When, in October 1966, Albert Speer was released from twenty years’ internment at the prison for war criminals in Spandau, Berlin, he began a second career as a celebrated and seemingly reformed witness of the National Socialist era. Once a close confidant of Adolf Hitler, chief planner of large-scale National Socialist construction projects and Reich Armaments Minister, on gaining freedom he successfully presented his legend to the public. He claimed he had not known about the Nazi crimes and, seduced by Hitler’s aura, had become involved in the war through no fault of his own.

The focus of this exhibition from the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds is on the question of why Speer’s legend found such great resonance within the Federal Republic of Germany across so many decades – even after many of his stories had long been refuted by historical research.

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