Professor David Peimer
Albert Speer: The Repentant Nazi
Summary
Professor David Peimer explores the life of architect Albert Speer (1905–1981) and the myth behind the man that allowed him to get sentenced to only 20 years during the Nuremberg Trial.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
It’s a great question, Greg Murray. His father, as far as I understand, objected, said he had gone completely mad to the grandiosity of these designs, that they were designed on a non-human scale. They were so huge and grandiose, you know, to put one person, you know, Hitler at the centre. Everybody else is just ants, this mass conformity, and the father, as far as I understand, objected to this ridiculous extreme of architectural presentation of extreme authoritarianism and the adulation of a leader and the reduction, total reduction of the individual human being.
Yes. Well, I agree with you. And whether the judges were serving political masters, there were three judges who objected. Two Russian judges wanted him hanged, and Francis Biddle, one of the American judges, wanted him hanged. Those three wanted, but the other judges representing other countries and the other the America did not.
I think so. I would agree with you because why did, the two Russian judges and one American judge were the only ones to vote for him being hanged. The other judges from the others didn’t. Why? That would be really important to find out. I agree.