1 Der Prozeβ gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichtshof. Nürnberg 14 November 1945-1 Oktober 1947, vol. 16 (Nuremberg 1948), 475-647 (hereafter IMT).

2 A. Speer, Erinnerungen (Frankfurt 1969).

3 A. Reif (ed.), Albert Speer. Kontroversen um ein deutsches Phänomen (Munich 1978); M. Schmidt, Albert Speer: Das Ende eines Mythos. Speers wahre Rolle im Dritten Reich (Bern 1982).

4 C. Dipper, `Der Speer-Legende zweiter Teil' in Neue Politische Literatur, 41 (1996), 193-5.

5 See, for example, U. Schlie, `Albert Speer und das Dritte Reich' in idem (ed.), Albert Speer. 'Alles was ich weiβ'. Aus unbekannten Geheimdienstprotokollen vom Sommer 1945 (Munich 1999), 243-84, esp. 278-84.

6 IMT, vol. 16, 530-3; IMT, vol. 41, 417-42, 490-4, 497-507.

7 Printed in Reif, op. cit., 218-22, see esp. 221.

8 D. van der Vat, Der gute Nazi. Albert Speers Leben und Lügen (Berlin 1997), 289-356.

9 G. Sereny, Das Ringen mit der Wahrheit. Albert Speer und das deutsche Trauma (Munich 1995), 529-627.

10 J.C. Fest, Speer. Eine Biographie (Berlin 1999), 299-381.

11 The parallels between Fest's biography of Speer and Speer's Erinnerungen, which was Fest's most important source, are evident for this period. Fest, who spent two years helping Speer write his Erinnerungen (Speer, op. cit., 527; van der Vat, op. cit., 493-7; Fest, op. cit., 441) can in no way substantiate his claim to have been a `distanced chronicler' (Fest, 364). A political biography of Speer which considers the position of historical research at that time and thereby satisfies scientific standards has still to be written.

12 For contemporary press reviews of Fest's biography of Speer, see J. Fest, `Speer—Hitlers unglückliche Liebe', interview in Rheinischer Merkur, no. 42 (October 1999), 8. Positive reviews: R. Rietzler, `Seele verkauft', Der Spiegel, 20 September 1999, 264f; A. Pfeiffer, `Des Teufels Lieblingsarchitekt', Stuttgarter Zeitung, 29 October 1999. Negative reviews: N. Frei, `Nachgelernt Schuld', Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 12 October 1999; V. Ullrich, `Die Speer-Legende', Die Zeit, 23 September 1999, 51f; N. Berg, `Die Zukunft der Vergangenheit', Badische Zeitung, 30 October 1999.

13 BA (Federal Archive of Germany), R 3/1537, Memorandum of 18 March 1945, 2-6.

14 IMT, vol. 16, 531-52, esp. 545ff.

15 Speer, op. cit., 527.

16 U. Herbert, Fremdarbeiter. Politik und Praxis des `Ausländer-Einsatzes' in der Kriegswirtschaft des Dritten Reiches (Bonn 1999); K. Orth, Das System der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Eine politische Organisationsgeschichte (Hamburg 1999), 48, 80, 168-72, 243-8; M. Zimmermann, `Arbeit in den Konzentrationslagern. Kommentierende Bemerkungen' in U. Herbert, K. Orth and C. Dieckmann (eds), Die nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Entwicklung und Struktur, vol. II (Göttingen 1998), 730-51.

17 Hitler's order of 16 September 1944 quoted in H. Schwendemann, `Strategie der Selbstvernichtung: die Wehrmachtführung im “Endkampf” um das Dritte Reich' in R.-D. Müller and H.-E. Volkmann (eds), Die Wehrmacht. Mythos und Realität (Munich 1999), 224-44, esp. 228f.

18 IMT, vol. 16, telex from Speer to Bormann, 15 September 1944, 417-20; BA R 3/1623, letter from Speer to the Gauleiters in the west, 16 September 1944, delivered by Bormann `on behalf of the Führer', 53/R.

19 BA, R 3/1535, Memorandum of 30 January 1945, `Zur Rüstungslage Februar-März 1945'.

20 BA, R 3/1623a, memo of Speer of 7 March 1945, 18-23, esp. 18-19.

21 Ibid., 19-20.

22 Speer, op. cit., 242.

23 E. Fröhlich (ed.), Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil 2 Diktate 1941-1945, vol. 15: Januar-April 1945 (Munich 1995), entries of 14 March 1945, 500f and of 15 March 1945, 511.

