Reich Chancellery
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The Reich Chancellery (German Reichskanzlei) was the traditional name of the office of the German Chancellor (Reichskanzler). Today the office is usually called Kanzleramt (Chancellor's Office), or more formally Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellor's Office).
The term Reichskanzlei also refers to various buildings that housed the upper echelons of Germany's government.
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[edit] New Reich Chancellery (1938)
In 1938, Hitler assigned his favourite architect Albert Speer to build the new Reich Chancellery, requesting that the building be completed within a year. Near the complex was the underground Führerbunker, where Hitler committed suicide at the end of World War II in 1945. The new Reich Chancellery had the address Voßstraße 6, and the old Reich Chancellery, located along Wilhelmstraße, probably had the address Wilhelmstraße 77.
Hitler commissioned Speer to build the Chancellery in late January, 1938, although preliminary planning had begun four years earlier. Hitler commented that the old Chancellery, which dated from Bismarck's time as chancellor in the 1870s, was "fit for a soap company" but was not suitable as headquarters of the German Reich nor him, the soon-to-be "master of the world". Hitler assigned Speer the work of creating grand halls and salons which "will make an impression on people".
Hitler placed the entire Voßstraße at Speer's disposal. Speer was given a blank cheque — Hitler stated that the cost of the project was immaterial — and was instructed that the building be of solid construction and that it be finished by the following January in time for the next annual diplomatic reception to be held in the new building. In the end it cost over 90 Million Reichsmark, well over one billion dollars today.
Speer claimed in his autobiography that he completed the task of clearing the site, designing, constructing, and furnishing the building in less than a year. In fact, versions of the designs were already being worked on as early as 1935. Over 4,000 workers toiled in shifts, so the work could be accomplished round-the-clock. This immense construction project was finished 48 hours ahead of schedule, and the project earned Speer a reputation as a good organiser, which, combined with Hitler's fondness for Speer played a part in the architect becoming Armaments Minister and a director of forced labour during the war.
In his memoirs, Speer describes the impression of the Reichskanzlei on a visitor:
- From Wilhelmsplatz an arriving diplomat drove through great gates into a court of honour. By way of an outside staircase he first entered a medium-sized reception room from which double doors almost seventeen feet high opened into a large hall clad in mosaic. He then ascended several steps, passed through a round room with domed ceiling, and saw before him a gallery 480 feet long. Hitler was particularly impressed by my gallery because it was twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
- Hitler was delighted: "On the long walk from the entrance to the reception hall they'll get a taste of the power and grandeur of the German Reich!" During the next several months he asked to see the plans again and again but interfered remarkably little in this building, even though it was designed for him personally. He let me work freely.
The series of rooms comprising the approach to Hitler's reception gallery were decorated with a rich variety of materials and colours and totalled 725 feet (220 meters) in length. The gallery itself was 480 feet (145 meters) long. Hitler's own office was 400 square metres in size.
From the exterior, the chancellery had a stern, authoritarian appearance. From the Wilhelmplatz, visitors would enter the Chancellery through the Court of Honour (Ehrenhof). The building's main entrance was flanked by two bronze statues by sculptor Arno Breker: "Wehrmacht" and "Partei" ("Armed Forces" and "Party").
Hitler is said to have been greatly impressed by the building and was uncharacteristically effusive with his praise for Speer, lauding the architect as a "genius". The chancellor's immense study was a particular favourite of the dictator.
The large marble-topped table in Hitler's study served as an important part of the Nazi leader's military headquarters, the study being used for military conferences from 1944 on. On the other hand, the Cabinet room was never used for its intended purpose.
Some 4000 workers were employed in the construction of the New Reich Chancellery. Speer recalls that the whole work force — masons, carpenters, plumbers, etc. were invited to inspect the finished building. Hitler then addressed the workers in the Sportpalast.
The New Reich Chancellery was badly damaged during the Battle of Berlin at the end of World War II in 1945.
After the war, the remains of the Chancellery were demolished by orders of the Soviet occupation forces. Parts of the building's marble walls were used to build the Soviet war memorial in Treptower Park and to renovate the nearby war-damaged Mohrenstraße U-Bahn station. Some of the red marble was used in the palatial Underground stations in Moscow.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Speer, Albert (1970). Inside the Third Reich. New York: Macmillan. LCCN 70-119132.
- Kellerhoff, Sven Felix (2006). Berlin unterm Hakenkreuz (Berlin under the Swastika). Berlin: Berlin Edition be.bra Verlag GmbH. ISBN 978-3-8148-0147-6.
- Allied Intelligence Map of Key Buildings in Berlin (Third Edition, 1945)
[edit] Further reading
- Lehrer, Steven. The Reich Chancellery and Fuhrerbunker Complex: An Illustrated History of the Seat of the Nazi Regime.
- Taylor, Blaine. Hitler's Headquarters: From Beer Hall to Bunker, 1920-1945.
- Cowdery, Ray and Josephine. The New German Reichschancellery 1938-1945.
- Schönberger, Angela (1981). Die Neue Reichskanzlei Von Albert Speer. Zum Zusammenhang von nationalsozialistischer Ideologie und Architektur. Berlin: Berlin: Gebr. Mann..
- Scobie, Alex (1990). Hitler's State Architecture: The Impact of Classical Antiquity.. University Park and London: Pennsylvania State University Press.
- Taylor, Robert (1974). The Word in Stone. The Role of Architecture in the National Socialist Ideology.. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Speer, Albert (1940). Die Neue Reichskanzlei / Architekt Albert Speer.. München: Eher Verlag.
[edit] Documentary
- "Albert Speer's Neue Reichskanzlei DVD. 25fps-filmproduction, ISBN 978-3-9809714-6-1 (Computer Animation of the Reich Chancellery).
[edit] External links
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- 3d Animated Reich Chancellery
- Photographs of the Reich Chancellery
- The Bunkers of the Reich Chancellery and Führer Bunker
- Website with photographs of the Reich Chancellery
- Website with photographs of Nazi Architecture
- Website of the German History Museum with photographs and information
- Photographs of the Reich Chancellery
