Albert Speer

A thematic study of the reception of the Pantheon considered in relation to the: (1) Spread of Religious Tolerance, (2) Birth of Modern Science and Medicine, (3) Rise of Democratic Government, (4) Public Museum, (5) Public Library, (6) Neoclassicism & the Sublime. F. L. Wright, L. Kahn, Asplund, Th. Jefferson, Cret, Schinkel, Boullée, Lequeu, Speer, Gondoin, Legeay, Godefroy, Ramée, McKim, Meade & White.

Unlike many other publications on Nazi culture, this book is not primarily about what has been called "the Nazification of the arts," based upon state-supported use of the arts  for propaganda, a curtailment of freedom in art criticism, and the political and legal Gleichschaltung, "the forcing into conformity" under a hierarchical, dictatorial leadership (Führerprinzip) of all aspects of the various branches of national and local government, the civil service, education, public finance, business, the professions, and the arts.  To complement earlier studies of Gleichschaltung, the essays in this anthology explore the underlying beliefs of the Nazi racist state as they were developed and propagated in various fields of artistic activity.

"Rom-Berlin" is a historical study that investigates the competitive relationship between Nazi Germany and fascist Italy in the field of architecture between 1936 and 1942. Written in Italian, it presents the results of the archive research carried out in Berlin, Munich, and Rome from May 2019 to March 2020.

This article considers the involvement of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. It considers the form, function, and content of the Italian Pavil- ion designed for this fair and asserts that the prefabricated monumental structure would be best interpreted, not in isolation, but as an element of the larger architec- tural conversation which continued to unfold across contemporary fascist Europe. Such reconsideration of this building makes it possible to evaluate the relationship between Fascist design, the assertion of political will, and the articulation of national identity and cultural heritage within a larger, transnational context. The author also investigates the American exhibition committee’s earnest and persistent, yet ultimate- ly unheeded, solicitation of Nazi German participation and argues that motives be- hind German withdrawal from this event had as much to do with the threat of popular protest as economic pressure.

This article assesses the development of Ian Hamilton Finlay's concrete and post-concrete aesthetics from his contact with Brazil's Noigandres poets in 1962 until his late-1970s correspondence with the architect and former Nazi minister Albert Speer. It considers Finlay's work over this period, from early-1960s concrete poems evoking a private realm of formal order to counterfactual renderings of the same works on neoclassical and Third Reich architecture. The second half of the essay offers a reading of A Walled Garden, Finlay and Ian Gardner's study of Speer's garden on the grounds of Spandau prison. The article posits a gradual awakening of Finlay's sense of the ideological quality of aesthetic judgement, culminating in works that ask troubling questions about the relationship between the socially unifying work of concretist aesthetics and the social repression and violence of Nazism.

Öz Ankara Sergi Evi'nde 31 Ocak-15 Şubat 1943 tarihleri arasında açılan Yeni Alman Mimarisi Sergisi, II. Dünya Savaşı'nda açılan sergilerden biriydi. Sergi, büyüklüğü ve basında önemli bir yer edinmesi nedeniyle diğer sergilerden farklı olmuştu. Almanya'nın Ankara Büyükelçisi Franz von Papen öncülüğünde gerçekleştirilen sergiye çok sayıda Türk yetkili, yabancı diplomatik temsilci ve basın mensubu katılmış, bu da serginin ilgi çekmesini sağlamıştı. Savaşta Alman mimari inşaatı durdurulduğu halde ve (bir kısmı) taslak halindeki projeler olmasına rağmen propaganda amacıyla Nazi Almanya'sının " büyük gücü " propaganda yoluyla sergilenmeye çalışılmıştı. Türk basınında çıkan yazıların çoğunluğunda Alman mimarisinin " ihtişamına " ve mimarlarına büyük övgüler kaleme alınmıştı. Türkiye' de sadece mihver devletler değil müttefik devletler de propaganda yoluyla Türk Hükümetini ve kamuoyunu etkilemeye çalışmıştı. Nitekim İngiltere de 1944 yılında önce Ankara ardından da İstanbul' da İngiliz mimari sergisini açmıştı. Alman mimarisine yapılan övgülerin benzeri bu kez İngiliz mimarisi için yapılmıştı. Dolayısıyla Türkiye nasıl savaş ortamında aktif tarafsızlık politikası izlemişse, Türk basını da benzer bir politika izlemişti. Makalede, Nazi Almanya'sı büyük yenilgiler aldığı halde mimari eserleri nasıl bir propaganda aracına dönüştürdüğü değerlendirilmeye çalışılmıştır. Ayrıca Türk basınının Yeni Almanya Mimari Sergisi'ne bakışı ve propagandayı nasıl algıladığı, ne tür tepkiler verdiğine odaklanılmıştır. Abstract The New German Architectural Exhibition opened in Ankara Exhibition House between 31st January and 15th February 1943 was one of the exhibitions opened during the World War II. This exhibition occupied a distinctive place on the public agenda due to its size and effect in media in that date. A great number of Turkish authorities, foreign diplomatic representatives and the journalists attended the exhibition, which was opened with the great efforts, and leading role of German Ambassador in Ankara, Franz von Papen and such a situation caused the exhibition to attract attention. Even though the civil architectural and engineering works stopped completely in Germany during the War and some of the projects were draft and incomplete, they tried to be exhibited to give the impression of Nazi Germany's " great power " with the aim of propaganda. In Turkey's press, great praises were presented in writings towards the magnificence and architects of German architecture. Not only axis powers but also allied powers tried to attract the attention of Turkish Government and public agenda in Turkey using propaganda methods. As the result of such attempts, UK in 1944 opened exhibitions on English architecture in Ankara first and then in Istanbul. Similar praises spent for German architecture were also presented to that

