Albert Speer

Albert Speer was arguably the dominant political figure in the German Reich during the 1950s and 1960s, at least in the public eye. From an upper middle class Wurtemberger family with a history of architecture, Speer joined the Nazi party in the early 1930s and was involved in redesigning the Reich Chancellery, something that brought him into close contact with Hitler. By 1936 Speer was a member of Hitler´s informal political circle even though his only official position was as the Nazi Party´s Chief of Construction. It is unclear exactly how and when Speer became involved in the 1936 Action, but he was one of the Nazi party members who continued to serve in the Emergency government. He was appointed Chief Building Inspector in 1937 (an office he had been scheduled to assume under the Nazis), although most of the major construction projects he had been planning to work on were postponed or cancelled - instead he found himself working on expansions of state-owned infrastructure to facilitate new factories. In 1942 he was made Minister for Industry, and in 1945 he was made Foreign Minister after von Neurath, another ex-Nazi, retired.

Speer´s chief achievement as foreign minister was the 1947 Aachen conference when he played a major role in publicly announcing the goal of European unity and working behind the scenes to encourage other countries to sign on. He is still considered one of the "founding fathers" of the Europabund and is more personally associated with it than any other politician, even moreso than Goerdler, the Chancellor at the time. Goerdler and Speer were close, and when Goerdler retired in 1948 Speer also resigned. He was hoping to replace Goerdler as Chancellor, but was thought to be too young, and was instead made Ambassador to Paris.

In Paris Speer was an effective ambassador, and spent a lot of time gathering ideas for future architectual improvements to Berlin. He retired as Ambassador in 1954, and spent a year in private life before being offered the Chancellor´s office in 1955.

Speer´s main passion project as Chancellor was the modernisation of Berlin to become a capital city for Europe, and potentially for the whole world. However his Chancellorship saw several crises, including the Romanian pogroms and the Icelandic missile crisis. He was a strong advocate of the German space program.

While he was a popular and effective Chancellor, ultimately Speer fell out with the *camarila*. When von Krosigk, the head of state, chose to retire in 1970, Speer planned to become head of state in his place and to govern from the Wilhelmstrasse, presumably with one of his political proteges as Chancellor. This did not at all fit with the *camarila*´s vision, and in the power struggle that ensued, Speer had the weaker hand. While exactly what happened beyond closed doors was unknown, it is widely said that he was offered the head of state´s role, but only with a very strict agreement that he would refrain from making any public statements on political issues. Unwilling to trade the Chancellor´s office for the politically neutered office of head of state, he chose to remain as Chancellor. However, a combination of lingering resentment and personal lack of motivation led him to resign a few months later, to be replaced by his War Minister, Henning von Tresckow. Speer has gone into business with his son´s architecture firm, Speer & Speer, who are working on renovating Humbolt university´s main buildings.