Albert Speer Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer ( ; March 19 , 1905 – September 1 , 1981 ) was a German architect who was , for a part of World War II , Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich . Speer was Adolf Hitler ' s chief architect before assuming ministerial office . As " the Nazi who said sorry " , he accepted moral responsibility at the Nuremberg trials and in his memoirs for complicity in crimes of the Nazi regime . His level of involvement in the persecution of the Jews and his level of knowledge of the Holocaust remain matters of dispute . Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931 , launching him on a political and governmental career which lasted fourteen years . His architectural skills made him increasingly prominent within the Party and he became a member of Hitler ' s inner circle . Hitler instructed him to design and construct a number of structures , including the Reich Chancellery and the " Zeppelinfeld " stadium in Nuremberg where Party rallies were held . Speer also made plans to reconstruct Berlin on a grand scale , with huge buildings , wide boulevards , and a reorganized transportation system . In February 1942 , Hitler appointed Speer Minister of Armaments and War Production . Under his leadership , Germany ' s war production continued to increase despite considerable 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 his full sentence , most of it at Spandau Prison in West Berlin . Following his release from Spandau in 1966 , Speer published two bestselling autobiographical works , " Inside the Third Reich " and " " , detailing his often close personal relationship with Hitler , and providing readers and historians with a unique perspective on the workings of the Nazi regime . He later wrote a third book , " Infiltration " , about the SS . Speer died of natural causes in 1981 while on a visit to London . Early years . Speer was born in Mannheim , into an upper - middle - class family . He was the second of three sons of Albert and Luise Speer . In 1918 , the family moved permanently to their summer home Villa Speer on Schloss - Wolfsbrunnenweg , Heidelberg . According to Henry T . King , deputy prosecutor at Nuremberg who later wrote a book about Speer , " Love and warmth were lacking in the household of Speer ' s youth . " Speer was active in sports , taking up skiing and mountaineering . Speer ' s Heidelberg school offered rugby football , unusual for Germany , and Speer was a participant . He wanted to become a mathematician , but his father said if Speer chose this occupation he would " lead a life without money , without a position and without a future " . Instead , Speer followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and studied architecture . Speer began his architectural studies at the University of Karlsruhe instead of a more highly acclaimed institution because the hyperinflation crisis of 1923 limited his parents ' income . In 1924 when the crisis had abated , he transferred to the " much more reputable " Technical University of Munich . In 1925 he transferred again , this time to the Technical University of Berlin where he studied under Heinrich Tessenow , whom Speer greatly admired . After passing his exams in 1927 , Speer became Tessenow ' s assistant , a high honor for a man of 22 . As such , Speer taught some of Tessenow ' s classes while continuing his own postgraduate studies . In Munich , and continuing in Berlin , Speer began a close friendship , ultimately spanning over 50 years , with Rudolf Wolters , who also studied under Tessenow . In mid - 1922 , Speer began courting Margarete ( Margret ) Weber ( 1905 – 1987 ) , the daughter of a successful craftsman who employed 50 workers . The relationship was frowned upon by Speer ' s class - conscious mother , who felt that the Webers were socially inferior . Despite this opposition , the two married in Berlin on 28 August 1928 ; seven years were to elapse before Margarete Speer was invited to stay at her in - laws ' home . Nazi architect . Joining the Nazis ( 1930 – 1934 ) . Speer stated he was apolitical when he was a young man , and that he attended a Berlin Nazi rally in December 1930 at the urging of some of his students . He was surprised to find Hitler dressed in a neat blue suit , rather than the brown uniform seen on Nazi Party posters , and was greatly impressed , not only with Hitler ' s proposals , but also with the man himself . Several weeks later he attended another rally : this one was presided over by Joseph Goebbels . Speer was disturbed by the way Goebbels whipped the crowd into a frenzy . Despite this unease , Speer could not shake the impression Hitler had made on him . On March 1 , 1931 , he applied to join the Nazi Party and became member number 474 , 481 . Speer ' s first Nazi Party position was as head of the Party ' s motorist association for the Berlin suburb of Wannsee ; he was the only Nazi in the town with a car . Speer reported to the Party ' s leader for the West End of Berlin , Karl Hanke , who hired Speer — without fee — to redecorate a villa he had just rented . Hanke was enthusiastic about the resulting work . In 1931 , Speer surrendered his position as Tessenow ' s assistant because of pay cuts and moved to Mannheim , hoping to use his father ' s connections to get commissions . He had little success , and his father gave him a job as manager of the elder Speer ' s properties . In July 1932 , the Speers visited Berlin to help out the Party prior to the " Reichstag " elections . While they were there , Hanke recommended the young architect to Goebbels to help renovate the Party ' s Berlin headquarters . Speer , who had been