Every powerful state and regime would forge symbolic architecture to suit their purposes. The Machu Picchu, the citadel of the Inca civilization in Peru, South America, is a wonder which is mysterious of its purpose. How people could build such a grand-scale site in such a high altitude and why might be unknown, but it is a symbol of the Inca civilization. Pyramids of Egypt present the might of the ancient pharaohs.
The grand scale of the Colosseum withholds the most barbaric and civilized aspects of the Roman Civilization. For Nazi Germany, nothing much remain but Albert Speer was there to construct for Nazi Germany.
Albert Speer was the architect that contributed to forming the metaphysical imagery of Nazi Germany by planning and constructing powerful symbols of Nazi Germany. Albert Speer was not only an architect but also a contributor to the Nazi party. During his tenure as the Minister of Armament and Munitions, he could manage the war economy which increased economic and industrial productivity to a notable extent.[1]
Albert Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931 after being inspired by the speeches delivered by Adolf Hitler. Soon enough, Albert Speer was able to perform his talent and become the personal architect of Adolf Hitler. In 1934, Albert Speer has built the ‘Zeppelinfeld’ din Nuremberg to hold massive Nazi rallies. He also incorporated the ‘Cathedral of Light’ during the Nazi party rallies on the Zeppelinfeld at Nuremberg.
Numerous anti-aircraft search lights had to be relocated which troubled Hermann Göring, head of the German Air Force. Albert Speer’s work successfully presented the idea ‘might’, ‘central powered’ to the crowd at the scene and the public. These to imageries served as a powerful propaganda tool of the Nazi party.[2]
Albert Speer contributed to the presentation of the pavilion of Nazi Germany in the 1937 at the Paris International Exposition. Ironically, Pablo Picasso presented his masterpiece ‘Guernica’ at the same exposition which exposed the cruel and terrible bombardments by the German Airforce on Guernica, Bilbao, Spain.
By coincidence, the Soviet Union also presented the pavilion of the Soviet Union at the Paris International Exposition, and both pavilions were exhibited across the field opposing each other. These two pavilions created a huge foreshadow of the military and political standoff between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union.[3]
Albert Speer and Adolf Hitler also has been planning on construction of the ‘mega city’ of Berlin. Hitler’s final plan of the Third Reich included the construction of the ‘Germania’ State for the German race under the rules of the ‘Thousand Year Reich’, thousand-year empire. Albert Speer and Hitler dreamt of reconstruing Berlin worthy as the capital of the ‘Thousand Year Reich’. During the film Downfall, the model of this mega capital was featured during the conversation between Albert Speer and Hitler.[4]
After the minister for Armaments of Munitions, Fritz Todt died from an airplane crash after his take-off from the Wolf’s Lair. Albert Speer was appointed as Fritz Todt’s successor. Fritz Todt contributed to projects such as the construction of the Autobahn, Atlantic Wall, which was the fortifications on the coasts of France, and the West wall, which is also known as the Siegfried Line, a defensive line to protect mainland Germany. Despite such achievements, Albert Speer didn’t let his predecessor’s reputation to exceed him.
Albert Speer claimed the following figures in his book ‘Inside the Third Reich’ of his achievements in increasing the productivity of Nazi Germany.
“In August 1942, according to the Index Figures for German Armaments End-Products, as compared with the February production, had increased by 27 percent for guns, by 25 percent for tanks, while ammunition production almost doubled, rising 97 percent. The total productivity in armaments increased by 59.6 percent.[5]”
There are arguments over the validity of such statistics as the comparison was between the early startup-phases of the war and rather more completed phase later in the war. However, considering the constant strategic bombings on industrial infrastructure, and the Nazi Germany peaked its overall productions in 1944, Albert Speer’s work was still notable.
Albert Speer revealed his secrets with interviewers while he was kept in hostility for the Nuremberg Trials after Nazi Germany’s surrender. He claimed that he incorporated Henry Ford’s manufacturing principles in factories and minimized the influence of Nazi party and military officials in obligation.
Towards the downfall of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler declares the ‘Nero Decree’, a scorched earth doctrine to destroy infrastructure of Germany. However, Albert Speer collaborates with military, local governing bodies, and related parties to prevent the destruction for ‘the future of the German nation’.Already, Albert Speer knew the war was lost when received these orders. The confession of Albert Speer’s ‘betrayal’ to Adolf Hitler is presented in the film Downfall. [6]
Albert Speer was the most senior official of the Nazi party who wasn’t executed, Albert Speer only received a 20-year sentence at the Spandau Prison, Berlin. He did utilize the Slave Labour of POW(prisoners of war) and concentration camps which he was trialed guilty. During the trial of Nuremberg, he was one of the most cooperative convicts as well as one of the most remorse of the crimes of the Nazi party.[7] Albert Speer’s cooperative behavior and remorse of his crimes as well as his final objections against the Nero Decree might have saved him.[8]
Paul Joseph Goebbels, more known as Joseph Goebbels was the infamous minister of propaganda and the succeeding chancellor of Germany after Hitler’s death (even though it was a single day). Joseph Goebbels was an official with a doctorate in German Philology which he achieved in 1922 from Heidelberg University. Joseph Goebbels joins the Nazi Party (NSDAP, National Socialist German Worker’’s Party) in 1924.
