The Reich Chancellory
Hitler gave Albert Speer instructions to build a new Reich Chancellory and it also had to be finished within the year.
Within in a year Albert Speer designed and built a new massive complex in the neo-classical style. The building itself was completed on time in January 1939. It was built in an attempt to intimidate and impress all of those who would visit the chancellory. The house had an impressive entry called the Court of Honor. Each of the hallways in the house were longer and more impressive than the last and they lead to Hitlers own office which was 400m square and possessed 9m ceilings. There was also an elaborate cabinet room which was to be used for the meetings of Hitler's ministers. The chairs were all embossed with eagles and swastikas but not one cabinet meeting was ever held in that room. The house also possessed a number of air raid shelters and bunkers under the chancellory and it was in his own bunker that Hitler committed suicide in April of 1945. Above ground all of the buildings had been reduced to ruins. Today no trace of Speer's grand building survives.
The outbreak of war in 1939 caused a temporary halt in Speer's building projects. However by the summer of 1940, Hitler ordered that the projects be continued. France had been defeated by then and Hitler's popularity had risen to a new level. IN 1940 and 1941 forced labor provided from the concentration camps were used to quarry the amounts of stone needed for his buildings and a number of those camps were built near the rock quaries for ease of access. In 1942 as the war slowly turned against Germany the building projects finally stalled, by the end of the war little progress had been made on the Nuremberg site and Berlin and instead of being rebuilt they were in ruins.
The only trace of Albert Speer's work in Berlin today is a few streetlights which are along the Strasse des 17 Juni.
Within in a year Albert Speer designed and built a new massive complex in the neo-classical style. The building itself was completed on time in January 1939. It was built in an attempt to intimidate and impress all of those who would visit the chancellory. The house had an impressive entry called the Court of Honor. Each of the hallways in the house were longer and more impressive than the last and they lead to Hitlers own office which was 400m square and possessed 9m ceilings. There was also an elaborate cabinet room which was to be used for the meetings of Hitler's ministers. The chairs were all embossed with eagles and swastikas but not one cabinet meeting was ever held in that room. The house also possessed a number of air raid shelters and bunkers under the chancellory and it was in his own bunker that Hitler committed suicide in April of 1945. Above ground all of the buildings had been reduced to ruins. Today no trace of Speer's grand building survives.
The outbreak of war in 1939 caused a temporary halt in Speer's building projects. However by the summer of 1940, Hitler ordered that the projects be continued. France had been defeated by then and Hitler's popularity had risen to a new level. IN 1940 and 1941 forced labor provided from the concentration camps were used to quarry the amounts of stone needed for his buildings and a number of those camps were built near the rock quaries for ease of access. In 1942 as the war slowly turned against Germany the building projects finally stalled, by the end of the war little progress had been made on the Nuremberg site and Berlin and instead of being rebuilt they were in ruins.
The only trace of Albert Speer's work in Berlin today is a few streetlights which are along the Strasse des 17 Juni.