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Albert Speer; champion of temporality.
Bas Lewerissa
1. Abstract.
Mnemonic architecture.
The Spanish architect and theorist Ignasi Solà-Morales distinguishes in post war
architecture two different groups: those who bases themselves on a strict retoric line
by focusing themselves on specific elements of the current city, as a starting point for
redevelopment, isolation or confrontation, and those who perceive architecture as a
bearer of memory. For this second group the values of the city are worth to be
preserved, which he defines as: mnemonic architecture1. In remembrance of the city,
which lives on in the memory, they find a basis for an attempt of representation (of the
city). One of their advocates is Aldo Rossi. For him monuments are tangible signs of
the past.2 Together with routes and maps they form the durable parts of the city. For
him they are either pathological or impelling monuments. The first category
monuments are isolated and without connection to the city. By contrast, the second
category is constantly able to integrate new functions and to play a vital role in the
public space.3
Albert Speer.
Also in the history of conservation of monuments, has there been awareness about the
issue of the mnemonic. The traditional mode of linear procession of past, present and
future is being questioned in the 20th century and focused around the issue of
temporality. To reveal the complexity of a term like temporality the architecture of
Albert Speer will be used as a case study.4 Speer’s role in the discourse about modern
architecture is just very marginal. Apart from that, Speer’s theory is only a mere
paragraph in his 600 pages autobiography ‘Memories’ (Erinnerungen), and something
that has been completely overshadowed. Some obvious reasons are: the megalomaniac
appearance of his buildings together with his desire to let Berlin undergo a
Haussmanniana5 retrofit, and the limited realisation of his projects, due to regime
change and destruction during WWII. Taking this in account, one could easily put his
buildings in Rossi’s category of pathological monuments. Nevertheless his architectural
theory implicates a unique vision towards both architecture and conservation. Instead
of analysing Speer from the obvious historian or art historian point of view, in which
1 De Solà-Moralez, I., ‘Mnemonia of retorica’, in: Heynen, H. et al., Dat is architectuur. Sleutelteksten uit
de twintigste eeuw, p. 591 2 The term Monument that Rossi uses does not refer so much to the building as an object that is subject to architectural conservation, but as an object that possesses certain inherent qualities. 3 Rossi, Aldo, ‘De architectuur van de Stad’, in Heynen, H. et al., Dat is architectuur. Sleutelteksten uit de
twintigste eeuw, p. 382 4 If in this thesis is referred to the architecture of Albert Speer, not so much his actual buildings are meant, but his architectural theory or concept. 5 The term was used to, both underline the fanatical and zealous work of Hausmann and the enormous
amount of secondary literature about his work. Cercat, E., Our architectural heritage: f rom
consciousness to conservation, p. 135
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the route is full of pitfalls like his morality, the visual appearance of the buildings and
his use of the classical language, a different approach is used in this thesis. Four
indirect but specific routes are taken, in an attempt to reveal the mnemonic side of his
architecture.
1. Speer’s theory has been unfolded in the book: The Ruin-builder (De Ruïnebouwer) of
the Dutch author Bernlef. Bernlef analysed Speer, both as an architect and as a
technocrat. We will see how Bernlef uses specific literary techniques to do so.
2. Speer’s architectural theory and concept will be subject to the context of temporality
based on the ideas of the Mexican architect and philosopher Fidel Meraz, supported by
the framework of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur;
3. The classical division of values of conservation by the Austrian art historian Alois
Riegl, which can be linked to the context of temporality, is used as a blotting-pad to
position Speer’s theory from the custodian’s point of view;
4. Speer’s intentions will be mirrored with the concept of Transgression by Bernard
Tschumi, which (as we will see) can be defined as a specific moment of temporality.
The outcome of these analyses throws a different light on the architect Albert Speer
than we might expect and shows us that the subsequent practical realisation can be a
remote ref lection of the initial theory.
2. The narrative
In his book De Ruïnebouwer6 (The ruin-builder), Bernlef uses literary schemes in his
attempt to unravel Speer; the architect and the technocrat. Speer functioned as Chief
Architect and later as Minister of Armaments during the Nazi regime. When the
Erinnerungen and the Spandauer Tagebücher, did not reveal the intentions of Speer,
who according to Bernlef had carefully constructed an image of himself without
revealing his moral intentions’7, Bernlef uses fiction instead to analyse Speer. He uses
the technique of the story and travel journalism (the visit of the architectural sites),
but comes to the conclusion that Speer can only be explained via the theatrical route.
The stage setting is that of a Roman amphitheatre.
