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Albert Speer (1905–1981) -

Albert Speer was an architect by training, and designed and constructed several notable buildings in Berlin and elsewhere in Nazi Germany.

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Close ally of Hitler -

Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and soon became a close ally of Adolf Hitler. He's pictured here in the Speer Studio in Bavaria showing Hitler the blueprints of an architectural project at Obersalzberg.

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Nuremberg -

Hitler instructed Speer to design a site suitable in size and grandeur to host the Nazi party rallies at Nuremberg. The architect created the Zeppelinfeld (Zeppelin Field), a huge deployment area the grounds of which featured an enormous tribune hall. Pictured is a military parade by Luftwaffe troops to mark Wehrmacht Day at Nuremberg in  September 1936.

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Grand scale -

The Nuremberg Rally of 1938 included events on the occasion of "Day of the Community," where 5,000 members of the League of German Girls presented folk dances and displays of gymnastics in front of Speer's architectural triumph.

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Cathedral of Light -

The Cathedral of Light, or Lichtdom, was a main aesthetic feature of the Nazi Party rallies in Nuremberg. Conceived by Speer and applauded by Hitler, this impressive light show served as the closing ceremony at all rallies between 1934 and 1938. The "cathedral" consisted of 152 anti-aircraft searchlights, at intervals of 12 m (39 ft), aimed skyward to create a series of vertical bars surrounding the audience.

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Paris Expo 1937 -

Speer designed the Nazi Germany pavilion at the Paris world exposition of 1937 to represent a bulwark against Communism. The Soviet pavilion was set facing that of Germany's, a fact that turned the exhibition into a competition between the two great ideological rivals.

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Medal-winning design -

Members of the public mingle with officials inside the German pavilion in Paris during the 1937 Paris exposition. Speer and Soviet architect Boris Iofan were both awarded gold medals for their respective designs. In addition, the jury granted Speer a Grand Prix for his model of the Nuremberg party rally grounds, a facility that by then was already built and functioning.

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Rebuilding Berlin -

In 1937, Hitler appointed Speer as General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital. The architect was tasked with developing plans to rebuild Berlin. These included designing a huge boulevard, the Prachtstrasse, or Street of Magnificence, a triumphal arch, and the Volkshalle, an enormous domed assembly hall. Pictured is Speer's maquette, assembled to scale.

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Designs for the dictator -

Hitler, adjutant Julius Schaub, Speer, Dr. Fritz Todt, Dr. Otto Dietrich, Joseph Goebbels, and Hermann Esser gather round a model for the Haus des Deutschen Fremdenverkehrs in Berlin.

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Incomplete ideas -

This is Hitler inspecting Speer's model of the planned German stadium at the Nuremberg Rally of 1937 before the laying of its foundation stone. The stadium was never completed. Pictured also is Reichsminister of Church Affairs Hanns Kerrl, SA chief of staff Viktor Lutze, and Speer.

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Too ambitious -

Speer's mood-lit architectural model for the Runden Platz ("Round Square"). The outbreak of World War II in 1939 led to the postponement, and later the abandonment, of these ambitious building projects.

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The new Reich chancellery -

One project that was completed, however, was the construction of the new Reich chancellery. Plans were drawn up in 1936, and buildings on Berlin's central Voßstraße were demolished to make way for the imposing premises, effectively Hitler's new seat of government. 

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Forced labor -

Construction workers toiled in 10-to-12-hour shifts to meet stringent deadlines. Labor shortages were met by tasking inmates from two concentration camps to quarry stone. A brick factory was built near the Oranienburg concentration camp at Speer's behest to expedite proceedings. Pictured is the chancellery's Courtyard of Honor.

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Seat of evil -

The chancellery was completed in early January 1939. The great study was a particular favorite of the dictator. Pictured is the vast room and Hitler's writing desk.

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Slave labor and eviction of Jews -

From 1939 and the onset of war, Speer's department used the Nuremberg Laws to evict Jewish tenants of non-Jewish landlords in Berlin to make way for non-Jewish tenants displaced by redevelopment or bombing. Speer also used forced Jewish labor to construct roads and clear away debris. With construction halted on the Berlin and Nuremberg plans, Speer's offices undertook building work for each branch of the military, and for the SS, using slave labor.

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Organisation Todt -

In 1942, Speer was appointed minister for armaments to replace Fritz Todt, who'd perished in a plane crash. Speer was also appointed as head of the Organisation Todt, a massive, government-controlled construction company. Speer is pictured with Todt, who was afforded a state funeral.

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Promotion to minister of armaments -

A smiling Albert Speer receiving the title of minister of armaments from Hitler. Speer's promotion laid to rest any further architectural ambition the Nazi official may have harbored.

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From architect to engineer -

As head of Organisation Todt, Speer oversaw a vast range of engineering projects both in Nazi Germany and in occupied territories, from France to the Soviet Union. It became notorious for using forced labor.

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New duties -

Minister of Armaments Albert Speer (in profile, third from right) during a visit to the Atlantic Wall coastal defenses in 1942, during its construction.

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Factories -

While regular Germans were employed at factories, elsewhere 140,000 slave laborers were working in secret underground factories where discipline was brutal and executions common.

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Concentration camp visit -

Speer with Nazi Gauleiter August Eigruber during the inspection of an industrial plant in Upper Austria, where prisoners were forced to work. After the war, Eigruber was hanged for his responsibility for crimes at Mauthausen concentration camp, where tens of thousands of prisoners died.

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V-1 and V-2 rocket program -

Towards the end of the war, these devastating new weapons were being assembled at Mittelwerk using slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Of the 60,000 people who ended up at the camp, 20,000 died due to the appalling conditions.

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On trial at Nuremberg -

The defeat of Nazi Germany ended with Speer's arrest for war crimes. He was one of several high-ranking Nazi officials, among them Hermann Göring and Rudolf Hess, to be tried at Nuremberg.

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Sentenced -

Speer was eventually found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, principally for the use of slave labor and forced labor. His claim that he was unaware of Nazi extermination plans and of the Holocaust saved him from the hangman's noose. On October 1, 1946, he was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment.

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Spandau prison -

Speer served his time in Spandau prison (pictured, 1951), during which he completed his memoirs. This work became the basis of his book, 'Inside the Third Reich.'

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Release from prison -

Speer's release from prison on October 2, 1966 made headlines around the world. He took up writing full time, publishing several books: his memoirs were an outstanding success.

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A free man -

Living comfortably in Heidelberg, Speer began perpetuating his own myth as a "good Nazi." He continued to deny any knowledge of Nazi extermination plans, or the persecution of the Jews.

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Architectural legacy -

Little remains of Speer's personal architectural works. The main tribune at Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg lies in partial ruins (pictured), drawing curious visitors and historians to its solid concrete shell.

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Schwerbelastungskörper -

No buildings designed by Speer during the Nazi era remain in Berlin except for the Schwerbelastungskörper, a heavy load- bearing body built around 1941. The cylinder is now a protected landmark and is open to the public.

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Death and guilt -

Albert Speer died in London on September 1, 1981. He is buried alongside his wife, Margarete, in Heidelberg. He once denied being present at the 1943 Posen speeches given to Nazi leaders by SS chief Heinrich Himmler calling for the extermination of the Jews. But in 2007, the Guardian newspaper reported that a letter from Speer dated December 23, 1971 had been found in a collection of his correspondence. In it, he says, "There is no doubt—I was present as Himmler announced on October 6, 1943 that all Jews would be killed." Had he said as much at Nuremberg, Speer would have hanged.

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