24 Speer, op. cit., 444f.

25 BA, R 3/1623a, 28/R, Circular by Speer, 15 March 1945, re order of transport for evacuations, 28/R in M. Moll (ed.), 'Führer-Erlasse' 1939-1945 (Stuttgart 1997), Doc. 392, 485.

26 BA, R 3/1623a, memo from Speer, 7 March 1945, 22.

27 BA, R 3/1623a, Circular by Bormann, 19 March 1945, re evacuation in the west, 42f.

28 Schwendemann, op. cit., 236-41.

29 BA, NS 19/2606, note of 22 January 1945, 46.

30 BA, R 3/1623a, Communication from the Reich Ministry of the Interior (Jacobi) to Speer, 24 January 1945, 8, containing a copy of a circular from the Reich Ministry of the Interior (Stuckhardt) of 22 January1945 to the Reich Defence Commissars of East Prussia, Danzig-West Prussia, the Wartheland, Lower Silesia, Upper Silesia, Pommerania, Mark Brandenburg, Sudetenland. Speer had already issued a similar edict in July 1944: BA, R 3/1623, Speer's edict of 26 July 1944 re retransfer from the east, 3f.

31 Speer claims in his memoirs to have taken photos of the refugees and shown them to Hitler in the hope that he `might arouse his sympathy'. Hitler, however, had `vigorously pushed [the photos] away. Speer, op. cit., 430.

32 BA, R 22/3372, Report from the Provincial High Court President and the Public Prosecutor in Kattowitz, Neisse, to Reich Minister of Justice Thierack, 1 February 1945, 302R.

33 The list of priorities for rail transport had been drawn up at the beginning of March; the `Führer order' had yet to be issued: P.E. Schramm (ed.), Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht 1940-1945, vol. IV/2, entry for 6 March 1945, 1150.

34 Speer, op. cit., 430, 441.

35 Hitler edict on the formation of a transport headquarters of 18 February 1945 in `Führer-Erlasse', Doc. 388, 481f.

36 Speer, op. cit., note 5, 581f.

37 Printed in Ursachen und Folgen. Vom deutschen Zusammenbruch 1918 und 1945 bis zur staatlichen Neuordnung Deutschlands in der Gegenwart. Eine Urkunden- und Dokumentensammlung zur Zeitgeschichte, vol. 22 (Berlin 1975), 528-31, esp. 530.

38 BA, R 2/1623a, draft of an order of 15 March 1945 re measures for destruction in one's own country, 31-3.

39 H. Guderian, Erinnerungen eines Soldaten (Stuttgart 1995), 384; IMT, vol. 41, Guderian's statement at Nuremberg, 10 May.1945, 510-14; Speer, op. cit., 442.

40 IMT, vol. 16, Speer's memorandum to Hitler, 15 March 1945, on the economic situation in March-April 1945 and the consequences, 420-5.

41 Ibid., 422, 425.

42 Speer, op. cit., 442.

43 According to Hitler's Lufwaffe adjutant, von Below, in his memoirs: N. von Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937-45 (Mainz 1980), 405.

44 Speer, op. cit., 443.

45 Testimony by Speer, IMT, vol. 16, 547; testimony by Annemarie Kempf, ibid., 503.

46 von Below, op. cit., 404f.

47 Speer, op. cit., 443-5.

48 BA R 3/1537. Handwritten on the cover — presumably by Speer's secretary — `Memorandum of 18 March 1945'. The memo's heading, `Albert Speer Berlin W 8 18 March 1945' is almost exactly the same as that of the memorandum of 15 March 1945: `Albert Speer Berlin, 15 March 1945'.

49 G. Janssen, Das Ministerium Speer. Deutschlands Rüstung im Krieg (Berlin 1968), 310f.

50 Schmidt, op. cit., 20; van der Vat, op. cit., 478f, 574.

51 Speer attempted to play down Janssen's study in Spandau (letter from Speer to Wolters, 28 October 1964 in Schmidt, op. cit., 20) and `concealed' it in a footnote in his memoirs. Speer, op. cit., 542, note 6.

52 Schmidt had not seen the memorandum himself, but used Janssen as his source: Schmidt, op. cit., 152, note 71.

53 Eichholtz printed the memorandum of 15 March 1945 in its entirety, but only mentioned the one of 18 March in a footnote. D. Eichholtz, Geschichte der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft 1939-1945, vol. 3: 1943-1945 (Berlin 1996), 662, note 212.

