holocaust trains and claimed that those displaced were, "Completely free and their families were still in their apartments". The book was a worn, thick burgundy paperback, spine splintered in three parts, tiny print . It will begin in Norway and extend to northern Italy. Speer asked Wolters to destroy the material he had omitted from his donation but Wolters refused and retained an original copy. In the summer of 1942 Paulus advanced toward Stalingrad with 250,000 men, 500 tanks, 7,000 guns and mortars, and 25,000 horses. . [50] In his final statement at Nuremberg, Speer gave the impression of apologizing, although he did not directly admit any personal guilt and the only victim he mentioned was the German people. [125] He had completed his memoirs by November 1953, which became the basis of Inside the Third Reich. He maintained Hitler was cool towards him for the remainder of his life after learning they had included him on a list of potential ministers. Among those who pledged support for his sentence to be commuted were Charles de Gaulle and US diplomat George Wildman Ball. [139] Although he stated he hoped to resume an architectural career, his sole project, a collaboration for a brewery, was unsuccessful. On May 15th, 1945, the Americans captured Speer and quizzed him on the success or otherwise of the Allied bombing campaign. [107] Speer visited the Fhrerbunker on 22 April for the last time. Sauckel had whole villages in France, Holland and Belgium forcibly rounded up and shipped to Speer's factories. [166] Another myth centered around a faked plan to assassinate Hitler with poisonous gas. He was 76 years old. First published in 1969, it appeared in English translation in 1970. Entrance to Spandau Prison, 1951. 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 . Fun facts: before fame, family life, popularity rankings, and more. The Soviet Union, having demanded a death sentence at trial, was unwilling to entertain a reduced sentence. 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.". Speer's joint undertaking with the SS leadership resulted in the creation of Mittelwerk (Central Works) for underground production of the V-2. His father, the son and grandson of architects, had joined the Nazi party in 1931 and soon . Like many of those in power in the Third Reich, he was not an ideologue, "nor was he anything more than an instinctive anti-Semite. Albert was active in sports, taking up skiing and mountaineering. [120], On 18 July 1947, Speer was transferred to Spandau Prison in Berlin to serve his prison term. [117], Speer was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, principally for the use of slave labor and forced labor. [43] The Schutzstaffel (SS) built two concentration camps in 1938 and used the inmates to quarry stone for its construction. The exterior walls survived, but they were eventually dismantled by the Soviets. Germany's armaments production had already begun to result in increases under his predecessor, Todt. [97] However, he concluded that the war was lost after Soviet forces captured the important Silesian industrial region later that month. [54], In 1941, Speer was elected to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 2 (Berlin-West). [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. In the World War II, Hitler appointed him as the Minister of Armaments and War Production for Germany. Men da Moritz Schramm var barn, var det et andet blik, han havde p morfaren. [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. [158] Kitchen said he had deceived the Nuremberg Tribunal and post-war Germany. Mr. Speer had been taken to the . [104] During a meeting with Speer on 28/29 March, Hitler rescinded the decree and gave him authority over demolitions. As a Nazi Party member, she had greatly enjoyed dining with Hitler. Albert Speer Jr. was born on July 29, 1934, one year after Hitler had consolidated power in Germany. 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