Albert Speer (1905–1981) undoubtedly occupies a special position in architectural history; his biography differs from that of all other 20th-century architects. The importance we attribute to him today is due not primarily to his work as an architect but to his role as one of the leading protagonists of the National Socialist regime, about which he spoke as a firsthand witness after World War II.
The new, comprehensive, modestly illustrated biography Albert Speer. Eine deutsche Karriere, is by Magnus Brechtken, the deputy director of the Munich Institut für Zeitgeschichte and a professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.
Magnus Brechtken has produced a superbly researched and brilliantly written biography. Thanks to intensive use of archival material, he not only succeeds in unmasking the remaining myths about Albert Speer, but also in deconstructing the disastrous influence of the Speer memoirs and biographies. One can only hope that more architectural historians will follow Brechtken’s methodological example and pursue a similarly critical approach. He sets standards not only for critically investigating an architect’s life and work from a contemporary ‘Täterforschung’ perspective; his biography also is an important lesson in critically revising architectural history, especially oral history, by scrutinizing memoirs and self-portrayals.

“Phantom heritage”, that is the long-term impact of landscapes altered by manipulation and lies, is discussed using the example of Thingstätten, huge open-air theatres built in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1937. They hosted quasi-religious rituals and highly stylized theatre productions, called Thingspiele, using cutting edge mass theatre technology. At Goebbels behest and following a concept designe invented by the Nazi´s star architect  Albert Speer, around 40 of these venues, which were based on a “Völkisch” concept  developed by right wing ideologs at the end of the 19th century, were built and “consecrated” between 1934 and 1937. They hosted religiously charged mass events involving literally casts of thousands, including marching and singing actors, armatures and involved spectators. The architecture of these arenas, their “sacred” positions in a mystical “Germanic” landscapes, their coupling with war memorials and the spectacles shown in them were designed to heroize the “martyrs” of past wars and rally the population for the Nazi´s ideology and martial goals. Ambitious designs embedded them into vast “sacred” landscapes celebrating the Nazis’ concept of blood and soil. Although these vast venues only flourished for 3 years before Goebbels abandoned the somewhat anarchic Thingspiel concept for more easily managed propaganda events, most of them still exist and many are still in use, particularly to host pageants and rock concerts. In a few  cases, there has been a clear continuity in their function as venues for political  agitation and  memorials to war heroes up to this day.
This paper focusses on typical and spectacular examples which include the seminal „Reich´s Thanksgiving Site” on the Bückeberg in Lower Saxony, the spectacular Thingstätte on the  Heiligenberg which towers over Heidelberg, the Wakldbühne embedded in the Olympic “Reichssportfeld” in Berlin and the Upper Silesian Thingstätte on the Góra Świętej Anny. 
As Thingstätten, which are now increasingly threatened by development and decay, are coming into the focus of heritage management, they are also being rediscovered and used as rallying points by radical right-wing movements. Once deserted and forgotten these  phantoms are threatening to awake.

