Describe the Personal Background and Historical Context of the Life of Albert Speer

Hans Mommsen’s book, From Weimar to Auschwitz, presented an interesting look at Hitler within the Nazi Party. The overriding themes in the chapter “Hitler’s Position in the Nazi System” were the stubbornness and charisma of Hitler and the chaos within the Nazi Party. The weak leadership of Hitler along with the inability to concentrate power to one position helped lead the Third Reich to be a very frenzied and unorganized government.

In the September of 1907, Adolf travelled to Vienna to take the entrance exams for Austria’s Academy of Fine Arts. He made it through the first round, which eliminated 113 aspiring artists down to 80. However, he wasn’t in the last top 28 who made it through. Art critics claim that Hitler was not the genius he thought he was and his artwork was mediocre. His failure as an artist changed his life, and this could have been one of the factors leading up to his heartless actions. This event alone toughened him out in the long run. Because of it, Adolf Hitler is not known today as a famous painter, but rather a racist extremist that ruined many lives and killed 11 million

Hitler impresses the Reichstag with the ethos, credibility, of his leadership. Referring to the success of his government, Hitler entreats, “Allow me now to give you a short excerpt from our economic life which proves in plain figures whether and to what extent National Socialism has solved these problems.” Hitler then presents a simple, yet powerful statistic: a tremendous rise in annual German births. Hitler does not pick this statistic blindly. He chooses a statistic that he knows will be important, impactful, and personal to his audience. Not only is a rise in births a sign of increased prosperity (for people are unlikely to have kids if they are not in love and with the means of supporting their children), but it is also a statistic dear to his audience’s heart. After World War I, so many loved ones died. Accordingly, the babies and new life mentioned in the statistic must have brought great joy to a hurting nation. Further, Hitler reinforces his ethos as a leader when he remembers, “It was as an unknown German soldier at the front that I put together this bold program, fighting for fourteen years…” Mr. Hitler is proving his credibility as a planner and a thinker, describing his process of invention, how he carefully came up with the idea while fighting at the front. The thoughtful and planned politicians of the German Reichstag surely appreciate the care and attention their leader invested in this program. For his audience, Hitler could have no better credibility than that provided by increased birth statistics and his claim of careful

Because of the same burning interest for architecture Speer became one of Hitler's best friends. The men were able to reach this closeness, as Spear didn't have a thirst for power or political intentions like many of the other party members. It was during the design and building of the barrack camps for the men of the autobahn, that Speer and Hitler developed an increasing intimacy as they spent lunches and dinners together in their tightly knit circle of important men. ' A close relationship had become established between us, and I counted on profiting, humanly and artistically, from it."

Germany’s fate was changed on April 20, 1889, the day I, Adolf Hitler was born to German official, Alois and my dear, Klara Hitler. Little did they know of what a miracle that had blessed them that day. My destiny was decided for me every time my father lectured me about the abhor Jews, taking up our German property, and beat me for the childish mistakes I made. I realized my destiny was to punish the faults in our once perfect nation. My father’s strict upper hand was not the only contribution to my great plan. At the age of sixteen, I left my home to pursue my dream of becoming an artist. I enrolled myself into the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts. The vile Jews in charge of the school denied me acceptance into the school. I spent

The extent to which Albert Speer had a positive impact upon his time are both varied and constantly changing. From the German perspective, Speer had a positive impact upon the Regime, as exemplified through his work as Architect and Armaments Minister. The allied, international perspective in contrast is quite negative, as it has evolved over time. Despite initial praise, as seen in the repentant Nazi argument, the release of the Walters Chronic and other revelations saw shift towards the structuralist view for the allies, of which Speer had a profoundly negative impact upon society, in which it became to be known that he had full knowledge of the atrocities of the Nazi regime, and the contribution that his department was having upon this.

Albert Speer’s significant contribution towards history can be assessed in two sections. His contribution on a national scale consisted of his role as Hitler’s architect to encourage the perception of the Nazi Party to the German people, his position of Armaments Minister and his reorganisation of the industry to maximise production and through his defiance to Hitler’s scorched earth policy. His dedication to the Nazi Party effected history on an international level. Through his involvement with anti-semitic activities and his admission of collective responsibility changed the way a “war criminal” is seen throughout history.

