Speer was loyal to Hitler, and his experience building prisoner of war camps and other structures for the military qualified him for the job. [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". [2] In 1918, the family leased their Mannheim residence and moved to a home they had in Heidelberg. [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. [12] In Munich Speer began a close friendship, ultimately spanning over 50 years, with Rudolf Wolters, who also studied under Tessenow. [58] Characteristically Hitler did not give Speer any clear remit; he was left to fight his contemporaries in the regime for power and control. [37] Speer hired Wolters as part of his design team, with special responsibility for the Prachtstrasse. ", 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. [46] Eventually, 75,000 Jews were displaced by these measures. They're private residences. He spent the rest of his life attempting to enhance this image and erase any doubt that he did not participate or know about the Nazi atrocities. Hello. He was aided editorially by Wolf Jobst Siedler, Ullstein and Propylaen, and Joachim Fest. The house had a studio were Hitler (see Hitler parents) often came to draw his . [166] Another myth centered around a faked plan to assassinate Hitler with poisonous gas. 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. [105] Speer ended them, though the army continued to blow up bridges. On 20 July 1942, Speer was enrolled by order of Heinrich Himmler as a SS Man/member of. [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. It began in 1932 but had not supplied any weaponry. Speer's mother asked Albert to do something to get Ernst out. The idea for this myth came to him after he recalled the panic when car fumes came through an air ventilation system. It had been edited by Wolters and made no mention of the Jews. Albert Speer. Hitler's cabinet was dismayed at his tactics, but, regardless, he was able to accumulate new responsibilities and more power. [10] After passing his exams in 1927, Speer became Tessenow's assistant, a high honor for a man of 22. Labor to build the A4 rockets came from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Discussions on the personalities of the Wehrmacht and of the organizations not covered in the other sections. Finally, Speer states, "Because I failed at the time, I still feel, to this day, responsible for Auschwitz in a wholly personal sense. Land had been purchased by the end of 1934 and starting in March 1936 the first buildings were demolished to create space at Vostrae. He had claimed that he was unaware of Nazi extermination plans, and the Allies had no proof that he was aware. [15], In January 1931, Speer applied for Nazi Party membership, and on 1 March 1931, he became member number 474,481. This ignored military realities, as the German armed forces were unable to match the Allies' firepower and were facing total defeat. Until 2 September 1943 the position's official name was Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions. [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. [40] Speer was involved virtually from the beginning. [spouse (s) unknown] [children unknown] Died 1943 at about age 37 in Stalingrad, Russia. Albert Speer (Mannheim, Nmetorszg, 1905. mrcius 19. I knew that these must be Berlin Jews who were being evacuated. Four years into their relationship, in September 1981, Speer died. 2. He has risen to the top of the . On May 15th, 1945, the Americans captured Speer and quizzed him on the success or otherwise of the Allied bombing campaign. A lbert Speer was born in 1905 in Mannheim to an upper-middle-class family that had benefited from Germany's meteoric economic growth. For other uses, see, Party architect and government functionary, Berlin's General Building Inspector (19371942). Hitler commissioned him to design and construct structures including the Reich Chancellery and the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. [32], On 30 January 1937, Hitler appointed Speer as General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital. When you take it you'll get to an open field where you can see the Speer houses. [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'". by PanzerKavallerie 27 Jul 2005, 07:49, Post The public was fascinated by an inside view of the Third Reich and a major war criminal became a popular figure almost overnight. [91], On 14 April 1944, Speer lost control of Organisation Todt to his Deputy, Franz Xaver Dorsch. Speer arrived there the previous evening and accepted Todt's offer to fly with him to Berlin. Russia in the battle for Stalingrad. 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 . [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. 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 . I recommend this book without reservations. [82] In mid-January 1944, Speer had a lung embolism and fell seriously ill. Ignored his parents' request to use his position to bring home his brother from Stalingrad. Ultimately, when their emergence involved the ruin of all his work, Speer accepted the consequences and acted. Inside the Third Reich (German: Erinnerungen, "Memories") is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945, serving as Adolf Hitler's main architect before this period. 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". 