about to leave with his wife for a vacation in East Prussia , agreed to do the work . When the commission was completed , Speer returned to Mannheim and remained there as Hitler took office in January 1933 . After the Nazis took control , Hanke recalled Speer to Berlin . Goebbels , the new Propaganda Minister , commissioned Speer to renovate his Ministry ' s building on Wilhelmplatz . Speer also designed the 1933 May Day commemoration in Berlin . In " Inside the Third Reich " , he wrote that , on seeing the original design for the Berlin rally on Hanke ' s desk , he remarked that the site would resemble a " Schützenfest " – a rifle club meet . Hanke , now Goebbels ' State Secretary , challenged him to create a better design . As Speer learned later , Hitler was enthusiastic about Speer ' s design ( which used giant flags ) , though Goebbels took credit for it . Tessenow was dismissive : " Do you think you have created something ? It ' s showy , that ' s all . " The organizers of the 1933 Nürnberg Nazi Party rally asked Speer to submit designs for the rally , bringing him into contact with Hitler for the first time . Neither the organizers nor Rudolf Hess were willing to decide whether to approve the plans , and Hess sent Speer to Hitler ' s Munich apartment to seek his approval . When Speer entered , the new Chancellor was busy cleaning a pistol , which he briefly laid aside to cast a short , interested glance at the plans , approving them without even looking at the young architect . This work won Speer his first national post , as Nazi Party " Commissioner for the Artistic and Technical Presentation of Party Rallies and Demonstrations " . Speer ' s next major assignment was as liaison to the Berlin building trades for Paul Troost ' s renovation of the Chancellery . As Chancellor , Hitler had a residence in the building and came by every day to be briefed by Speer and the building supervisor on the progress of the renovations . After one of these briefings , Hitler invited Speer to lunch , to the architect ' s great excitement . Hitler evinced considerable interest in Speer during the luncheon , and later told Speer that he had been looking for a young architect capable of carrying out his architectural dreams for the new Germany . Speer quickly became part of Hitler ' s inner circle ; he was expected to call on Hitler in the morning for a walk or chat , to provide consultation on architectural matters , and to discuss Hitler ' s ideas . Most days he was invited to dinner . The two men found much in common : Hitler spoke of Speer as a " kindred spirit " for whom he had always maintained " the warmest human feelings " . The young , ambitious architect was dazzled by his rapid rise and close proximity to Hitler , which guaranteed him a flood of commissions from the government and from the highest ranks of the Party . Speer testified at Nuremberg , " I belonged to a circle which consisted of other artists and his personal staff . If Hitler had had any friends at all , I certainly would have been one of his close friends . " First Architect of the Third Reich ( 1934 – 1939 ) . When Troost died on January 21 , 1934 , Speer effectively replaced him as the Party ' s chief architect . Hitler appointed Speer as head of the Chief Office for Construction , which placed him nominally on Hess ' s staff . One of Speer ' s first commissions after Troost ' s death was the " Zeppelinfeld " stadium — the Nürnberg parade grounds seen in Leni Riefenstahl ' s propaganda masterpiece " Triumph of the Will " . This huge work was able to hold 340 , 000 people . The tribune was influenced by the Pergamon Altar in Anatolia , but was magnified to an enormous scale . Speer insisted that as many events as possible be held at night , both to give greater prominence to his lighting effects and to hide the individual Nazis , many of whom were overweight . Speer surrounded the site with 130 anti - aircraft searchlights . This created the effect of a " cathedral of light " or , as it was called by British Ambassador Sir Neville Henderson , a " cathedral of ice " . Speer described this as his most beautiful work , and as the only one that stood the test of time . Nürnberg was to be the site of many more official Nazi buildings , most of which were never built ; for example , the German Stadium would have accommodated 400 , 000 spectators , while an even larger rally ground would have held half a million people . While planning these structures , Speer invented the concept of " ruin value " : that major buildings should be constructed in such a way that they would leave aesthetically pleasing ruins for thousands of years into the future . Such ruins would be a testament to the greatness of the Third Reich , just as ancient Greek or Roman ruins were symbols of the greatness of those civilizations . Hitler enthusiastically embraced this concept , and ordered that all the Reich ' s important buildings be constructed in accord with it . Speer could not avoid seeing the brutal excesses of the Nazi regime . Shortly after Hitler consolidated power in the Night of the Long Knives , Hitler ordered Speer to take workmen and go to the building housing the offices of Vice - Chancellor Franz von Papen to begin its conversion into a security headquarters , even though it was still occupied by von Papen ' s officials . Speer and his group entered the building , to be confronted with a pool of blood , apparently from the body of Herbert von Bose , von Papen ' s secretary , who had been killed there . Speer related that the sight had no effect on him , other than to cause him to avoid that room . When Hitler deprecated Werner March ' s design for the for the 1936 Summer