Albert speer net worth

1. Albert Speer: Hitler's Court Architect
2. Rise to Prominence
3. Architect of the Third Reich
4. War and Aftermath
5. Nuremberg Trials and Later Life

Albert Speer: Hitler's Court Architect

Albert Speer (1905-1981) was a German architect and Hitler's court architect. Born on March 15, 1905, in Mannheim, Speer studied architecture and worked as an assistant at the Berlin Technical Institute. He joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1931 and the SS in 1932.

Rise to Prominence

Speer initially served as a member of several secondary architectural commissions, including the construction of the Berlin Gauleiter's headquarters. He gained attention for his masterful use of quickly constructed flagpoles and unique lighting effects, which gave Nazi mass gatherings a grandiose style. In 1934, he was tasked with designing the layout for the Nazi party rallies in Nuremberg. These successes caught the eye of Hitler, who saw in Speer the embodiment of his own youthful dreams of architecture. Hitler brought the talented architect closer to him, appointing him as the head of the German Labor Front and his deputy in the Nazi Party headquarters.

Architect of the Third Reich

In 1937, Speer became the Chief Inspector of Buildings for the Reich, with the mission to "transform Berlin into a true and genuine capital of the German Reich." Working tirelessly to execute Hitler's grandiose plans, Speer designed state institutions, stadiums, palaces, monuments, and entire super-cities for the future Greater Germany. Speer openly expressed admiration for his patron's ideas, which other architects dismissed as "mad sentimentality" suitable only for the past. Hitler, who had failed to become an architect himself, spent hours engrossed in Speer's sketches and models. In 1938, Hitler awarded Speer the Golden Party Badge, a high honor in the Nazi Party.

War and Aftermath

Speer continued his work even after the outbreak of World War II. In 1941, he was elected as a member of the Reichstag and the following year he replaced Fritz Todt, who died in an aviation accident, in an important post in the Ministry of Armaments and War Production. From then on, Speer shifted his focus entirely to the war industry. He also held numerous other important positions, such as being a member of the central planning committee, the Chief Inspector of Water Resources and Energy, the director of Todt Organization, the head of the National Socialist Motor Corps, and the chief of the main party technological department. For some time, he was considered the second most important person in the Third Reich and the undisputed dictator of German war production. Despite resistance from other Nazi leaders and heavy losses from Allied bombings, Speer achieved remarkable industrial results.

Nuremberg Trials and Later Life

Speer was indirectly aware of the planned assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944 but was not directly involved in the July Plot. In the final weeks of the war, he resisted Hitler's orders to implement a policy of "scorched earth" and sow chaos and destruction, simply because he believed the German people didn't deserve such devastation from their leader's genius.

In 1946, Speer appeared before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. He was the only one among the accused who acknowledged his guilt for the crimes of the Third Reich. "This trial is necessary," he said. "In an authoritarian system, everyone bears shared responsibility for such terrible crimes." In his testimony, Speer claimed that his activities were primarily "technological and economic" rather than political. He portrayed himself as merely an architect and claimed that his knowledge of events was limited to what he read in the newspapers. He admitted rejecting cruelty not out of humanitarianism, but for practical reasons, as excessive brutality would hinder his efforts to increase production. The Tribunal, acknowledging his limited involvement in the use of slave labor, considered it a mitigating factor. Speer was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. On October 1, 1946, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the Spandau Prison in Berlin. He was released in 1966.

In 1970, Speer published his book "Inside the Third Reich," which gained worldwide fame. He secretly made the initial sketches while still in Spandau, smuggling them out piece by piece to compile the material for the book. It is regarded as one of the most outstanding political memoirs of all time. The book demonstrates how Hitler's unlimited power coexisted with a modern technological mechanism. Speer argues that the Third Reich was far from a monolithic totalitarian state, but rather a fragmented feudal principality controlled by local politicians such as the cynical Minister of Propaganda Dr. Goebbels, the colorless head of the SS Heinrich Himmler, and the head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring. Each defended their own personal interests and sought their own gain, regardless of the price of war. Speer insisted that he personally did not participate in the horrors facilitated by his work. He acknowledged that he made a pact with the devil and realized the true meaning of his agreement too late.