Albert Speer. Early Years: Albert Speer was born in 1905; in the city of Mannheim located in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany. Albert had been raised in the small township of Heidelberg; he was the second of three boys.
His father, Albert Friedrich Speer, was a highly successful architect and his mother Luise Mathilde Wilhelmine Hommel was the daughter of a very wealthy businessman. Albert was nine years old at the time when World War One broke out, though he was too young to fight at the time as so were his brothers. Albert had been sent to a private elementary school and later he moved on to a state high school. Albert’s main focus was mathematics and he hoped to get a degree, though his father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and become a successful architect and so with that he did. Albert had begun his studies at a Technical University in Karlsruhe near Heidelberg and then he moved on to a more advanced Technical University in Munich. In the year of 1928 Albert had completed his studies and graduated.
Albert’s fascination for Hitler: Professor Tessenow who had previously taught Speer at the Technical University in Munich had never agreed with Nazism, though a huge proportion of his students did and Albert was on of them who did. After Albert had graduated he had been persuaded to go to Berlin in 1930 to attend a rally where Hitler spoke and gave his ideas to the people and not long after hearing Hitler speak Albert had signed up for Nazi Party membership because he was inspired by Hitler’s personality and the ideas he had about German society. On the first of March 1931 Albert had been selected and he was now part of the Nazi Party. Albert said that he had joined the Nazi Party because he feared of communism, ‘’fascination for Hitler and rejection of The Treaty of Versailles with its imposition of German guilt for the First World War. ’’(HSC Online) Early work for the Nazi Party: Albert’s very first major commission as a Party member of the Nazi Party had came at the beginning of 1932 when Karl Hanke, a man Speer had previously done work for recommended his ability to Goebbels to help renovate the new District Headquarters in the city of Berlin.
With Speer’s high quality work Goebbels had been most impressed and as a result he had recommended him to Hitler, who assigned him to help Paul Troost renovate the new and highly improved Chancellery in Berlin and this is the point where Hitler and Speer begin to bond. Appointment as “ First Architect of the Reich”: By the beginning of 1934 Albert had been chosen to take on the role as the Nazi Party’s head architect after the late Paul Troost who was the previous chief architect. During the year of 1933 Albert was given a variety of tasks which included the design of the parade grounds, 150 searchlights to form a cathedral of light and Nazi banners which hung vertically from ten storey buildings at the Nuremberg party rally of 1934. After proving his strong ability, Hitler had regarded Speer as a friend and the two had bonded quite well, because Hitler also had a passion for architectural design. Albert was seen as one of Hitler’s highly regarded friends and wherever Hitler went Albert wasn’t far behind. It is said that it was Albert Speer who played some part in the eviction of all Jewish families to make way for his new buildings.
The Germania project and the new Reich Chancellery: Just after 1937 Hitler had demanded buildings that would be able to stand for a thousand years no matter what and so he chose Albert to lead the way and start designing these mighty buildings. Hitler had asked Albert to build the new Reich’s chancellery; he thought over this decision and immediately accepted the offer. Hitler needed the building built and ready by the end of the year and Albert had assured him that the task would be completed on time. As the year had drawn to an end Albert was quite relieved that he had completed the mighty task on time, he also wished that he never accepted it because it put alot of strain on him, though it had later paid off. ‘ Albert’s’ chancellery building was designed so that it would give the foreign diplomats an impression of power and it would show them the highly sophisticated design which went into the building in the short amount of time.
For Speer’s hard effort Hitler had awarded him with the Golden Party Badge, this badge was only ever given to a handful of selected people. Albert Speer as Armaments Minister: February 1942, Albert Speer was appointed as Minister of Armaments and Munitions by Adolf Hitler. Speer had greatly raised the production levels of armaments and after proving his loyalty in 1943 he had been given more responsibilities, though this had put more strain on himself, especially now that he had become the Minister of Armaments and war production. Speer had now prolonged World War 2 as a result of his works. Over the six years, the “ Speer Ministry”, as it was called, ended up employing 28 million workers, 6 million of these workers were foreign and about 60, 000 of them concentration camp prisoners.
It was these factories in which hundreds of thousands of slave labourers died of working extremely harsh hours and malnutrition, though Speer had tried to ensure that these workers would maintain a sufficient diet. Speer had visited many of these camps and he was shocked at what he saw. In 1944 Hitler had ordered Speer to stop producing fighter aircraft, though for once Speer had ignored the orders of the Hitler. By November that year Speer lost his faith to believe in a German victory. It is said that Speer had visited the Adolf Hitler’s bunker towards the end of WW2 and had told Hitler straight out that the war was to be lost leaving Germany in a struggle, this shocked Hitler and left him in a bad state.
29th of April that same year Speer had been excluded from the new cabinet and Speer was to be immediately replaced by Karl-Otto Saur, who was at the time the Director of the Technical Office, Armaments Ministry; Jaeger -stab. Final years: After Hitler’s death, Speer had been sentenced to twenty years in prison, because he was found guilty of forced labour during his years as Armaments Minister. He was released in 1966. He died on the 1st of September 1981, aged seventy six. C. MARKS.
? Spartacus Educational. (26th May, 17th May 08) ? Albert Speer, the Story. (21st May 08) ? Britannica Online. (17th May 08) ? Book rags. com. (17th May 08) ? Germania in Berlin (15th May, 26th May 08) ? Albert [email protected]
com. (26th May 08) ? HSC Online. (20th May 08) ? Individuals in Modern History. Albert Speer, Samantha L. Frappell.
? Albert Speer and the Nazi Anti-Semitic Agenda. David Martin. ? Albert Speer, A philosophical Case Study. Peter Cassidy.