Olympics as too modern , Speer modified the plans by adding a stone exterior . Speer designed the German Pavilion for the 1937 international exposition in Paris . The German and Soviet pavilion sites were opposite each other . On learning ( through a clandestine look at the Soviet plans ) that the Soviet design included two colossal figures seemingly about to overrun the German site , Speer modified his design to include a cubic mass which would check their advance , with a huge eagle on top looking down on the Soviet figures . Both pavilions were awarded gold medals for their designs . Speer would also receive , from Hitler Youth Leader and later fellow Spandau prisoner Baldur von Schirach , the Golden Hitler Youth Honor Badge with oak leaves . In 1937 , Hitler appointed Speer as with the rank of undersecretary of state in the Reich government . The position carried with it extraordinary powers over the Berlin city government and made Speer answerable to Hitler alone . It also made Speer a member of the " Reichstag " , though the body by then had little effective power . Hitler ordered Speer to make plans to rebuild Berlin . The plans centered on a three - mile long grand boulevard running from north to south , which Speer called the " Prachtstrasse " , or Street of Magnificence ; he also referred to it as the " North - South Axis " . At the north end of the boulevard , Speer planned to build the " Volkshalle " , a huge assembly hall with a dome which would have been over high , with floor space for 180 , 000 people . At the southern end of the avenue would be a huge triumphal arch ; it would be almost high , and able to fit the Arc de Triomphe inside its opening . The outbreak of World War II in 1939 led to the postponement , and eventual abandonment , of these plans . Part of the land for the boulevard was to be obtained by consolidating Berlin ' s railway system . Speer hired Wolters as part of his design team , with special responsibility for the " Prachtstrasse " . When Speer ' s father saw the model for the new Berlin , he said to his son , " You ' ve all gone completely insane . " In January 1938 , Hitler asked Speer to build a new Reich Chancellery on the same site as the existing structure , and said he needed it for urgent foreign policy reasons no later than his next New Year ' s reception for diplomats on January 10 , 1939 . This was a huge undertaking , especially since the existing Chancellery was in full operation . After consultation with his assistants , Speer agreed . Although the site could not be cleared until April , Speer was successful in building the large , impressive structure in nine months . The structure included the " Marble Gallery " : at 146 metres long , almost twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles . Speer employed thousands of workers in two shifts . Hitler , who had remained away from the project , was overwhelmed when Speer turned it over , fully furnished , two days early . In appreciation for the architect ' s work on the Chancellery , Hitler awarded Speer the Nazi Golden Party Badge . Tessenow was less impressed , suggesting to Speer that he should have taken nine years over the project . The second Chancellery was damaged by the Battle of Berlin in 1945 and was eventually dismantled by the Soviets , its stone used for a war memorial . During the Chancellery project , the pogrom of Kristallnacht took place . Speer would make no mention of it in the first draft of " Inside the Third Reich " , and it was only on the urgent advice of his publisher that he added a mention of seeing the ruins of the Central Synagogue in Berlin from his car . Speer was under significant psychological pressure during this period of his life . He would later remember : Wartime architect ( 1939 – 1942 ) . Speer supported the German invasion of Poland and subsequent war , though he recognized that it would lead to the postponement , at the least , of his architectural dreams . In his later years , Speer , talking with his biographer - to - be Gitta Sereny , explained how he felt in 1939 : " Of course I was perfectly aware that [ Hitler ] sought world domination . . . < nowiki > [ A ] < / nowiki > t that time I asked for nothing better . That was the whole point of my buildings . They would have looked grotesque if Hitler had sat still in Germany . All I " wanted " was for this great man to dominate the globe . " Speer placed his department at the disposal of the " Wehrmacht " . When Hitler remonstrated , and said it was not for Speer to decide how his workers should be used , Speer simply ignored him . Among Speer ' s innovations were quick - reaction squads to construct roads or clear away debris ; before long , these units would be used to clear bomb sites . As the war progressed , initially to great German success , Speer continued preliminary work on the Berlin and Nürnberg plans , at Hitler ' s insistence , but failed to convince him of the need to suspend peacetime construction projects . Speer also oversaw the construction of buildings for the " Wehrmacht " and " Luftwaffe " , and developed a considerable organization to deal with this work . In 1940 , Joseph Stalin proposed that Speer pay a visit to Moscow . Stalin had been particularly impressed by Speer ' s work in Paris , and wished to meet the " Architect of the Reich " . Hitler , alternating between amusement and anger , did not allow Speer to go , fearing that Stalin would put Speer in a " rat hole " until a new Moscow arose . When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 , Speer came to doubt , despite Hitler ' s reassurances , that his projects for Berlin would ever be completed . Minister of Armaments . Appointment and increasing power . On February 8 , 1942 , Minister of Armaments Fritz Todt died in a plane crash shortly after taking off from Hitler ' s eastern headquarters at Rastenburg . Speer , who had arrived in Rastenburg the previous evening , had accepted Todt ' s offer to fly with him to Berlin , but had canceled some hours before takeoff ( Speer stated in his memoirs that the cancellation was because of exhaustion from travel and a late - night meeting with Hitler ) . Later that day , Hitler appointed Speer as Todt ' s successor to all of his posts . In " Inside the Third Reich " , Speer recounts his meeting with Hitler and his reluctance to take ministerial office , only doing so because Hitler commanded it . Speer also states that Hermann Göring raced to Hitler ' s headquarters on hearing of Todt ' s death , hoping to claim Todt ' s powers . Hitler instead presented Göring with the " fait accompli " of Speer ' s appointment . At the time of Speer ' s accession to the office , the German economy , unlike the British one , was not fully geared for war production . Consumer goods were still being produced at nearly as high a level as during peacetime . No fewer than five " Supreme Authorities " had jurisdiction over armament production — one of which , the Ministry of Economic Affairs , had declared in November 1941 that conditions did not permit an increase in armament production . Few women were employed in the factories , which were running only one shift . One evening soon after his appointment , Speer went to visit a Berlin armament factory ; he found no one on the premises . Speer overcame these difficulties by centralizing power over the war economy in himself . Factories were given autonomy , or as Speer put it , " self - responsibility " , and each factory concentrated on a single product . Backed by Hitler ' s strong support ( the dictator stated , " Speer , I ' ll sign anything that comes from you " ) , he divided the armament field according to weapon system , with experts rather than civil servants overseeing each department . No department head could be older than 55 — anyone older being susceptible to " routine and arrogance " — and no deputy older than 40 . Over these departments was a central planning committee headed by Speer , which took increasing responsibility for war production , and as time went by , for the German economy itself . According to the minutes of a conference at " Wehrmacht " High Command in March 1942 , " It is only Speer ' s word that counts nowadays . He can interfere in all departments . Already he overrides all departments . . . On the whole , Speer ' s attitude is to the point . " Goebbels would note in his diary in June 1943 , " Speer is still tops with the " Führer " . He is truly a genius with organization . " Speer was so successful in his position that by late 1943 , he was widely regarded among the Nazi elite as a possible successor to Hitler . While Speer had tremendous power , he was of course subordinate to Hitler . Nazi officials sometimes went around Speer by seeking direct orders from the dictator . When Speer ordered peacetime building work suspended , the " Gauleiter s " ( Nazi Party district leaders ) obtained an exemption for their pet projects . When Speer sought the appointment of Hanke as a labor czar to optimize the use of German labor , Hitler , under the influence of Martin Bormann , instead appointed Fritz Sauckel . Rather than increasing female labor and taking other steps to better organize German labor , as Speer favored , Sauckel advocated importing labor from the occupied nations – and did so , obtaining workers for ( among other things ) Speer ' s armament factories , using the most brutal methods . On December 10 , 1943 , Speer visited the underground Mittelwerk V - 2 rocket factory that used concentration camp labor . Shocked by the conditions there ( 5 . 7 percent of the work force died that month ) , and to ensure the workers were in good enough shape to perform the labor , Speer ordered improved conditions for the workers and the construction of the above - ground Dora camp . In spite of these changes , half of the workers at Mittelwerk eventually died . Speer later commented , " < nowiki > [ t ] < / nowiki > he conditions for these prisoners were in fact barbarous , and a sense of profound involvement and personal guilt seizes me whenever I think of them . " By 1943 , the Allies had gained air superiority over Germany , and bombings of German cities and industry had become commonplace . However , the Allies in their strategic bombing campaign did not concentrate on industry , and Speer , with his improvisational skill , was able to overcome bombing losses . In spite of these losses , German production of tanks more than doubled in 1943 , production of planes increased by 80 percent , and production time for " Kriegsmarine " submarines was reduced from one year to two months . Production would continue to increase until the second half of 1944 , by which time enough equipment to supply 270 army divisions was being produced — although the " Wehrmacht " had only 150 divisions in the field . In January 1944 , Speer fell ill with complications from an inflamed knee , and was away from the office for three months . During his absence , his political rivals ( mainly Göring , and Martin Bormann ) , attempted to have some of his powers permanently transferred to them . According to Speer , SS chief Heinrich Himmler tried to have him physically isolated by having Himmler ' s personal physician Karl Gebhardt treat him , though his " care " did not improve his health . Speer ' s wife and friends managed to have his case transferred to