Did Albert Speer really buy the Germans an extra year of fighting? How did he do that?
By designing some really cool shit
>>348387
>>348390
>>348392
What could have been...
I highly recommend his book "Inside the Third Reich" if this topic interests you. He discusses certain Allied descriptions of him as being the most important man in the entire Reich for keeping the war machine running.
>>348387
>>348390
>>348392
>>348395
Why do people, even non-Nazi sympathizers, think Albert Speer's designs are hot shit?
They look bland and boring as fuck.
>>348487
They do very well what they are meant to do, which is to project pure undiluted power.
>>348383
He simply copied what the Allies were doing.
The Third Reich is portrayed as some monstrous militarized war economy, but up till 1943, they were nowhere near the level of mobilization that the Allies were (the Germans devoted 43% of their domestic product to the war economy, the Brits did something like 65%). The Germans, the retards, thought they could sustain a two front war on partial mobilization. The reason for this was a) up to 1941, all victories had been swift and b) Hitler's promise to the German people that there would be no repeat of the shortages of the First World War, the German economy would not be wrekt.
What Speer did was put German industry on a proper war footing, this was why production was going up through 1943-44 even as the Allies were bombing all their factories flat, they were getting more efficient.
Fucking homo
>>348383
He bought Germany three years.
In January-Febuary1942 when he took over the armaments minister position he went on a fact finding mission. Between Todt's notes and investigation he discovered Germany had enough material for half a year more fighting. He found factories in Berlin on half days, some even shut down, Officials were stealing with Hitler's back turned to the war.
He put everything back online and implored Hitler to permit the wholesale recruitment of women to work the reopened factories. This would be an expensive process of training millions of unskilled labourers. Fritz Sauckel, who wanted one thing only, Hitler's approval made the suggestion that the factories could be staffed with foreign labor already trained. Hitler oked it. Speer protested it. He admired the policy of the US and the UK's recruitment of women and wanted it badly for Germany.
Hitler being a traditionalist, did not budge. He gave him an ultimatum: take the workers or don't.
Speer being a loyal party member, Hitler's closest friend and wanting to win the war, took the labour and because he was doing the monumental take of quadrupling German war production in the midst of the RAF and USAAF bombing, he needed more and more laborers. Meaning Sauckal would go out and turn recruitment drives into slave labor.
Still, despite this Speer really did not like the idea of having foreigners working the factories. For him it was a stopgap measure for when he went to Joseph Goebbels and even Hermann Goering, sat them down and explained the war in numbers. Goering was idle about it but Goebbels was scared shitless and together, Goebbels and Speer spent 1942 convincing Hitler to go into a total war mode which only occurred after the disaster of Stalingrad and Hitler ran off to hide for almost 5 months. Between Speer running the economy and the Wehrmacht and Manstein having a free hand over the Eastern front, things were looking good. Then Hitler came back and ordered Kursk.
>>348383
if only hitler could have gotten a stroke in 1938 right after naming Speer his heir.
the world would look a lot better.
>>348493
Also, he was the first to think about something like "ruin value".
>>348672
Wat dat
>>348680
Buildings that would fall into aesthetic disrepair, like classical ruins.
>>348539
good read, thanks
>>348493
This. I've never seen any of Speer's designs IRL, but in general Fascist architecture is something awe inspiring. This is where the court is located in Milan, walking under it makes you feel small and insignificant before the might of the State like nothing else
Albert Speer was the only good nazi desu
>>348765
Looks like a giant block with some slits.
Uninspiring. It's not really projecting the majestic aura of the state at all.
"Albert Speer was one of God's great children." - Lars von Trier, film director, artiste
>>348911
If you haven't stood in front of it you cannot understand, and Roccoco doesn't look mighty or majestic at all, just frivolous
>>348911
Of all the things nazi germany was going for, majestic was not one of them.
>>348765
dope af
>>348539
Between 1942-1943 Speer had gone from sort of a joke -Hitler's architect friend planning out giant models of Germania, to arguably the second most powerful man in the Nazi political party. This jump was not well received by some of the more psychotic schemers. Most notable of which was Heinrich Himmler, who plotted to murder Speer on several occassions. Once Speer fell ill and found himself with Himmler and a physician standing over his bedside, pleading to "treat" him. Speer, still ill put on his bravest face and told Himmler thanks but no thanks, he was on the mend now. Whether it is a real attempt on his life is debatable but Speer seemed certain.
The top brass of the Nazi party could be best summed up as a bitchfest. Everyone was backstabbing everyone to get Hitler's ear. But there was one notable incident where Goebbels, Speer, Goering and even Himmler banded together in an attempt to subdue the growing influence Martin Bormann had over Hitler. It was a fragile alliance at best.
Martin Bormann was a bad influence on Hitler, but he was no fool and picked his ally well. In his corner stood the 6'7 hulking Austrian recently promoted to head of the RSHA Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Kaltenbrunner, who lost his pupil Adolf Eichmann to Himmler and Heydrich and never forgot the betrayal. Playing a dumb drunk, Kaltenbrunner gathered up all the SS men the exclusive Heydrich/Himmler club looked over. Himmler promoted Kaltenbrunner to head of the RSHA and subsequently started losing his power at a phenomenal rate. By the end of the war Himmler was more terrified of Kaltenbrunner finding out he was negotiating then he was of Hitler.
Bormann and Kaltenbrunner broke the alliance up soundly. The only one forgiven was Speer because he was a personable dude. The rest spent the rest of the war under surveillance. Kaltenbrunner also ended up aiding Speer in the defiance of the Nero Decree. All the historical Austrian cultural relics were saved by him.
>>348392
It would have been a big strategic bombing target.
>>348383
Improving the efficiency of 3rd Reich factories. Germany wasnt at his full power until 1944
>>348911
OSTENTATIOUS
>>348505
>The Germans, the retards, thought they could sustain a two front war on partial mobilization
No, they didn't think so, it's just war got prolonged. Germans thought that they will pull off that blitzkrieg shit once again but Russians hardly but managed to hold it til allies finally decided to join in.
>>348475
Tfw we studied Speer in high school. Probably one of the most competent of all nazi leadership
>>348383
Not really. About half of his "rationalization" was canceling R&D and funneling those resources into production, and the other half was accounting tricks to make the production figures look higher.
And it had marginal actual effectiveness, because he didn't handle the personnel side of things. Gunther Rall's memoirs talk about how after Speer "Rationalized" things, his unit got new shipments of 109s that they had nobody to fly, and when they got bombed on the ground, he didn't count it as any great loss.
It was too little, too late.
>>348383
socialistic policies left huge inefficiencies in their industrial base. he worked around these to try and eliminate them
>>348911
>this what happens when your currency hyperinflates