Speer’s Rise in the Nazi Party Albert Speer rose from a mere architect to be one of the most influential Nazi leaders of the Third Reich, and self-admittedly Hitler’s closest friend. As a young, struggling architect Speer joined the Nazi Party as a ‘Septemberling’, and subsequently began to design many of the displays and structures that succeeded in promoting the Fuhrer Myth. Within the NSDAP Speer progressed to the position of Minister for Armaments and War Production in 1942, a reward for his superior managerial skills, and effectively utilised in the Nazi war effort. However, Speer’s rise in the NSDAP was often degraded by the members of the ‘old guard’, who thought that he had not earned

There have been many comments and different opinions from historians on Speer. One of the historians commenting on Speer is journalist and military historian, Dan Van der Vat. In his book “The Good Nazi: The Life and Lies of Albert Speer” he states that Speer was an ‘opportunist’ and ‘charmer’ who worked only for his benefit. He describes Speer as someone who deceived others and was an ‘emotional cripple’. Van der Vat’s condemning views on Speer explore how the architect’s every move and action after the war ended was to make him appear like the ‘good nazi’; his ‘collective responsibility’ at the Nuremberg Trials and his un-stereotypical Nazi demeanour that many journalists found odd. The press demands for Speer’s experience was huge and he was free to say what he wanted even if that meant leaving out the bad truths and saying all the good things to cater to the audience. The interviews served as a form of propaganda. Van der Vat did not believe any of Speer’s sugary ‘lies’ stating that Speer was not who he seemed and simply was not oblivious to the anti-Semitism. “…Speer was not an absent-minded, eyes averted, amoral non-spectator of Nazi anti-Semitism but an active participant…” – Van der Vat, pg192.

Despite Speer’s obvious culpability for his use of slave labour as Minister of Armaments, it is Speer’s actions in final days and weeks of the war that do much to mitigate his prior behaviour. Foremost among these was perhaps Speer’s willingness to blatantly defy Hitler’s orders, a crime which was punishable by death. On March 19, 1945, Hitler issued the Nero Decree which enforced a scorched-earth policy across the whole Reich. This meant that all industry and infrastructure was to be destroyed, which thus would prevent the Allies gaining these valuable assets once the war is over. Speer, looking towards the future, actively defied this order by frantically using his power and influence as Armaments Minister to persuade Gauleiters and generals

Heinrich Himmler was born on October 7th, 1900 in Munich to a middle-class Bavarian family. His father was Joseph Gebhard Himmler, a secondary-school teacher and principal. His mother was Anna Maria Himmler (maiden name Heyder), a devout Catholic and extremely attentive mother. Heinrich had an older brother, Gebhard Ludwig Himmler, and a younger brother, Ernst Hermann Himmler. Heinrich was named after his godparent, Prince Heinrich of Wittelsbach of the royal family of Bavaria, who was tutored by Gebhard Himmler. Educated at secondary school in Landshut, Himmler served as an officer cadet in the 11th Bavarian Regiment at the end of WW1, although he saw no active service. After working briefly as a salesman for a fertilizer manufacturing firm, Heinrich Himmler joined the Nazi party and in the November of 1923 participated in the Beer-Hall Putsch as a standard bearer at the side of Ernst Rohm. All of these roles combined together were a major reason for Heinrich Himmler being chosen for the jobs he received later in his militaristic life. It is surprising, that Heinrich Himmler, the chief of the SS and the primary architect of the Holocaust, has not attracted the attentions of more biographers. For all that he had taken part in for the history of the Third Reich, he appears to lack the “infamous charisma” of Heydrich or Hitler, and because of this lack of “infamous charisma” he has been presented only rarely as a primary subject for a book about the holocaust and the

Have you ever wondered how Hitler rose to power, why he disliked the Jews and wanted them gone? In this research piece Hitler’s leadership significance will be thoroughly discussed, The reason why Hitler disliked the Jewish is that when he was a child and his mom was going through cancer he liked to be in art, so he took classes at his school. He took art all the way up to college, and he went to attend an art school and it was a Jewish school. So he waited to see if they would accept him, and they didn’t accept him and that was when he didn’t like the Jewish when he didn’t get accepted. Think of this if hitler did get accepted would wwII be avoided and as well as the Holocaust?

Even though Germany was left in a period of struggle and economic weakness after WW1, Adolf Hitler would take a stand by creating a party that would help refine the structure of the economy. This party, when abbreviated, was called Nazi, would also create harsh laws and unrelentless punishment. Due to the Nazi party’s quick growth, there was an immediate impact on lifestyle and politics for the people of Germany. The long term impact brought forth by the consequences or legacy of the Nazi party included a population decrease and an increase in deaths. To make both of these impacts, Hitler had to overcome many hard challenges.

Through the analysis of events and constructions relating to the works of Speer and Hitler, it can be clearly seen that, unlike Krier’s statements to the contrary, the works constructed during the Nazi period cannot be separated from their political surroundings and must be observed and examined within their political context. By recounting events within the Nazi regime relating to the constructions and building works of the regime it becomes clear that the works are not only intrinsically linked to the political context, but are a means in order to expand and concentrate political ideology.

How do we deal with these social issues? We reignite the powerful and motivating ideas of national-socialist, Adolf Hitler. Unlike other leaders, he along with his ally Benito Mussolini, saw the world as it truly was; they saw it with