Albert Berthold Konrad Hermann

Albert Berthold Speer, born 19-03-1905 in Mannheim, Baden Württemberg. Speer was active in sports, taking up skiing and mountaineering. Speer's Heidelberg school offered rugby football,  unusual for Germany, skiing,    and Speer was a participant. He wanted to become a mathematician, but his father said if Speer chose this occupation he would "lead a life without money, without a position, and without a future. Instead, Speer followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and was educated in architectural studies at the Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe and later at the Universities of Munich and Berlin. In the summer of 1922 Speer got to know Margarete 'Margret' Weber from Heidelberg. (see Magarete Speer) They married in Berlin on 28-08-1928 despite Speer's mother being against the relationship. Between 1934 and 1942 Margret gave birth to six children: Albert (*1934), Hilde (*1936), Fritz (*1937), Margarete (*1938), Arnold (* 1940, born Adolf, renamed after Hitler (see Adolf Hitler) and Ernst (*1942), but Albert didn't have much time for his kids.

Magarte Weber died age 82, in Heidelberg abd is buried          Speer stated he was apolitical when he was a young man, and that he attended a Berlin Nazi rally in December 1930 at the urging of some of his students. He was surprised to find Hitler dressed in a neat blue suit, rather than the brwn uniform seen on Nazi Party posters, and was greatly impressed, not only with Hitler's proposals, but also with the man himself. Inspired by Hitler's (see Parents) oratory prowess, he joined the National Socialist party in January 1931, where he developed a close friendship with Hitler. He believed Hitler and the Nazis could answer the communist threat and restore the glory of the German empire that he considered lacking under the Weimar Republic. Speer quickly proved his worth by his efficient and creative staging of Nazi events. The two men found much in common: Hitler spoke of Speer as a "kindred spirit" for whom he had always maintained "the warmest human feelings". The young, ambitious architect was dazzled by his rapid rise and close proximity to Hitler, (see Did you know) which guaranteed him a flood of commissions from the government and from the highest ranks of the Party.  He designed monuments and decorations, as well as the parade grounds at Nuremberg where a party congress was held in 1934 and captured on film by Leni Riefenstahl (see Riefenstahl) in Triumph of the Will. That Nuremberg rally was the archetype of what became identifiable as a Nazi-style of public rallies as spectacles, characterized by huge crowds of uniformed marchers, striking lighting effects, and impressive flag displays directed by Speer.

              In 1937, Hitler gave Speer the opportunity to fulfil his youthful architectural ambitions by appointing him Inspector General of the Reich. Hitler selected Speer, his "architect of genius," to construct the Reich Chancellery in Berlin and the Party palace in Nuremberg. Hitler also commissioned him to refurbish Berlin, a project for which Speer prepared grandiose designs that were never completed. Speer became one of the most loyal members of the Nazi regime, like Martin Bormann (see Martin Bormann) and was a member of Hitler's inner circle, with his wife Magarete(see Magarete Speer-Weber). Eva Braun (see Eva Braun) was good friends with Albert speer and his wife. In 1938, he was awarded the Nazi Golden Party Badge of Honor.   Speer lived in a house with a studio on the Obersalzberg near the Berghof in Berchtesgaden and Hitler (see Adolf Hitler) often walked there to dream about his great constructions. Hitler wanted Speer to build a new impressive Berlin. 

            A year later, Speer's office assumed control of the allocation of apartments belonging to Berlin Jews who were evicted. His workload grew in 1941 after Berlin's Jews were deported to the east. When Fritz Todt (see Todt) was killed in an air accident in February 1942, he crashed after a visit to Hitler in the Wolfschanze. Albert Speer who had at the last moment cancelled flying on the same plane as Todt, mysterious, was appointed to succeed him as Minister of Armaments. He later took on the grander title of Minister of Armaments and War Production and became the principal planner of the German war economy, responsible for the construction of strategic roads and defences, as well as military hardware. Despite the unrelenting Allied bombing attacks designed to disrupt war production, Speer managed to increase armament production dramatically. In 1941, Germany produced 9,540 front-line machines and 4,900 heavy tanks; in 1944, output reached 35,350 machines and 17,300 tanks. This impressive growth was achieved as a result of Speer's use of prisoners of war and civilian slave labourers in the munitions factories. By September 1944, some seven and a half million foreigners worked as slave labourers and, in violation of the Hague and Geneva Conventions, Speer exploited two million prisoners of war in the production effort.

     Speer's relations with Hitler deteriorated when Speer disobeyed Hitler's order to destroy Nazi industrial installations in areas close to the advancing Allies. Speer at the end of the war rescued  Hitler's doctor, Dr. Karl Brandt (see Brandt), condemned to death by Hitler for leaving Berlin with his family, but Brandt was still hanged for war crimes in Landsberg, age 44 on 02-06-1948. Speer later claimed that he independently conspired to assassinate Hitler, though historians doubt whether he ever meant to execute this plan. Speer was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal in 1946. He had been charged with employing forced labourers and concentration camp prisoners in the German armaments industry. His testimony was notable because he was the lone defendant to accept responsibility for the practices of the Nazi regime, both for his actions and for those not under his control.   He was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment in Spandau prison, just like Baldur von Schirach (see Schirach), after which he published his best-selling memoir. He described himself in this account as a technician unconcerned with politics, but he still took responsibility for his role in aiding the Nazis, and expressed his regret at having done so. Again, he assumed responsibility for those actions beyond his immediate control and expressed regret for his inaction during the slaughter of the Jews.  

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