his friend Dr . Karl Brandt , and he slowly recovered . In April , Speer ' s rivals for power succeeded in having him deprived of responsibility for construction , and Speer promptly sent Hitler a bitter letter , concluding with an offer of his resignation . Judging Speer indispensable to the war effort , Field Marshal Erhard Milch persuaded Hitler to try to get his minister to reconsider . Hitler sent Milch to Speer with a message not addressing the dispute but instead stating that he still regarded Speer as highly as ever . According to Milch , upon hearing the message , Speer burst out , " The " Führer " can kiss my ass ! " After a lengthy argument , Milch persuaded Speer to withdraw his offer of resignation , on the condition his powers were restored . On April 23 , 1944 , Speer went to see Hitler who agreed that " everything [ will ] stay as it was , [ Speer will ] remain the head of all German construction " . According to Speer , while he was successful in this debate , Hitler had also won , " because he wanted and needed me back in his corner , and he got me " . Fall of the Reich . Speer ' s name was included on the list of members of a post - Hitler government drawn up by the conspirators behind the July 1944 assassination plot to kill Hitler . The list had a question mark and the annotation " to be won over " by his name , which likely saved him from the extensive purges that followed the scheme ' s failure . By February 1945 , Speer , who had long concluded that the war was lost , was working to supply areas about to be occupied with food and materials to get them through the hard times ahead . On March 19 , 1945 , Hitler issued his Nero Decree , ordering a scorched earth policy in both Germany and the occupied territories . Hitler ' s order , by its terms , deprived Speer of any power to interfere with the decree , and Speer went to confront Hitler , telling him the war was lost . Hitler gave Speer 24 hours to reconsider his position , and when the two met the following day , Speer answered , " I stand unconditionally behind you . " However , he demanded the exclusive power to implement the Nero Decree , and Hitler signed an order to that effect . Using this order , Speer worked to persuade generals and " Gauleiters " to evade the Nero Decree and avoid needless sacrifice of personnel and destruction of industry that would be needed after the war . Speer managed to reach a relatively safe area near Hamburg as the Nazi regime finally collapsed , but decided on a final , risky visit to Berlin to see Hitler one more time . Speer stated at Nuremberg , " I felt that it was my duty not to run away like a coward , but to stand up to him again . " Speer visited the " Führerbunker " on April 22 . Hitler seemed calm and somewhat distracted , and the two had a long , disjointed conversation in which the dictator defended his actions and informed Speer of his intent to commit suicide and have his body burned . In the published edition of " Inside the Third Reich " , Speer relates that he confessed to Hitler that he had defied the Nero Decree , but then assured Hitler of his personal loyalty , bringing tears to the dictator ' s eyes . Speer biographer Gitta Sereny argued , " Psychologically , it is possible that this is the way he remembered the occasion , because it was how he would have liked to behave , and the way he would have liked Hitler to react . But the fact is that none of it happened ; our witness to this is Speer himself . " Sereny goes on to note that Speer ' s original draft of his memoirs lacks the confession and Hitler ' s tearful reaction , and contains an explicit denial that any confession or emotional exchange took place , as had been alleged in a French magazine article . The following morning , Speer left the " Führerbunker " , with Hitler curtly bidding him farewell . Speer toured the damaged Chancellery one last time before leaving Berlin to return to Hamburg . On April 29 , the day before committing suicide , Hitler dictated a final political testament which dropped Speer from the successor government . Speer was to be replaced by his own subordinate , Karl - Otto Saur . Nuremberg Trial . After Hitler ' s death , Speer offered his services to the so - called Flensburg Government , headed by Hitler ' s successor , Karl Dönitz , and took a significant role in that short - lived regime . On May 15 , the Americans arrived and asked Speer if he would be willing to provide information on the effects of the air war . Speer agreed , and over the next several days , provided information on a broad range of subjects . On May 23 , two weeks after the surrender of German troops , the British arrested the members of the Flensburg Government and brought Nazi Germany to a formal end . Speer was taken to several internment centres for Nazi officials and interrogated . In September 1945 , he was told that he would be tried for war crime s , and several days later , he was taken to Nuremberg and incarcerated there . Speer was indicted on all four possible counts : first , participating in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace , second , planning , initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace , third , war crimes , and lastly , crimes against humanity . U . S . Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson , the chief U . S . prosecutor at Nuremberg , alleged , " Speer joined in planning and executing the program to dragoon prisoners of war and foreign worker s into German war industries , which waxed in output while the workers waned in starvation . " Speer ' s attorney , Dr . Hans Flächsner , presented Speer as an artist thrust into political life , who had always remained a non - ideologue and who had been promised by Hitler that he could return to architecture after the war . During his testimony , Speer accepted responsibility for the Nazi regime ' s actions : An observer at the trial , journalist and author William L . Shirer , wrote that , compared to his codefendant s , Speer " made the most straightforward impression of all and . . . during the long trial spoke honestly and with no attempt to shirk his responsibility and his guilt " . Speer also testified that he had planned to kill Hitler in early 1945 by introducing tabun poison gas into the Führerbunker ventilation shaft . He said his efforts were frustrated by the impracticability of tabun and his lack of ready access to a replacement nerve agent , and also by the unexpected construction of a tall chimney that put the air intake out of reach . Speer stated his motive was despair at realising that Hitler intended to take the German people down with him . Speer ' s supposed assassination plan subsequently met with some scepticism , with Speer ' s architectural rival Hermann Giesler sneering , " the second most powerful man in the state did not have a ladder . " Speer was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity , though he was acquitted on the other two counts . On 1 October 1946 , he was sentenced to 20 years ' imprisonment . While three of the eight judges ( two Soviet and one American ) initially advocated the death penalty for Speer , the other judges did not , and a compromise sentence was reached " after two days ' discussion and some rather bitter horse - trading " . The court ' s judgment stated that : Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death ( including Bormann , in absentia ) and three acquitted ; only seven of the defendants were sentenced to imprisonment . They remained in the cells at Nuremberg as the Allies debated where , and under what conditions , they should be incarcerated . Imprisonment . On July 18 , 1947 , Speer and his six fellow prisoners , all former high officials of the Nazi regime , were flown from Nuremberg to Berlin under heavy guard . The prisoners were taken to Spandau Prison in the British Sector of what would become West Berlin , where they would be designated by number , with Speer given Number Five . Initially , the prisoners were kept in solitary confinement for all but half an hour a day , and were not permitted to address each other or their guards . As time passed , the strict regimen was relaxed , especially during the three months in four that the three Western powers were in control ; the four occupying powers took overall control on a monthly rotation . Speer considered himself an outcast among his fellow prisoners for his acceptance of responsibility at Nuremberg . Speer made a deliberate effort to make as productive a use of his time as possible . He wrote , " I am obsessed with the idea of using this time of confinement for writing a book of major importance . . . That could mean transforming prison cell into scholar ' s den . " The prisoners were forbidden to write memoirs , and mail was severely limited and censored . However , as a result of an offer from a sympathetic orderly , Speer was able to have his writings , which eventually amounted to 20 , 000 sheets , sent to Wolters . By 1954 , Speer had completed his memoirs , which became the basis of " Inside the Third Reich " , and which Wolters arranged to have transcribed onto 1 , 100 typewritten pages . He was also able to send letters and financial instructions , and to obtain writing paper and letters from the outside . His many letters to his children , all secretly transmitted , eventually formed the basis for " Spandau : The Secret Diaries " . With the draft memoir complete and clandestinely transmitted , Speer sought a new project . He found one while taking his daily exercise , walking in circles around the prison yard . Measuring the path ' s distance carefully , Speer set out to walk the distance from Berlin to Heidelberg . He then expanded his idea into a worldwide journey , visualizing the places he was " traveling " through while walking the path around the prison yard . Speer ordered guidebooks and other materials about the nations through which he imagined he was passing , so as to envisage as accurate a picture as possible . Meticulously calculating every meter traveled , and mapping distances to the real - world geography , he began in northern Germany , passed through Asia by a southern route before entering Siberia , then crossed the Bering Strait and continued southwards , finally ending his sentence 35 kilometers south of Guadalajara , Mexico . Speer devoted much of his time and energy to reading . Though the prisoners brought some books with them in their personal property , Spandau Prison had no library so books were sent from Spandau ' s municipal library . From 1952 the prisoners were also able to order books from the Berlin central library in Wilmersdorf . Speer was a voracious reader and he completed well over 500 books in the first three years at Spandau alone . He read classic novels , travelogues , books on ancient Egypt , and biographies of such figures as Lucas Cranach , Édouard Manet , and Genghis Khan . Speer took to the prison garden for enjoyment and work , at first to do something constructive while afflicted with writer ' s block . He was allowed to build an ambitious garden , transforming what he initially described as a " wilderness " into what the American commander at Spandau described as " Speer ' s Garden of Eden " . Speer ' s supporters maintained a continual call for his release . Among those who pledged support for Speer ' s sentence to be