Speer

Hitler's Architect

Kitchen Martin

In his best-selling autobiography, Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and chief architect of Nazi Germany, repeatedly insisted he knew nothing of the genocidal crimes of Hitler's Third Reich. In this revealing new biography, author Martin Kitchen disputes Speer's lifelong assertions of ignorance and innocence, portraying a far darker figure who was deeply implicated in the appalling crimes committed by the regime he served so well. Kitchen reconstructs Speer's life with what we now know, including information from valuable new sources that have come to light only in recent years, challenging the portrait presented by earlier biographers and by Speer himself of a cultured technocrat devoted to his country while completely uninvolved in Nazi politics and crimes. The result is the first truly serious accounting of the man, his beliefs, and his actions during one of the darkest epochs in modern history, not only countering Speer's claims of non-culpability but also disputing the commonly held misconception that it was his unique genius alone that kept the German military armed and fighting long after its defeat was inevitable.

About the Author

Martin Kitchen is professor emeritus of history at Simon Fraser University and the author of numerous books on European and German history. He lives in British Columbia.

Reviews

"This judicious and important book offers the best critical synthesis of Albert Speer's life and his role in the Third Reich, and will undoubtedly become the standard text on Speer in English" – Jan Vermeiren, co-editor of "History"

"Eloquently written, incisively argued and impressively researched, Martin Kitchen's sober account of Albert Speer, who was perhaps closer to Adolf Hitler than any other man, shows beyond doubt the architect's involvement in the expropriation of Berlin's Jews and the exploitation of slave labour. Kitchen also reconstructs the outrageous alibi that Speer, assisted by admiring historians and journalists, provided after the war, namely that Hitler was singularly at fault for betraying the idealism of so many Germans. In this remarkable book, Kitchen reaches the opposite conclusion: it was the mirage of decency, competence and intelligence that made ambitious conspirators such as Speer so dangerous" – Peter Fritzsche, author of "Life and Death in the Third Reich"

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