Watched over by a yellow Easter chick, I have in recent days once again been reading Albert Speer’s Memoirs. Speer was Hitler’s long-serving Minister of Armaments. As an architect, he was also tasked with realizing Hitler’s grandiose building projects, such as the Reich Chancellery and the unreal domed hall in Berlin.
“The Führer loved everything colossal,” he writes. “A building was not merely to be a place to be in, but to convey ideas, visions, and the message of the Führer’s greatness.”
Speer was 25 years old when, in 1930, he had the opportunity to hear Hitler deliver a lecture on architecture. The experience made a deep impression on him, and shortly afterward he joined the Nazi Party. Their personal relationship developed later, especially after 1933, when Hitler seized power.
At first, Speer received several minor commissions, but over time they became dizzyingly large. His breakthrough came in Nuremberg, where he was given responsibility for designing the setting for the Nazis’ great party rallies. The massive stands and rigorously organized spaces gathered tens of thousands of people into a carefully choreographed community.