I propose to use dictatorial urbanisms as an analytical opportunity to delve into some concealed features of modern urban design and planning. The chapter explores the political-spatial nexus of totalitarianism from a theoretical standpoint, focusing on the development of totalitarian planning mentalities and spatial rationalities and drawing links to other historical episodes in order to inscribe the former in a broader genealogy of urbanism. Needless to say, I don’t suggest that we use dictatorships as mere templates to understand modern productions of space. Instead, these cases provide a crude version of some fundamental drives in the operationalization of urbanism as an instrument of social regulation, showing how far the modern imagination of sociospatial orderings can go. Totalitarian urbanisms constituted a set of experiences where many dreams and aspirations of modern planning went to die. But not, as the conventional account would have it, because the former were the antithesis of the latter, but rather because they worked as the excess of a particular orientation of modern spatial governmentalities — namely, their focus on calculation, social engineering and disciplinary spatialities, and their attempt to subsume a wide range of everyday practices under institutional structuration by means of spatial mediations.
Keywords: totalitarian urbanism, European dictatorships, urban order, national-socialism, fascism, stalinism, Francoism

El presente trabajo es un análisis de la arquitectura que Albert Speer realizó durante el Tercer Reich. Ubicándose en el estilo neoclásico, se estudia la relación entre las construcciones planificadas en esta época y los proyectos políticos de Hitler, que irán de la mano en muchos casos. En este sentido, se profundiza en la relación entre el arquitecto y el dictador, dando cuenta de que ambos trabajaron conjuntamente en los proyectos arquitectónicos y de que, en aquel tiempo, la arquitectura se utilizó como herramienta política. Entonces, se hace un recorrido histórico por las principales construcciones y proyectos que el dictador y el arquitecto realizaron y se exponen algunas de las teorías políticas y arquitectó- nicas que planificaron juntos. En la parte final, se analiza la visión que Hitler tenía de la política como «el mayor arte de todos» para entender por qué se sirvió de todas las artes (pintura, escultura, arquitectura y cine, entre otras) para completar y otorgar sentido a su proyecto político.

Da che parte possiamo entrare nello spazio urbano di una città? Da qualunque parte vogliamo. Possiamo accedere dalle porte principali, dagli accordi autostradali, dalle stazioni ferroviarie, dalle navette che troviamo a disposizione all'uscita di un aeroporto, da alcune vie secondarie o semplicemente scendendo a una fermata dell'autobus, così come, in modo un po' più furtivo e nascosto, tramite la rete fognaria o attraverso il circuito che seguono i rifiuti dal nostro appartamento fino alla discarica. Possiamo seguire il flusso di persone, di merci o di informazioni che si muovono, si ri-producono e si elaborano in un agglomerato urbano o anche individuare la rete elettrica, quella idrica e quella delle telecomunicazioni che vanno ad alimentare ininterrottamente le nostre città e intenderle come vie d'ingresso e di uscita. Entrare significa superare una soglia che delimita e definisce qualcosa, determinandone l'inizio e la fine: dovremmo in un certo senso chiederci dove inizia e dove finisce una città e quindi, in ultima istanza, trovare una risposta al nostro interrogarci su che cosa sia una città. Ma non è questa la nostra chiave di ingresso. Oggi più che mai, nell'epoca delle grandi metropoli, chiedersi dove possa iniziare una città da 37 milioni di abitanti come Tokyo o da 21 milioni come Città del Messico non fa che amplificare l'incapacità di una domanda come questa di descrivere la realtà: non è solo una questione di grandezze, ma il fatto è che si ha a che fare con una soglia che è sempre nel suo emergere, nel suo divenire. Vi è una sorta di divenire-città delle cose, come tra la vespa e l'orchidea, in una continua de-territorializzazione e ri-territorializzazione, de-codificazione e ri-codificazione dello spazio urbano che non risponde alla logica dell'è ma alla logica a cerniera dell'e…e…e… del sillogismo disgiuntivo: abbiamo molto più probabilmente a che fare con un rizoma.

