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Joachim C. Fest

SPEER:A BIOGRAPHY: The Final Verdict Hardcover – 27 Sept. 2001

by Joachim Fest (Author)

4.5 31 ratings

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Albert Speer is the great Enigma of Nazi Germany. Before he was thirty he had become Hitler¿s architect. Soon he was building the new Reich¿s Chancellory and had transformed the Nuremberg rallies with his `cathedrals of light¿ and gift for stage management. In 1942 Hitler appointed him his Armaments Minister and Speer quadrupled German arms production, keeping the German Army in the field and prolonging the war.
Joachim Fest examines all the phases of Speer¿s life and work. Precisely because of Speer¿s contradictions, Fest sees him as representative of the mood and susceptibilities of the German people of the time. In this brilliant and persuasive book Fest argues that Albert Speer¿s life helps to explain how Germany broke with its traditions in 1933 and descended so far into crime and barbarism.
This book is a crowning achievement for the writer who pioneered a new school of biographical writing in the 1960s with his Face of the Third Reich and his masterly Hitler biography, which has become a classic.

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Orion
Publication date

27 Sept. 2001
Dimensions

16.5 x 3.7 x 24.1 cm
ISBN-10

0297646168
ISBN-13

978-0297646167
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Product description

Review

Joachim Fest remains one of the most acute chroniclers of the dark period of history that is Nazi Germany, and this fastidious study of the Reich's greatest architect is a monumental achievement. What particularly distinguishes the book is the author's even-handedness regarding Speer and his work; as with Leni Riefenstahl, the important distinction between the genius of the work and the ambiguous relationship of the creator with monumental evil is handled with sensitivity. Speer remains an enigma: before he was 30, he had become Hitler's architect, and had transformed the Nuremberg rallies with his 'cathedrals of light' and his gift for stage-management. His spell as armaments minister quadrupled German arms production and may be said to have prolonged the war. There are those who point to his never being part of the Fuhrer's inner circle, while historians such as Hugh Trevor-Roper have described him as 'the true criminal of Nazi Germany'. As a picture of a complex man working in a monstrous regime, this is both compelling and dispassionate.

Book Description

The last word on Albert Speer, by Joachim Fest, the greatest historian of the Third Reich and the editor of Speer¿s memoirs, Inside the Third Reich, a worldwide bestseller.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orion; First Edition (27 Sept. 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0297646168
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0297646167
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.5 x 3.7 x 24.1 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 1,031,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,742 in German Historical Biographies
- 2,654 in Historic Origins of World War II
- 2,690 in Political History of Fascism & Nazism

Customer reviews:
4.5 31 ratings

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Mr. I. A. Pink

A must for anyone interested in the Third Reich

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 January 2023

Verified Purchase

An interesting book written by a (in my opinion) great German historian. Joachim Fest wrote many books on the Third Reich and himself was caught up as a young boy in the Third Reich drama.
Worth a read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2015

Verified Purchase

Fest pins him down - and I've always found him notoriously difficult to pin down...

One person found this helpful

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A. Robson

GOOD BOOK

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2016

Verified Purchase

Excellent book,excellent service2

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Pizzaro

Subject: the gigantic panorama of Hitler's overturning of everything. Not narrowly about Speer.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 April 2014

Fest's book is a powerhouse of information and insight not only on Speer, but on the deep, mysterious sorcery emanating from Hitler that diffused through the movement & brought everything together. This is full justification for buying the book and reading it several times, whether or not you've formed your final opinion of Speer. The vast sweep taken by the author is trenchant and interconnects with multiple aspects of the entire Nazi experience. It was news to me that the 1942 Russian campaign had available only half the number of vehicles and men that had constituted the invasion of the previous year, so appalling were the previous winter's losses. Nor had I realized that in November, 1941 with the disaster before Moscow unfolding amidst the ferocity of the Russian winter, Hitler refused to cut back the grandeoise construction projects underway to transform the center of Berlin despite its gigantic drain on manpower, materiel and the state economy. He insisted that construction continue. This induced Speer to suspect that some of Hitler's hunger for military triumphs was to provide heroic substance to feed into the new architecture. His plans to overhaul cities across vast continents depended on architecture to establish their lasting effects, just as had been the case for the pyramids in Egypt and the Pergamon. For the first time, thanks to Fest, I realized that architecture for Hitler was a raging, visceral need on par with all other policy considerations, even war policy, and was not just a mode of relaxation --- as painting was for Churchill. The furious speed of his campaigns was to hasten the architectural revolution across continents and set up Germany as the equivalent of historic Rome in Hitler's own lifetime. Valuable pages outline how second nature it was for the German population (and not just Speer) to leap onto the jaugernaut of the new regime in the early years (48-49; 339-342). I find such sharpened perspectives essential to decoding what the Reich was all about.

This panorama will radically expand the world of a reader who might otherwise approach the book warily, fearing a narrow, Speer-only focus. Fest's superlative knowledge carries us far beyond this.

The book is not only worth the purchase and but is well worth re-reading, as well.

6 people found this helpful

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Moon Cheese

Good on sources, but no 'final verdict'

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 December 2006

Alongside the works on Speer such as those by Sereny and Van Der Vat, this biography is simply that: a biography. It is not as thorough as the former, nor as entertaining as the latter. Fest steers a course that although quite sub-textually (and in places overtly) is 'pro-Speer' guides the reader quite swiftly through Speer's professional life.

If Sereny's excellent 'Battle With The Truth' is vast and impartial, and Van Der Vat in 'The Good Nazi' almost swinging the executioners axe in fury, the this is the Biography that Speer, were he still alive would have endorsed. Fest's relationship with his subject began upon his release from Spandau when Fest 'assisted' him with writing 'Inside...' and '... Secret Diaries'. The larger part of this biography is based upon the extensive notes Fest took at that time (recently published in Germany as 'Unanswerable Questions') and this is the books main asset.

However, it fails in that there is no 'Final Verdict' as it claims, and the prose is a little pedantic, to say the least. If you are new to Speer, I suggest Sereny's book. If you are familiar to him, this book is little more than a useful addition to the still expanding Speer 'legend'.

17 people found this helpful

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