commuted were Charles de Gaulle , U . S . diplomat George Ball , former U . S . High Commissioner John J . McCloy , and former Nuremberg prosecutor Hartley Shawcross . Willy Brandt was a strong advocate of Speer ' s , supporting his release , sending flowers to his daughter on the day of his release , and putting an end to the de - Nazification proceedings against Speer , which could have caused his property to be confiscated . A reduced sentence required the consent of all four of the occupying powers , and the Soviets adamantly opposed any such proposal . Speer served his full sentence , and was released on the stroke of midnight as October 1 , 1966 began . Release and later life . Speer ' s release from prison was a worldwide media event , as reporters and photographers crowded both the street outside Spandau and the lobby of the Berlin hotel where Speer spent his first hours of freedom in over 20 years . He said little , reserving most comments for a major interview published in " Der Spiegel " in November 1966 , in which he again took personal responsibility for crimes of the Nazi regime . Abandoning plans to return to architecture ( two proposed partners died shortly before his release ) , he revised his Spandau writings into two autobiographical books , and later researched and published a third work , about Himmler and the SS . His books , most notably " Inside the Third Reich " ( in German , " Erinnerungen " , or " Reminiscences " ) and " Spandau : The Secret Diaries " , provide a unique and personal look into the personalities of the Nazi era , and have become much valued by historians . Speer was aided in shaping the works by Joachim Fest and Wolf Jobst Siedler from the publishing house Ullstein . Speer found himself unable to re - establish his relationship with his children , even with his son Albert , who had also become an architect . According to Speer ' s daughter Hilde , " One by one my sister and brothers gave up . There was no communication . " Following the publication of his bestselling books , Speer donated a considerable amount of money to Jewish charities . According to Siedler , these donations were as high as 80 % of his royalties . Speer kept the donations anonymous , both for fear of rejection , and for fear of being called a hypocrite . As early as 1953 , when Wolters strongly objected to Speer referring to Hitler in the memoirs draft as a criminal , Speer had predicted that were the writings to be published , he would lose a " good many friends " . This came to pass , as following the publication of " Inside the Third Reich " , close friends , such as Wolters and sculptor Arno Breker , distanced themselves from him . Hans Baur , Hitler ' s personal pilot , suggested , " Speer must have taken leave of his senses . " Wolters wondered that Speer did not now " walk through life in a hair shirt , distributing his fortune among the victims of National Socialism , forswear all the vanities and pleasures of life and live on locusts and wild honey " . Speer made himself widely available to historians and other enquirers . He did an extensive , in - depth interview for the June 1971 issue of " Playboy " magazine , in which he stated , " If I didn ' t see it , then it was because I didn ' t want to see it . " In October 1973 , Speer made his first trip to Britain , flying to London under an assumed name to be interviewed on the BBC " Midweek " programme by Ludovic Kennedy . Upon arrival , he was detained for almost eight hours at Heathrow Airport when British immigration authorities discovered his true identity . The Home Secretary , Robert Carr , allowed Speer into the country for 48 hours . While in London eight years later to participate in the BBC " Newsnight " programme , Speer suffered a stroke and died on September 1 , 1981 . Speer had formed a relationship with a German - born Englishwoman , and was with her at the time of his death . Even to the end of his life , Speer continued to question his actions under Hitler . In his final book , " Infiltration " , he asks , " What would have happened if Hitler had asked me to make decisions that required the utmost hardness ? . . . How far would I have gone ? . . . If I had occupied a different position , to what extent would I have ordered atrocities if Hitler had told me to do so ? " Speer leaves the questions unanswered . Legacy and controversy . The view of Speer as an unpolitical " miracle man " is challenged by Yale historian Adam Tooze . In his 2006 book , " The Wages of Destruction " , Tooze , following Gitta Sereny , argues that Speer ' s ideological commitment to the Nazi cause was greater than he claimed . Tooze further contends that an insufficiently challenged Speer " mythology " ( partly fostered by Speer himself through politically motivated , tendentious use of statistics and other propaganda ) had led many historians to assign Speer far more credit for the increases in armaments production than was warranted and give insufficient consideration to the " highly political " function of the so - called armaments miracle . Architectural legacy . Little remains of Speer ' s personal architectural works , other than the plans and photographs . No buildings designed by Speer in the Nazi era remain in Berlin ; a double row of lampposts along the Strasse des 17 . Juni designed by Speer still stands . The tribune of the " Zeppelinfeld " stadium in Nuremberg , though partly demolished , may also be seen . Speer ' s work may also be seen in London , where he redesigned the interior of the German Embassy to the United Kingdom , then located at 7 – 9 Carlton House Terrace . Since 1967 , it has served as the offices of the Royal Society . His