Albert Speer
Albert Speer was arguably the most indispensable of all Nazi party officials. His exceptional skills regarding technology, management and organisation as well as his strong bond with the Fuhrer due to a common love of art and architecture, insured Speer's position in many departments of the Third Reich. Despite all this, there is little evidence to suggest he was a committed Nazi devoted to Hitler's ideologies, rather an amoral technocrat who, obsessed with personal success and gratification, became an uncritical receiver of Hitler's instructions. However this view on Speer has been greatly criticised as being influenced by Speer's personal evaluation of him self and thus may be regarded with suspicion. John Galbraith, a US interrogator at Nuremburg, believes that Speer's claims were apart of his "well developed strategy of self vindication and survival", in contrast to Henry king, who considered Speer a "patriot, who firmly realised that loyalty to Hitler was not the same as loyalty to the German people". Speer joined the Nazi party in 1931 after listening to Hitler give an address at the Berlin University. At the time he was a qualified architect, although only working as a lecturer's assistant as the impact of the de
. They failed as the miracle weapon that was to decide German's victory. A meeting was held to decide their fate, though Speer was not in attendance, he and the building inspectorate were represented. Therefore, in final judgement, Speer's role in Nazi Germany not only contributed to its' rise but also to its' dramatic fall. The buildings were in the neo-classical style, the modern was rejected as it was seen as being Jewish and decadent. "1939 old buildings were being cleared and large areas were landscaped. Speer's next significant roll came in 1937 when he was asked by Hitler to transform Berlin into a great world city and cultural centre, fancifully named Germania. "Speer contributed to this department when he was appointed in charge of the Beauty of Labour scheme; a ploy to increase the efficiency of the workers by improving conditions in the work place. He ordered Speer to completely demolish all building and infrastructure. However historian Dan Van Der Vat points out that most of the figures on war production come from Speer so may be exaggerated. These rockets were extremely costly in both materials, and human resources, that could have been better spent else where. The second major costly fault was also another example where technology had failed. The new uniforms were designed to reduce weight and bulkiness and be easy to work with. Despite conflict, Speer was successful in the registration for compulsory labour of all men and women under 50 in 1943 which added 1. To solve the over-riding problem of labour shortage, Speer ordered Fritz Sauckel to put to work the Jews and POW's in concentration camps both in Germany and in occupied countries in order to meet the demands of war-time production.
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Acceptance Essays
