Just came back from the first movie of spring break....Highly recommend "Der Untergang" (Downfall). I sure did not expect so much of Albert Speer in this movie. And must have slept through some of my history classes but did not know Speer was so high on the inner SS circle.
Another movie to add to the architect's to watch list.
well, it's debatable whether he was in the "inner ss circle" or not.. BUT the man can't be "vindicated" in any sense cuz he *knew* about the workers he had ordered up coming from the "vernichtung durch arbeit" programme- "death through work". he also, as the minister of arms & infrastructure, knew about the death camps being set up, signing orders for materials, cremation facilities and such.. i recommend you really read some stuff about him- it's rewarding, and sure, as far as his architectural madness is concerned, really mind-boggling.
He wasn't portrayed as all that mad to me in the movie. Looks like someone who just modeled for the GQ: impeccable taste in clothes and clean looking even in a bombed out environment!
Nevertheless, his "knowledge" into all the madness that Hitler planned for only earned him 20 years at Spandau. This might be a little speculative, since I don't know anything much about him, that his profession as an architect (the type of positive social self-image that a post war world had for the profession) might have saved his life.
The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly once wrote a book called "Flow" where there was a study accounted of Speer self-sustanining himself mentally in the prison by re-enacting an imaginary walk from Jerusalem to Berlin, talking about every sights and smell he would encounter along the way.
If Hitler's plans did not induce his madness, the prison certainly did. What is most interesting is his capacity to sustain himself with spatial imagination that his fellow SS in the next cell apparently did not have.
Mar 25, 05 2:53 pm ·
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Der Untergang: Speer vindicated
Just came back from the first movie of spring break....Highly recommend "Der Untergang" (Downfall). I sure did not expect so much of Albert Speer in this movie. And must have slept through some of my history classes but did not know Speer was so high on the inner SS circle.
Another movie to add to the architect's to watch list.
well, it's debatable whether he was in the "inner ss circle" or not.. BUT the man can't be "vindicated" in any sense cuz he *knew* about the workers he had ordered up coming from the "vernichtung durch arbeit" programme- "death through work". he also, as the minister of arms & infrastructure, knew about the death camps being set up, signing orders for materials, cremation facilities and such.. i recommend you really read some stuff about him- it's rewarding, and sure, as far as his architectural madness is concerned, really mind-boggling.
deutschland rocks!!
*lol* say that to someone in germany.. you'll have a nice discussion, heh
NOCI-
what are some good books on him? i know a bit about speer's connections, but hadn't heard of this movie.
The biography of Speer, "Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth" by Gitta Sereny, is a great one.
yup, was about to recommend that one, steven.
He wasn't portrayed as all that mad to me in the movie. Looks like someone who just modeled for the GQ: impeccable taste in clothes and clean looking even in a bombed out environment!
Nevertheless, his "knowledge" into all the madness that Hitler planned for only earned him 20 years at Spandau. This might be a little speculative, since I don't know anything much about him, that his profession as an architect (the type of positive social self-image that a post war world had for the profession) might have saved his life.
The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly once wrote a book called "Flow" where there was a study accounted of Speer self-sustanining himself mentally in the prison by re-enacting an imaginary walk from Jerusalem to Berlin, talking about every sights and smell he would encounter along the way.
If Hitler's plans did not induce his madness, the prison certainly did. What is most interesting is his capacity to sustain himself with spatial imagination that his fellow SS in the next cell apparently did not have.
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