Albert Speer(1905-1981)

After graduating from high school, Speer studied architecture in Karlsruhe, Munich and later in Berlin. Speer then became assistant to Heinrich Tessenow in Berlin. There he also had his first contacts with National Socialist groups. In 1931 he joined the NSDAP. Speer successfully translated National Socialist ideas into an architectural aesthetic, which enabled him to quickly make a career within the party. Supported by his personal and close friendship with Adolf Hitler, Speer became the most popular and successful architect in the Reich from 1933 onward. Speer's early work included the parade ground in Nuremberg, where the NSDAP held its party conference from 1934 onward.

Furthermore, numerous monumental buildings were built on behalf of the Reich in the style of National Socialist ideology. Speer also proved to be a great organizer in organizing major events and mass rallies. For example, he was the responsible leader of the "Light Dome" at the party conference in 1934. In Speer, Hitler found a friend who was able to build and inspire him like no other. Therefore, in October 1934 he appointed him "The Führer's Architect" and in 1937 "General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital Berlin" (Germania). Between 1938 and 1939 Speer built the new Reich Chancellery in Berlin. This was already integrated into the planned "North-South Project", which consisted of the Reich Chancellery, the Great Hall and the "Führerpalais". In this context, Speer was directly responsible for the "de-rentalization" of Berlin's Jewish population and their transport to concentration camps.

After the start of the Second World War, Speer was appointed "Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition" and "Inspector General for Fortifications, Roads, Water and Energy". In 1943 Speer was appointed Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production. In this role he was responsible for the exploitation and destruction of thousands of forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners, with whose help he sought to achieve the war and armament goals. However, shortly before Hitler's suicide in March 1945, Speer refused to allow the Führer to carry out the order to destroy the entire German infrastructure ("Operation: Scorched Earth"). After the end of the Second World War, Speer managed to largely erase the traces of his guilt.

Speer was able to convince the public that he knew nothing about the extermination of the Jews. Speer was arrested in 1946, but then sentenced by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg to only 20 years in prison, which he served in the war crimes prison in Berlin-Spandau. After his release from prison in 1966, Speer continued to construct the legend of his guiltlessness on a literary and film level. He was unintentionally supported by the historian Joachim Fest, who made a biographical documentary film with Speer in 1969. On the publisher's side, Speer received involuntary support in the construction of his embellished life story from Wolf Jobst Siedler, who published his books: "Memories" were published in 1969 and "The Slave State - My Confrontation with the SS" in 1981.

Albert Speer died on September 1, 1981 in London. It was only after his death that a younger generation of historians managed to reveal Speer's true involvement with the Holocaust.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, a multi-part biographical film adaptation of Albert Speer's life was broadcast on ARD in May 2005. The director Heinrich Breloer was able to document that, contrary to his protestations, Hitler's architect did know about "Auschwitz".