work there , stripped of its Nazi fixtures and partially covered by carpets , survives in part . Another legacy was the " Arbeitsstab Wiederaufbau zerstörter Städte " ( Working group on Reconstruction of destroyed cities ) , authorized by Speer in 1943 to rebuild bombed German cities to make them more livable in the age of the automobile . Headed by Wolters , the working group took a possible military defeat into their calculations . The " Arbeitsstab " ' s recommendations served as the basis of the postwar redevelopment plans in many cities , and " Arbeitsstab " members became prominent in the rebuilding . Actions regarding the Jews . As General Building Inspector , Speer was responsible for the Central Department for Resettlement . From 1939 onward , the Department used the Nuremberg Laws to evict Jewish tenants of non - Jewish landlords in Berlin , to make way for non - Jewish tenants displaced by redevelopment or bombing . Eventually , 75 , 000 Jews were displaced by these measures . Speer was aware of these activities , and inquired as to their progress . At least one original memo from Speer so inquiring still exists , as does the " Chronicle " of the Department ' s activities , kept by Wolters . Following his release from Spandau , Speer presented to the German Federal Archives an edited version of the " Chronicle " , stripped by Wolters of any mention of the Jews . When David Irving discovered discrepancies between the edited " Chronicle " and other documents , Wolters explained the situation to Speer , who responded by suggesting to Wolters that the relevant pages of the original " Chronicle " should " cease to exist " . Wolters did not destroy the " Chronicle " , and , as his friendship with Speer deteriorated , allowed access to the original " Chronicle " to doctoral student ( who , after obtaining his doctorate , developed his thesis into a book , " Albert Speer : The End of a Myth " ) . Speer considered Wolters ' actions to be a " betrayal " and a " stab in the back " . The original " Chronicle " reached the Archives in 1983 , after both Speer and Wolters had died . Knowledge of the Holocaust . Speer maintained at Nuremberg and in his memoirs that he had no knowledge of the Holocaust . In " Inside the Third Reich " , he wrote that in mid - 1944 , he was told by Hanke ( by then " Gauleiter " of Lower Silesia ) that the minister should never accept an invitation to inspect a concentration camp in neighbouring Upper Silesia , as " he had seen something there which he was not permitted to describe and moreover could not describe " . Speer later concluded that Hanke must have been speaking of Auschwitz , and blamed himself for not inquiring further of Hanke or seeking information from Himmler or Hitler : Much of the controversy over Speer ' s knowledge of the Holocaust has centered on his presence at the Posen Conference on 6 October 1943 , at which Himmler gave a speech detailing the ongoing Holocaust to Nazi leaders . Himmler said , " The grave decision had to be taken to cause this people to vanish from the earth . . . In the lands we occupy , the Jewish question will be dealt with by the end of the year . " Speer is mentioned several times in the speech , and Himmler seems to address him directly . In " Inside the Third Reich " , Speer mentions his own address to the officials ( which took place earlier in the day ) but does not mention Himmler ' s speech . In 1971 , American historian Erich Goldhagen published an article arguing that Speer was present for Himmler ' s speech . According to Fest in his biography of Speer , " Goldhagen ' s accusation certainly would have been more convincing " had he not placed supposed incriminating statements linking Speer with the Holocaust in quotation marks , attributed to Himmler , which were in fact invented by Goldhagen . In response , after considerable research in the German Federal Archives in Koblenz , Speer said he had left Posen around noon ( long before Himmler ' s speech ) in order to journey to Hitler ' s headquarters at Rastenburg . In " Inside the Third Reich " , published before the Goldhagen article , Speer recalled that on the evening after the conference , many Nazi officials were so drunk that they needed help boarding the special train which was to take them to a meeting with Hitler . One of his biographers , Dan van der Vat , suggests this necessarily implies he must have still been present at Posen then , and must have heard Himmler ' s speech . In response to Goldhagen ' s article , Speer had alleged that in writing " Inside the Third Reich " , he erred in reporting an incident that happened at another conference at Posen a year later , as happening in 1943 . In 2005 , the " Daily Telegraph " reported that documents had surfaced indicating that Speer had approved the allocation of materials for the expansion of Auschwitz after two of his assistants toured the facility on a day when almost a thousand Jews were murdered . The documents supposedly bore annotations in Speer ' s own handwriting . Speer biographer Gitta Sereny stated that , due to his workload , Speer would not have been personally aware of such activities . The debate over Speer ' s knowledge of , or complicity in , the Holocaust made him a symbol for people who were involved with the Nazi regime yet did not have ( or claimed not to have had ) an active part in the regime ' s atrocities . As film director Heinrich Breloer remarked , " [ Speer created ] a market for people who said , ' Believe me , I didn ' t know anything about [ the Holocaust ] . Just look at the " Führer ' s " friend , he didn ' t know about it either . Notes . Explanatory notes Citations References . Online sources