54 Speer's letter to Hitler of 29 March, printed in IMT, vol. 41, 425, here 427; Speer's testimony at Nuremberg: IMT, vol. 16, 546f; Speer, op. cit., 442-5.

55 Sereny, op. cit., 561. Fest also refers to this version of events. Fest, op. cit., 338.

56 Guderian, op. cit., 374.

57 Schwendemann, op. cit., 232-6.

58 Speer repeated this in his letter to Hitler of 29 March 1945, in IMT, vol. 41, 428.

59 Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 15, entries for 28 March 1945, 619f and 31 March 1945, 643.

60 The authenticity of this quote is verified in Speer's letter to Hitler of 29 March 1945. IMT, vol. 41, 428.

61 Führer-Erlasse, Doc. 394, 486f.

62 BA/MA, RM 7/102, Hitler's order (signed by Keitel) of 21 March 1945 to the Wehrmacht leadership, 99f; RH 2/334, note from the Commander-in-Chief of the reserve army of 26 March 1945, concerning the transfer of the reserve training units behind the western and eastern fronts, Aktion Leuthen, 27.

63 IMT, vol. 41, Speer to Hitler, 29 March 1945, 426.

64 Speer had told Goebbels on 14 March that Hitler himself had emphasized in Mein Kampf with regard to the first world war `that there is no place in the politics of war for leading the people to a heroic downfall'. Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 15, entry for 14 March 1945, 501.

65 For a chronological list of Speer's activities against the `Nero order' up to 30 March 1945, about which there are almost only later statements, see Eichholtz, Geschichte der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft, vol. 3, 664-7.

66 BA, R 3/1624, Schwerin von Krosigk to Speer, 29 March 1945, 6.

67 Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 15, entry for 28 March 1945, 619f; Speer, op. cit., 457-9.

68 IMT, vol. 41, letter from Speer to Hitler of 29 March 1945, 425-9; Annemarie Kempf's testimony, 505; IMT, vol. 16, Speer's testimony, 550.

69 Ibid., 429.

70 The comparison between Speer's letter and the quotations in his memoirs shows that in the final passage he suppressed those testimonies which were not sympathetic to him, and did not indicate where he had made omissions, so that the sense was distorted. Speer, op. cit., 459.

71 Ibid., 460.

72 Ibid., 460f.

73 Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 15, entry for 31 March 1945, 643.

74 IMT, vol. 41, enforcement decree of Hitler of 31 March 1945, 433f; Speer's enforcement regulations for the Führer decree of 30 March 1945 re measures for paralysis and destruction, 435-7.

75 BA, R 3/1623a, memo of Speer, 30 March 1945, 75.

76 Speer, op. cit., 440.

77 IMT, vol. 41, 433.

78 Because — according to what Speer told the Ruhr staff — there were `too many guns' but at the same time not enough munitions, two-thirds of the entire iron quota would be used in the manufacture of munitions and only one third in the production of weapons and tanks. BA, R 3/1623a, memo of Speer, 7 March 1945, 21f.

79 The corresponding orders can be found in BA, R 3/1623a, 130-40.

80 BA, R 58/976, Bormann to Kaltenbrunner, 4 April 1945, 117.

81 Others included W. Naasner, Neue Machtzentren in der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft 1942-1945. Die Wirtschaftsorganisation der SS, das Amt des Generalbevollmächtigen für den Arbeitseinsatz und das Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition/Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem (Boppard 1994), 188-96.

82 K.-D. Henke, Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands (Munich 1995), 429-35, esp. 432.

83 Schwendemann, op. cit., 232-44.

84 Printed in B. and H. Heiber (eds), Die Rückseite des Hakenkreuzes. Absonderliches aus den Akten des Dritten Reiches (Munich 1993), 396f.

85 Speer, op. cit., 479-89; edited by Fest, 360-9.

86 Speer already maintained in summer 1945 when interrogated that he had practised `active resistance' against Hitler since January 1945; Schlie, op. cit., 74; see also Speer, op. cit., 409f.

87 Janssen, op. cit., 267-92; Naasner, op. cit., 183-8; Eichholtz, Geschichte der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft, op. cit., vol. 3, 49f, 79f; R.-D. Müller, `Albert Speer und die Rüstungspolitik im totalen Krieg' in Das Deutsche Reich und der zweite Weltkrieg, vol. 2: Organisation und Mobilisierung des deutschen Machtbereichs, 2. Halbbd.: Kriegsverwaltung, Wirtschaft und personelle Ressourcen 1942-1944/45, 275-773, here 744-73. The conversations between Goebbels and Speer during this period, which are documented in Goebbels' diaries (vols 13 and 14), show that, despite their rivalry, both were the most important protagonists of `total war'. See, for example, Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 13, entry for 3 September 1944, 398f; vol. 14, entry for 1 December 1945, 308f.

