Albert Speer

Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, (1905-1981), was an architect, author and, for part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production, sometimes called "the first architect of the Third Reich".

Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931. His architectural skills made him increasingly prominent within the Party and he became a member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle. Speer made plans to reconstruct Berlin on a grand scale, with huge buildings, wide boulevards, and a reorganized transportation system.

As Minister of Armaments and War Production, Speer was so successful that Germany's war production continued to increase despite massive and devastating Allied bombing. After the war, he was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the Nazi regime, principally for the use of forced labor. He served most of his sentence at Spandau Prison in West Berlin.

Upon his release, he published two autobigraphical works, and a third book on the SS. Speer has been dubbed the "the Nazi who said sorry" owing to his repentance at trial.

Albert Speer in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Albert Speer was a Nazi Party official and the original First Architect of the Greater German Reich. He was charged with building many architectural memorials as tributes to the greatness of Germany in general and to its victory in World War II in particular.