As an early member of the Nazi Party itself, Goebbels was also recognized by Hitler and appointed the district leader in Berlin in 1926 by him. As district leader of the most important city in Germany, Goebbels aggressively asserted anticommunism and antisemitism ideals while promoting the magnificence of the Nazi ideology.
In 1928, Goebbels is elected as a representative of the Nazi party to the parliament. Joseph’s Goebbels’s propaganda speech and techniques were distinctive. Adolf Hitler relied on Goebbels’s power during the crucial presidential and parliament election campaigns in 1932. The radio and film were the magic words for Goebbels. Although Hitler lost the presidential election to Paul von Hindenburg, the Nazi party was no longer the minority of Germany, and it became the largest party in 1932.
After the Nazi party seizes power, Goebbels is named the president of ‘Chamber of Culture’ and the National Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda division was created for him. Now, Goebbels is given control over the all the media and culture of Nazi Germany. The media was carefully controlled and radios were distributed at a cheap price so the Nazi party could hold massive control over the public.
In 1933, massive book burning of Jewish and other ‘blacklist’ authors was led by Goebbels. He puts constant pressure on the Jewish community and political enemies of the Nazi Party. The ‘Germany National Community’ and racial superiority of the Aryan race was constantly exploited with totalitarianism and the ideas of ‘One People One Führer, One Realm’.
With the help of movie director Leni Riefenstahl, Goebbels promoted Anti-Semitism and Nazi ideology through films such as ‘Triumph of the Will’, film of the Nazi rally in Nurmberg, 1934, and ‘Olympia’ which featured the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
The violent propaganda lead by Joseph Goebbels caused massive violence against the Jewish community. Joseph Goebbels took part in provoking the mobs to assault the Jewish community in Germany, Austria and Sudentland of Czechslovakia which is known as the Kristallnacht, the ‘Night of the Broken Glass’ or the ‘Night of the Crystal’ in 1938.[9] Joseph Goebbels takes advantage of the assassination of a German foreign affair official Ernst vom Rath by a Jewish teenager to provoke such violence. 7,500 Jewish-owned business were attacked, tens of thousands were sent to concentration camps.[10]
On February 18, 1943, Goebbels delivered his most famous speech, the Sportpalast, or Total War, speech, in which he motivated the German people to continue their struggle even though the German war effort was failing.[11] After Germany’s defeat in Stalingrad and North Africa, Goebbels didn’t deny such failure but exerts these were the exact reason why the German nation must commit themselves for total war[12].
Goebbels selected actors and members of the audience to create a massive applause and fanatic effects. Actors and selected audience members would overexpress their emotions during the speech insisting a crowd effect to others causing a great psychological effect. Goebbels was able to rally the German nation to triumph towards total war clouding their minds and provisions of the terrible consequences.[13]
Joseph Goebbels, his wife Magda Goebbels, and his children Although Joseph Goebbels was an infamous womanizer and the marriage between Magda and Joseph wasn’t a fully happy story, the six children between them and the images of the Goebbels family was featured to the public as ‘the ideal German family’. The Goebbels family remained close to Adolf Hitler until the obstruction of the Nazi regime. Adolf Hitler announces Goebbels the new Reich Chancellor right before his suicide on 30, April 1945. Joseph Goebbels refused to surrender despite Adolf Hitler’s death but chose to commit suicide alongside his family as well on 1, May 1945.
[1] “Albert Speer.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Speer.
[2] Rhp. “The Cathedral of Light of the Nazi Rallies in Rare Pictures, 1937.” Rare Historical Photos, 17 Nov. 2021, https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/nazi-rally-cathedral-light-c-1937/.
[3] Laws, Christopher. “Art and Political Crises: The 1937 Paris International Exposition.” Culturedarm, 13 Sept. 2022, https://culturedarm.com/1937-paris-international-exposition/.
[4] “Story of Cities #22: How Hitler's Plans for Germania Would Have Torn Berlin Apart.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14 Apr. 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/14/story-of-cities-hitler-germania-berlin-nazis.
[5] Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. Sphere, 1971.
[6] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/albert-speer.
[7] Magazine, Smithsonian. “The Candor and Lies of Nazi Officer Albert Speer.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 8 Jan. 2013, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-candor-and-lies-of-nazi-officer-albert-speer-324737/.
[8] Admin. Weimar and Nazi Germany, 7 May 2014, https://weimarandnazigermany.co.uk/albert-speer-german-war-economy/#.Y0ue33ZBxPY.
[9] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/kristallnacht.
[10] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/joseph-goebbels-1.
[11] “Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945).” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-biography/.
[12] “‘Total War’: The Sportpalast Speech.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goebbels-sportpalast/.
[13] Bytwerk, Randall. Goebbels' 1943 Speech on Total War, https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/goeb36.htm.
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