Speer: drawing the future of the past

Abstract

For Albert Speer, official architect of the Third Reich, the graphical representation of architecture played an important role, more than was normal in his profession. A series of early sketches exchanged with Adolf Hitler have been preserved as witnesses to the architectural debates between them, forerunners of major projects implemented by armies of technicians at his service. Moreover, the dictator and the architect shared another unique interest, a nostalgic attraction for paintings and engravings depicting ruins of the great ancient empires. This peculiar interest gradually became an obsession as to how the ruins of the works they were buildingwould be seen in the future.This is like the funeral arrangements for a baby being established before it has even been born. This fixation resulted in idealised perspectives, commissioned by the architect during the construction of the works, and in other clandestine drawings produced during his captivity in Spandau prison. The text specifically analyses the role of graphical representation in the concept of the perception of future ruins through artistic references from the past, reflections written in his memoirs and drawings by Speer himself. Although his architectural and urban development work has been extensively analysed, his drawings have not aroused much interest, despite their importance to him. This activity also allowed him, during the twenty years he spent in prison, to record and summarise his memories and lost dreams on paper.