Speer

Describe the role played by the personality you have studied in national AND/OR international history. 10 Albert Speer, born 19 March 1905 in the German city of Mannheim, was an unremarkable man in an extremely remarkable situation. However he was surprisingly influential in German national and international history. Within Germany, Speer had a monumental effect which was not necessarily taken into account at the Nuremberg war Trial, because as 1st Architect of the Reich, Speer contributed to the Nazi propaganda effort thru his buildings, set designs and ‘value of ruin’ theory. Such architectural projects as the Zeppelin field bleachers and the Cathedral of Light had a huge psychological impact upon the people of Germany. Speer’s big and bold design gave Germany a sense of credibility and prestige whilst his ‘value of ruin’ theory, which he applied to almost everything he designed, gave the impression that the current government was strong enough to last a Thousand Years. Unashamedly Speer turned to forced labour into order to fill his quota of stone needed for his projects. The New Chancellery building which Speer completed in a record 2 years was gigantic. Speer designed it so, as to give foreign diplomats an impression of power and magnificence of the Reich, especially as they would have to walk 220m from the entrance, thru ornately decorated state rooms to the reception hall. Thus, this show of solid propaganda gave Nazis the image of a rooted, stable government. Furthermore, the Germania Project was of unprecedented size to once again display the new Reich as incomparable to the rest of Europe’s capital cities. In a much more global sense, Speer was the principal reason that extended WWII by an entire year. Due to his streamlining of the German war effort, he reduced waste, inefficiencies and coordinated various branches of the economy into Committees and Rings, thus increasing war time production until July 1944. Once Speer did have to resort to slave labour continue the rise in production, especially to build the “miracle weapons”. This gross apathy of the lives of thousands of concentration camp workers has shocked the international community. However at Nuremberg, Speer was only sentenced to 20 lives imprisonment at Spandau Prison. The Nuremberg War Trials was a world first trial by the international community to prosecute the “villains” of WWII and make it clear that such atrocities will not go unpunished.