Martin Mettin empfiehlt die Vorlesungen des Berliner Religionsphilosophen Klaus Heinrich. Dessen Interesse galt der Frage, wie aus dem Kunstsubjekt des aufstrebenden Bürgertums das zugerichtete Veranstaltungssubjekt im Nationalsozialismus werden konnte.

Connecting post-imperial studies to ruin studies, The Conquest of Ruins reconstructs and analyzes the Roman Empire’s afterlife as Western Europe’s history of neo-Roman mimesis. Each moment in the long European history of imitating Rome, from Charles V to the Nazi empire, generated its own mimetic practices as well as a vast body of texts reflecting on the history and theory of Roman and neo-Roman empires. The Romans’ monumentalizing empire-making and theatricality of politics pre-structured later imitations. These moments of neo-Roman mimesis created the ancient empire as the ultimate expression of imperial power. At the same time, they also produced a never-ending series of scenes about Roman ruins. The first of these ruin scenarios originated with the Romans’ conquest of Carthage. Constructing the ancient Roman metropole as a ruined stage, these scenes thematize the enigma of Rome’s fall. They also define empire’s time as eschaton or endtime and raise the question about how to ward off the end. Operating in this endtime, political leaders, imperial theorists, and artists went in search of strategies to fortify their empires. The book traces this obsession with the Roman empire’s ruinous end from Augustus to Hitler, Polybios to Carl Schmitt, Virgil to Riefenstahl, and Roman to Nazi architecture. The author combines intellectual history with literary/visual and psychoanalytic methods of analysis concerning identification as Besetzung/occupation and the nexus of visuality, power and desire. She proposes a model of imperial mimesis and the neo-Roman imaginary and analyzes the theatrical form of ruin scenarios across different textual and visual media. She also develops a notion of realism proper to the political aesthetics of neo-Roman empires. This notion is based on the ruin’s absent presence and mimesis as a mode of representation that demands both recognition and imitation.

Nowadays, the extreme right political movements resurgence, whose success is partly consequence of some manifestations that could be considered as performative, are increasing in Europe. Employing a staging attitude to make them known, these skills are clearly used as tools into a provocative show. In this regard, these conducts could be related to The National Socialism regime manifestation of power, among other events that took place one century ago in Europe. It should be also referred the use of art as both communication and manipulation tool regarding their political discourse. It is striking to find that these situations are taking place at present in democratic countries. This paper proposes a revision on the III Reich aesthetics, referring to some cultural elements that were used to design its own appearance. In order to do this, they deconstructed and denigrated the fragmentary components from the previous avant-garde art, to construct their new totalitarian reality.

En la actualidad, Europa asiste al resurgimiento de movimientos políticos de ultraderecha cuyo éxito se debe, en parte, a una suerte de manifestaciones que podrían considerarse performáticas. Un modo de darse a conocer
utilizando la puesta en escena, con herramientas propias del espectáculo provocativo. Estas conductas podrían relacionarse con las manifestaciones de poder del régimen nacionalsocialista hace un siglo en Europa. A ello hay
que añadir la utilización del arte como herramienta de comunicación y manipulación para organizar su discurso. Que este tipo de actuaciones sucedan en la actualidad en países supuestamente democráticos llama poderosamente la atención. Este artículo presenta una revisión de cómo el
III Reich se valió de la estética y de la referencia a determinados elementos culturales para construir su apariencia. Para ello, desmontaron y denigraron
los componentes fragmentarios del arte de vanguardia previo, para erigir su nueva realidad totalitaria.