88 Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 14, entry for 2 December 1944, 321, 329f; W.A. Boelcke (ed.), Deutschlands Rüstung im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Hitlers Konferenzen mit Albert Speer 1942-1945 (Frankfurt 1969); memo of Speer, 5 November 1944, conversations with the Führer, 1-4 November 1944, 431.

89 The various memoranda of the second half of 1944 are located in the BA under catalogue number R 3/1518-1530.

90 BA, R 3/1553, text of Speer's speech to the Gauleiters on 3 August 1944, 87-132; R 3/1556; main points for a lecture by Reichsminister Speer to the members of the Reich cabinet, 3-5; ibid., Speer's appeal in December 1944 `to the makers of German armaments!', 137-9; R 3/1557, Speer's speech to the third course of commanding generals and corps commanders on 13 January 1945, 144-80; see also Naasner, op. cit., 182-9 and Müller, op. cit., 753-73.

91 According to Hitler the borders of this area — which was to be defended in all circumstances — should be the Somme to the west, the alps to the south, southern Norway to the north and in the east along the front between the Baltic and the Carpathian mountains, including parts of Hungary. Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 13, entry for 22 August 1944, 290.

92 Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 15, entry for 4 January 1945, 58. On 12 January 1945 he again told Goebbels that he saw '1945 as being not too unfavourable': ibid., entry for 12 January 1945, 111.

93 BA, R 3/1621, Speer to Guderian, 15 December 1944, 4; Boelcke, op. cit., 427f; BA, R 3/1532, Speer's memorandum about the fuel situation, 19 January 1945, 12-19; G. Wagner (ed.), Lagevorträge des Oberbefehlshabers der Kriegsmarine vor Hitler 1939-1945 (Munich 1972), 637f.

94 According to Speer's memorandum of 19 January 1945 it was a question of a monthly production of 15,000 tonnes of petrol (22 per cent of Germany's monthly production of petrol) and 8000 tonnes of diesel (11 per cent).

95 Schwendemann, op. cit., 236-41.

96 According to the agreement between Speer and Goebbels of 30 January 1945. Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 15, entry for 30 January 1945, 271f.

97 Speer conceals this in his memoirs, ibid., 441. Speer had explained to the commanding generals and corps commanders `that I spend a great deal of my time at division headquarters, with the corps, with the armies. Contact between the front and the armaments [ministry] in the homeland cannot be short enough. I hope that I will soon meet one or other of you on my travels and find out about your concerns directly at the front.' BA, R 3/1557, Speer's speech of 13 January 1945, 144f. For Speer's travels to the front: BA R 3/1545, Reichminister Speer's journey to the Eastern Front in January 1945; Centre for the preservation of historical documentary collections, Moscow, 1275-2-288, record of the commander-in-chief of the second army, Weiss, of 25 January 1945; telephone conversation between Weiss and Himmler of 25 January 1945, 104; Goebbels-Tagebücher, entry for 31 January 1945, 283.

98 B. Martin, `Die deutsche Kapitulation: Versuch einer Bilanz des Zweiten Weltkrieges' in Freiburger Universitätsblätter, 130 (1995), 45-70, here 52-5; idem, `Verhandlungen über separate Friedenschlüsse 1942-1945. Ein Beitrag zur Entstehung des Kalten Kreiges' in Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen, 1976, 95-113; H. Stehle, `Deutsche Friedensfühler bei den West-mächten im Februar/März 1945', VfZ, 30, 1982, 538-55.

99 Goebbels-Tagebücher, entry for 31 January 1945, 271, and 1 February 1945, 290. A number of nazi leaders had hoped that Goebbels would be able to persuade Hitler to adopt a `political solution'. For details of January 1945: ibid., entries for 28 January 1945, 250ff, 257, and 31 January 1945, 284; Goebbels' memorandum for a special peace deal with the Soviet Union of 21 September 1944 in Goebbels-Tagebücher, vol. 13, 536-42.

100 Schwendemann, op. cit., 232-44.

101 BA, R 3/1625, Speer to Schwerin von Krosigk, 15 May 1945, 25f; Fest, op. cit., 373f.

`Drastic Measures to Defend the Reich at the Oder and the Rhine...': A Forgotten Memorandum of Albert Speer of 18 March 1945

Abstract

Get full access to this article