Mixing archive footage and interviews with Speer’s children and contemporaries, Hitler’s Henchmen – Speer – The Architect, is the sixth and final part of a documentary series based on the book, Hitler’s Henchmen by Guido Knopp.
The documentary shows the faith that Hitler placed in Speer:
In January 1934 Troost died. Speer, who had not yet designed a single building, became the First Architect of the Führer – a phenomenal rise to power.
I was aware of Speer’s role as Hitler’s architect for Welthauptstadt Germania, having visited the Schwerbelastungskörper (the testing stone for the foundations of Hitler’s triumphal arch) and seen the model of the Große Halle (Great Hall) at the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum).
It was learning of Speer’s role as Armaments Minister, a position he assumed in 1942 after the suspicious death of Fritz Todt in a plane crash, that surprised me.
Hitler’s Henchmen – Speer – The Architect
After all his years of megalomanic plans and bulldozing, apparently the only buildings of his design that survived in Berlin are the handful of small tunnel entrance buildings around the Siegessaule.