Anche nei suoi fallimenti, Hobbes resta un incomparabile maestro politico. Non c'è altro filosofo i cui concetti abbiano avuto tanta efficacia, quantunque questa si sia contemporaneamente ripercossa in negativo sul suo sistema di pensiero. Così si conclude la sua prestazione-che ci è oggi comprensibile e che continua a essere fruttuosa-, la prestazione cioè del grande maestro in lotta contro tutti i tipi di potere indiretto (come quello della Chiesa, della piccola "politica di partito e locale" o quello delle Organizzazioni Non Governative, o quello di tutte le consorterie fatte di "conoscenze" e "raccomandazioni"). Soprattutto ora, nei cinque secoli che quest'opera ha attraversato, viene alla luce, nei suoi chiari lineamenti, l'immagine di questo grande pensatore politico, e si può sentire l'autentico suono della sua voce. Per il suo secolo, Hobbes ha detto di se stesso, pieno di amarezza: «doceo, sed frustra». Nel periodo seguente, benché raramente menzionato per nome, fu il vero denominatore spirituale della concezione dello Stato dell'Europa continentale. I suoi concetti sono penetrati fin dentro lo Stato «di leggi» dell'Ottocento, ma la sua immagine del Leviatano è rimasta un mito spaventoso, e le sue formulazioni più vitali sono decadute a slogan. Oggi comprendiamo l'intatta forza della sua polemica, capiamo l'intima dirittura del suo pensiero e amiamo quello spirito sicuro che ha pensato fino in fondo e senza timore la paura esistenziale degli uomini e che, come un vero prómachos, ha distrutto le torbide sottigliezze dei poteri indiretti. Così, Hobbes è per noi l'autentico maestro di una grande esperienza politica; solitario, come ogni pioniere; misconosciuto, come chiunque non riesca a realizzare il proprio pensiero politico all'interno del proprio popolo; non ricompensato, come chi apre una porta attraverso la quale poi passano altri; e tuttavia, nell'immortale comunità dei grandi sapienti di tutti i tempi, «a sole retriever of an ancient prudence». E al di sopra dei secoli gli gridiamo: «non jam frustra doces, Thomas Hobbes!».

Die Architektur des Nationalsozialismus bietet – gemessen an der Planungswut der Machthaber – einen bemerkenswert geringen Output an tatsächlich errichteten Bauten. Nicht zu Unrecht ist daher auf die propagandistische Rolle der NS-Architektur in Papier- und Modellform hingewiesen worden: Renommierte Fotografen wurden beauftragt, Modellfotos und Aufnahmen gebauter Denkmälern anzufertigen, um sie in Fachzeitschriften und ideologisch motivierten Prachtbänden zu publizieren. Diese Film- und Fotoaufnahmen sind noch heute Teil einer jeden TV-Dokumentation im Spartenfernsehn. In wissenschaftlichen Aufbereitung, aber auch in der allgemeinen Populärkultur nehmen zudem inzwischen virtuelle 3D-Rekonstruktionen eine immer größer werdende Stellung ein, ohne dass die Implikationen vollständig durchdacht wurden.
Der Vortrag zielt daher auf zwei sich ergänzende Fragestellungen ab: Einerseits soll die Rolle der in verschiedenen analogen Medien publizierten Modelle vergleichend hinterfragt werden und welchen Stellenwert – bzw. in der historischen Perspektive propagandistische Absichten – man ihnen zugestehen muss; hier bietet sich beispielsweise der Vergleich mit Léon Kriers hochumstrittener Speer-Monografie von 1985 an. Andererseits soll der Bogen zur Methode der virtuellen Rekonstruktion, auch in ihrem Einsatz in der populärwissenschaftlichen Aufbereitung, geschlagen werden. Neben der durchaus diskutablen Frage, ob es moralisch legitim ist, die politische Kulissenarchitektur des Dritten Reiches derart zu überhöhen, stellt sich die methodische Frage nach der Veranschaulichung von Zeitschnitten. Da besonders die städtebaulichen Großplanungen einem stetigen und schnellen Wandel unterworfen waren, ist die Frage, welche un-gebauten Zustände visualisiert werden sollen, naheliegend. Darin liegt jedoch zugleich eine große Chance dieser Aufbereitung: Neben der allgemeinen Erschließbarkeit eröffnen frei wählbare, polyperspektivische Blickwinkel zusätzliche Betrachtungsebenen und tragen so zu einem maßgeblich erweiterten Erkenntnisgewinn bei.

For the first time, the history and use of civil aerial photography in Germany is addressed.
Based on the question of the origins of a collection of aerial photographs associated with Hitler's favorite architect and minister, Albert Speer, this historical publication examines civil aerial photography in Germany. It covers a wide range of topics, from the beginnings of balloon photography in the 1880s, to the establishment of private companies in the interwar period, to the National Socialist appropriation. In addition to the historical reappraisal with a focus on the activities around the Hansa Luftbild company, the publication also takes a comprehensive look at the motivation of the clients in terms of the history of knowledge as well as the implementation in various fields of application in business, art and science.