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. [60] Speer set out to gain control not just of armaments production in the army, but in the whole armed forces. Carefully measuring distance travelled each day, he mapped distances to the real-world geography. [67] With Hitler's full agreement, he decided to prioritize tank production, and he was given unrivaled power to ensure success. [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. . 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. [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". Importantly, he provided an alibi to older Germans who had been Nazis. [147], Speer made himself widely available to historians and other enquirers. 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. 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. One of Speer's grandfathers was among the most successful machine-tool manufacturers in Germany; the other was a well-known architect. by PanzerKavallerie 27 Jul 2005, 16:15, Post Once Speer became aware of the existence of the fund, he sent detailed instructions about what to do with the money. [70], Speer realized that with six million workers drafted into the armed forces, there was a labor shortage in the war economy, and not enough workers for his factories. [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. In February 1942, Speer was appointed as Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. [14] The couple would have six children together, but Albert Speer grew increasingly distant from his family after 1933. happened. A groundbreaking 26-part documentary series narrated by the actor Laurence Olivier about the deadliest conflict in history, World War II. While dozens of submarines were built, few ever entered service. This carried with it the rank of State Secretary in the Reich government and gave him extraordinary powers over the Berlin city government. [163] By 1999, historians had amply demonstrated that Speer had lied extensively. But the children-my two brothers and I-had to use the back stairs. Sept. 21, 2017. - Han var ikke sdan en morfar, man sad p skdet af, og . [49] Martin Kitchen described Speer's often repeated line that he knew nothing of the "dreadful things" as hollowbecause not only was he fully aware of the fate of the Jews he was actively participating in their persecution. [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. Speer was able to have his writings sent to Wolters, however, and they eventually amounted to 20,000 pages. [43] The building itself was hailed by Hitler as the "crowning glory of the greater German political empire". The Soviet Union, having demanded a death sentence at trial, was unwilling to entertain a reduced sentence. The journalist had unwittingly collaborated in one of his myths. [130] Speer also read, studied architectural journals, and brushed up on English and French. [148] In October 1973, he made his first trip to Britain, flying to London to be interviewed on the BBC Midweek programme. It will begin in Norway and extend to northern Italy. [145], Speer's memoirs were a phenomenal success. 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. This formed a key element of the myths Speer encouraged. "[118], Speer was credited with an "armaments miracle". 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. [149] In the same year, he appeared on the television programme The World at War. By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. 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. From 1946 to 1966, while serving the sentence in Spandau Prison, he penned more than 2,000 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. 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). Speer cancelled some hours before take-off because the previous night he had been up late in a meeting with Hitler. All of the Germanic peoples will be included in it. [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. German architect of the Nazi period (1933-45). [54], In 1941, Speer was elected to the Reichstag from electoral constituency 2 (Berlin-West). - London, Anglia, 1981. szeptember 1.) [55] At the same time, Hitler also appointed Speer as head of the Organisation Todt, a massive, government-controlled construction company. Hitler appointed Speer, whose work for Goebbels had impressed him, to manage the building site for Troost. Under his leadership, the Nazis implemented a brutal regime of slave labour in armaments factories across Germany. Speer's own staff described the conditions there as "hell". Speer in response used his propaganda expertise to display a new dynamism of the war economy. Among those who pledged support for his sentence to be commuted were Charles de Gaulle and US diplomat George Wildman Ball. Instead, development turned to a "uranium motor", for use in the navy's submarines. 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. However, his other brother Ernst had died in the Battle of Stalingrad, despite repeated requests from his parents for Speer to repatriate him. Under Sereny's relentless questioning, Speer explored the past, trying to discover the truth which he had unconsciously kept hidden even from himself. 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 ." [120], On 18 July 1947, Speer was transferred to Spandau Prison in Berlin to serve his prison term. [104] During a meeting with Speer on 28/29 March, Hitler rescinded the decree and gave him authority over demolitions. [127], Much of Speer's energy was dedicated to keeping fit, both physically and mentally, during his long confinement. [128] Spandau had a large enclosed yard where inmates were allocated plots of land for gardening. 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