Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Inside the Third Reich
Book Review: don't trust everything you read
Summary: 1 Stars
I pitty anyone who by now does not realize that this account based on albert speer's diary is completely altered to conform with the popular majority mainstreem trend of historical accounts on the third reich.mr. speer admits himself that someone was paid to put his diary together in book form,but to alter or ommit anything that isn't in keeping with the popular trend of thought concearning adolph hitler and national socialism.he has been aproached,but refused to submit his diary for this very reason.I love some of these reveiws that praise such backdated ill-reasearched and ill-informed works like the rise and fall of the third reich.they make themselves sound like beginners in this field of interest.please,just try to do yourself a favor and update you third reich info,you might be shocked at what you discover.try reading some david irving works like hitler's war.Book Review: Somewhat dry recollection/reflections
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very interesting read full of subtle observations on the Third Reich and the enigma behind it...the personality of Hitler and his inner circle.
Speer comes across as the ultimate "technician" as he relates his story within the dark, brutal,apocalyptic world of Nazi Germany.
However this IS a book about Speer,through Speer's eyes, so's some of this feels sanitized, a bit too clean.
Lots of stuff on architecture and armaments..perhaps abit more than I cared for, but hey,this is about Speer.
In retrospect the observations on Hitler and Co. are interesting,and it's amazing to hear about so much "disfunction" within this much ballyhooed Nazi inner-core.The trouble is that Speer lived within but mostly without this hardcore group of psychopaths... so the real grit seems to be lacking (unlike the chilling biography HITLER by John Toland which I am currently reading). Overall though a very enjoyable read, minus 1 star for tons of architecture minutia.It becomes apparent how Speer avoided certain grim realities by total immersion in his technical universe.
update 10-19-06...don't let Speer's professed innocense on the knowledge of 'The Final Solution' fool you, it worked during his trial but follow-up
research (documents,letters and such) expose him. He knew all right. He knew.
Book Review: An Insider's view of Nazi Germany
Summary: 5 Stars
Albert Speer's autobiography gives a really intriguing look into the inner workings of the Third Reich, a close look at Adolf Hitler, and reveals something about the reason why such a gifted individual fell under Hitler's power. I could not put the book down. All in all, it is a 'must-read' for students of Nazi Germany and World War Two History.Book Review: Just what it claims to be--an insider's look at the Nazis
Summary: 5 Stars
Albert Speer was an architect by profession, who rose to become one of the most important figures in the Third Reich. He did this by more or less equal portions of intelligence, good chemistry with Adolf Hitler, and ambition. Speer was the Nazi Minister for War Production and Armaments, and most historians agree that he was extremely effective in this role--thus he shares responsibility for the horrors that the Nazis unleashed.Speer overall comes across as a decent man who nevertheless let his ambition blind him to, or cause him to rationalize, the ugliness of the regime he served. Speer was very much under the spell of Adolf Hitler until he realized that the regime was doomed and the war was lost. Even as Speer wrote this book in prison it is plain that he still was proud of the esteem in which Hitler held him, despite the fact that by then he had seen Hitler for the monster he was. The one question that the book did not answer to my satisfaction was how much Speer knew about the concentration camp system and the genocide it perpetrated. He plainly knew a lot, because as War Production Minister he drafted camp inmates into German war industry. Did he know about the genocides and exterminations? Perhaps this is unknowable.
"Inside the Third Reich" is unusually revealing, both about the Nazi regime and the personality of Hitler the man. Speer truly was an insider, almost on a par with such figures as Goering or Goebbels. Many of Speer's observations are extremely insightful, and retain their relevance today. For example, Speer reveals that Hitler was very reluctant to ask the German people to accept sacrifices for war production because, in the final analysis, he knew that his regime did not derive its power from the will of the people. The Nazis accordingly lacked confidence in their own legitimacy and were reluctant to impose sacrifices on the public--even as Great Britain and the United States mobilized for total war and (Britain in particular) did require their citizens to make sacrifices. Speer thus exposes the myth that totalitarian states are more fitted for war than are liberal republican countries.
This book is a bit longer than it needs to be, no doubt as a function of the fact that Speer wrote most of it during his twenty-year Nuremberg-imposed prison sentence. He had lots of time to write. Despite its length, this is a fine book and those interested in what made the Nazi regime tick will find this book to be a valuable and worthwhile read.
Book Review: architect, minister and a politician
Summary: 4 Stars
Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and the minister of armaments in the last 2 years of the war has written a captivating but uneven autobiography. It is neither a personal or political history, but mostly an apology. Although the need of this is well understood psychologically, in my opinion this dilutes the otherwise unique message, and the book suffers greatly stylistically from that. Biography is of roughly two main parts. First of a somewhat politically na?ve, but ambitious architect who is given a chance of the lifetime - build a new capital for the world new empire - a glorious Germania. A splendid boulevard, 200 feet wide, crowned on one end by the biggest domed structure in the world (under its cupola 15 (fifteen!!) San Peters can stand), monstrous Triumphal Arc, towering 300 feet high over the old Brangenburg Gates, 2 grandious railroad stations for the center of the world, etc, so on, and on. All in the towering neoclassical style, with grandeur and fury. What a task! This part of book is very engaging, mostly due to architectural presentation and the rare insigts into Hitler's private life. At some point Speer is called furher's "unrequited love".
Quickly to the second part - a career of the most important civilian minister of the 3rd Reich. This is fascinating in its own right, but suffers from the lack of explanations on the mechanics of organization and bureaucracy in the 3rd Reich. I am constantly perplexed, annoyed and frustrated by description of countless intrigues whose rationale and logic (if any) is totally obscure. What we sense here is the dangerous evolution of the main character as he attains power, political acumen and ambition to even ... succeed Hitler. "Even Speer discovered politics" - says Hitler and we are left to wonder what is left untold.
All in all, well worth your time, if only for the first part.