Albert Speer Essay Example

thus caused. It was Speer who signed the eviction and demolition orders. Van der Vat is a mostly reputable source but his early life in Nazi controlled Holland damages his objectivity. Despite that, robbing 75,000 people of their homes and sending them to Poland or forcing them into labour camps is a clear negative impact. Becoming Armaments minister in 1942 gave Speer the chance to have a massive impact on his time period through sweeping economic reforms. Firstly Speer utilised the captured Polish factories, protecting his industries from allied bombardment. Secondly Speer eliminated any cosmetic and unnecessary designs or extra modifications to equipment as well as banning lacquering and polishing of weapons.

Finally Speer transformed the German industrial sector into a mirror of a construction site, with increased specialisation massively boosting the efficiency of the German war effort. Historians say that Speer prolonged the war by at least a year; an impressive feat, one worth being called the “miracle of German War production” but since Germany did not win prolonging the war only meant another 1. 5 million Germans dead. Definitely not a positive impact. Despite this Speer was the one of the few to stand up to Hitler and disobey his scorched earth policy.

If German industry had been destroyed the Wirtschaftswunder or economic miracle would never have taken place. This was a period of rapid reconstruction and development for West Germany and resulted in it becoming the most prosperous economy in Europe by 1955. An example of this industry not being in place could have been seen in East Germany. Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union wanted 20 billion reichmarks from

Germany as reparations but the US denied him. Thus Stalin was left to extract his own reparations from Soviet controlled East Germany. Economically destroying East Germany and leaving it far behind the West in terms of development.

Millions died from starvation a fate which Albert Speer save West Germany from. However new information has arisen which show many of the Reich ministers where already standing against Hitler’s scorched earth policy, showing that even his positive impacts are lies. Without Speer’s voluntary confession the prosecution against the other Nazi officials would have fallen flat. It’s more than likely that the Nazi’s would have been killed anyway but without the legitimacy of the court remaining loyalists would have struck out against the occupying Allies.

Also Speer’s self condemnation separated stories of the Holocaust from other allied propaganda and proved to the still technocratic German population about the folly of leaving their morals behind and embracing progress. Speer also loyal served his sentence, accepting the 20 year sentence, and got straight to work once he was released. By stopping any chance for a second wind Nazi regime Speer gave Germany time to heal and gather allies for the Cold War which was still to come.

However information has been released from the old soviet restricted archives which support Mattius Schmidt’s view that "We have no choice but to call Speer's writings the most cunning apologia of any leading figure of the Third Reich. "The young historian Schmidt used this new information to revolutionise histories view of Speer. Albert Speer, the man who killed millions, saved millions more, lied to save his own neck and recreated

history so people would see him as a hero has had a definitively negative impact on his time.