Albert Speer

El arquitecto de Hitler 

     Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer​, (Mannheim, 19 de marzo de 1905 – Londres, 1 de septiembre de 1981),

     Fue un arquitecto alemán y ministro de Armamento y Guerra del Tercer Reich durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Speer began his career as Hitler’s chief architect before assuming ministerial duties. He is often referred to as “the Nazi who said sorry” because, during the Nuremberg Trials and in his memoirs, he acknowledged his responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime. However, the true extent of his involvement in the persecution of the Jews and his actual knowledge of the Holocaust remain the subject of ongoing debate.

     He joined the Nazi Party in 1931 and soon embarked on a political and governmental career that lasted fourteen years. His training as an architect quickly raised his profile within the Party, making him one of Hitler’s closest collaborators. Hitler commissioned him with the design and construction of several iconic buildings, including the Reich Chancellery and the Zeppelin Field in Nuremberg, where the Party’s massive rallies were held.

     Speer also planned an ambitious reconstruction of Berlin, which included enormous monumental buildings, wide boulevards, and a reorganized transportation system.

     From February 1942, as Minister of Armaments and War Production, he was responsible for maintaining Germany’s high levels of military production despite the massive and devastating Allied bombings.

     Más allá de su papel oficial en la producción de armamento convencional, Speer asistió a reuniones reservadas vinculadas a la base de Hillersleben, donde se gestaban desarrollos experimentales del Reich. En este contexto, supervisó junto a Hans Kammler la presentación del proyecto Experiment, un prototipo de carro blindado con sistema de ocultación electromagnética. Ingeniero de formación y responsable político del programa, Speer garantizó los recursos logísticos y técnicos necesarios, mientras Werner Heisenberg asumía la dirección científica.

      After the war, Speer was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to twenty years in prison, primarily for his responsibility in the use of forced labor. He served his full sentence in West Berlin, spending most of it in Spandau Prison.

     After his release in 1966, he published two successful autobiographical works: Inside the Third Reich and Spandau: The Secret Diaries, which detailed his close relationship with Hitler and offered a unique perspective on the inner workings of the regime. He later wrote a third book, Infiltration, focusing on the paramilitary organization of the SS.

     Albert Speer died of natural causes in 1981 while visiting London.