Erstmals werden die Geschichte und die Verwertung des zivilen Luftbildes in Deutschland behandelt.
Aus dem Rätsel um den Ursprung einer in Verbindung mit Hitlers bevorzugtem Architekten und Minister Albert Speer stehenden Luftbildsammlung heraus untersucht die fotografiehistorische Publikation das zivile Luftbildwesen in Deutschland. Sie spannt hierbei einen Bogen auf von den Anfängen der Ballonfotografie in den 1880er Jahren über die Etablierung der privaten Unternehmen in der Zwischenkriegszeit bis hin zur nationalsozialistischen Vereinnahmung. Neben der historischen Aufarbeitung mit Fokus auf den Aktivitäten rund um das Unternehmen Hansa Luftbild widmet sich die Publikation erstmals auch wissenshistorisch umfangreich der Motivation der Auftraggeber sowie der Umsetzung in diversen Anwendungsgebieten in Wirtschaft, Kunst und Wissenschaft.

Après la recension en mars 2013 de l'Histoire de l'armement du colonel Ailleret, voici un deuxième volet consacré à un ouvrage tout aussi classique paru en 1950.  Il traite des rapports complexes entre l'art militaire et la technique, étudiant les modifications survenues en cinquante ans - entrecoupés de deux guerres mondiales – dans les circonstances matérielles et politiques des conflits.

pdf includes 3 reviews: Meredith Gill in Renaissance Quarterly 59 (Fall 2006); Suzy Ford in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 66 (June 2007); and Joseph P. Byrne in The Sixteenth Century Journal 38 (Spring 2007).  Also see Evonne Levy, review September 9, 2009.  http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/1318

En este texto hago referencia a un conjunto de afirmaciones que, una vez finalizada la Segunda Guerra Mundial, hizo sobre su situación en el Tercer Reich Albert Speer, el
arquitecto de Hitler. El núcleo de esta serie de afirmaciones es el término “autoengaño”. Valiéndome de las palabras de Speer, quisiera destacar un rasgo que, a mi modo de ver,
acompaña el proceso del autoengaño: la impostura. Hago con ello énfasis en que el autoengaño tiene lugar, con frecuencia, en un contexto del que participan los demás. Intento mostrar de qué modo, la manera como la presencia de los otros puede constituirse en audiencia para el autoengañado ofrece las condiciones para que el autoengaño sea más o menos notorio, más o menos fácil.

Bu eser metni çalışmasının amacı, "Renk Kataloğu" isimli eserin kavramsal çerçevesini oluşturmak, görsel propagandanın 20. yüzyıldaki seyrinin sanat tarihiyle ilişkisini incelemek, gelişen dijital görüntü kaydetme teknolojileri ve internetle ortaya çıkan yeni propaganda yöntemlerinde renk kullanımını vaka ve verilere dayanarak araştırmak, propaganda materyallerinde kullanılan renklerin uluslararası siyaset sahnesinde yaşanan gelişmelerin etkisiyle yüklendikleri yeni sembol ve motif değerlerini ortaya koymaktır. Çalışmanın "Propaganda ve Savaş" isimli ikinci bölümünde modern propaganda kurumlarının doğuşu, örgütlenme ve çalışma mekanizmaları, modern görsel propagandanın Birinci Dünya Savaşı, İkinci Dünya Savaşı ve İkinci Körfez Savaşı'ndaki örnekleri ve niteliği incelenmiş ve propaganda metodolojilerindeki ve söylemlerindeki kimi dönüşümler ortaya konmuştur. Bu dönemlerde yaşananların ele alınışında, bugüne kadar üretilen akademik çalışmaların ort...

Maya, il velo ingannatore, che avvolge gli occhi dei mortali e fa loro vedere un mondo del quale non può dirsi né che esista, né che non esista; perché ella rassomiglia al sogno, rassomiglia al riflesso del Sole sulla sabbia, che il pellegrino da lontano scambia per acqua; o anche rassomi glia alla corda gettata a terra che egli prende per un serpente" (Schopenhauer, "Il Mondo come Volontà e Rappresentazione"). I mass-media sono stati creati e poi sviluppati per essere utilizzati come formidabili strumenti di propaganda, come cassa di risonanza di decisioni prese al vertice.