In his theatre act, which covers part of Speer’s time as an architect, minister of
armaments and prisoner of war, Bernlef uses the most direct form of narrative; the
dialogue. This forces the actors to speak up; to reveal to a certain extent their
intentions. Apart from writing the play, Bernlef also functions as director of the play,
when he describes the lighting, the movements of the characters and the stage
(visualized in drawings from the hand of Siet Zuyderland). So it seems that Bernlef is
in control and is pulling all the strings, not giving his subject a possibility to escape.
6 Bernlef, De ruïnebouwer
7 Roggeman, J. Bernlef, [online], available:
http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/rogg003bero05_01/rogg003bero05_01_0005.php, 2002, [Accessed 17 april
2010]
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In act 2, scene 3, there is a conversation about Speer’s Ruin theory between him and
Hitler. Hitler states that Germans have to build like the Egyptians, Greeks and
Romans; out of an inner necessity8. Hitler accuses Speer of cheating a bit, when Speer
wants to combine modern techniques with classic material applications. Only when
Speer confronts Hitler with his own urge to realize a similar high cultural standard in
the near future, does Hitler embrace his concept. But for a moment he lingers on the
idea of ‘thousands of workers sweating, suffering while hauling enormous stones from
the quarry to erect constructions for their Führer’.9 The analogy with reality is obvious.
First the architect is unravelled in a scene in which Speer as a prisoner is helped by his
Russian guard to erect columns out of bricks for his ‘temple ruin’. The scene (act 2
scene 8) becomes hilarious, when the architecture of Speer is being ridiculed. The
guard steals the garden sculptures of Snow-white and the seven dwarfs (complete with
added Hitler’s moustache) from the American canteen, to symbolize ‘Maria
Magdalena’.10 So Speer’s attempt to tag low culture with high culture in this scene is
being presented as mere symbolism. In the meantime Speer states in the scene that the
German culture is in a state of deterioration, and is being washed away by the
Americans, whereas the Russian guard regrets he is not able to swap places with the
Americans. So there is no acceptance by Speer of the rapid decline of the Nazi-regime
and its cultural heritage.
In another scene (Act 2, scene 12), Speer as minister of armaments has a dialogue with
four businessmen (working for his ministry), about the problem of the armament of
the German troops (probably somewhere around 1943/44). These problems have arisen
due to the increased frequency and efficiency of the Allied bombardments. The
conclusion of Speer is that they need to demechanize the armament; the production
factories are constantly bombarded, so instead of mechanizing the industry, Germany
should mobilize the workers potential of the occupied territories and let them take
over the work of the machines to save energy and material. Machines are rare, but
human labour is abundant. This time it is one of the Businessmen, who make the
analogy with the time of the faros.11 So Bernlef makes a parallel between the work of
Speer as an architect and as a minister of armaments in which the value of the human
workforce is worthless. In the case of his architecture, it was only the necessity to have
the buildings realized within time to use modern technology, but in the case of the
war, human labour is a welcome substitute whenever the technology is not accessible.
8 This ‘inner necessity’ comes close to the German term Kunstwollen in art history. 9 Bernlef, op. Cit. pp. 108-110 10 Ibidem, pp. 123-127 11 Ibidem, pp. 136-138
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3. Speer and Temporality.
To confront the architectural theory of Albert Speer with the subject of temporality it is necessary
to define temporality. According to Fidel Meraz, ‘the structure of the human being is comprised of
three co-equal moments: becoming, alreadiness and presence. Being human is a process of
becoming oneself, living into possibilities, into one’s future. The ultimate possibility into which
one lives is the possibility to end all possibilities: one’s death. … one’s becoming is the anticipation
of death. Thus to know oneself as becoming is to know oneself, at least implicitly as mortal.’12
Temporality means becoming present by what one already is. ‘The awareness of the ego of its own
streaming through time.’13
In a certain way Albert Speer theorized the subject of temporality when he unfolded his Ruin-
theory (Ruinwert-theorie). According to Speer:
‘Modern buildings, at least within their concept, were obviously not equipped to
come up with the possibility to close the gap of tradition with future generations as
demanded by Hitler. Unthinkable that rusting ruins, like the ruins of the past,
would be able to be of any heroic inspiration, something that was admired by Hitler.
This dilemma would make it difficult for my theory: the application of special
materials in combination with the demanding constructive necessities should make
it possible to create buildings, which would reveal after hundreds or (like we
calculated) thousands of years, their ruinous state like their Roman examples’. 14
So in designing his buildings (presence), with specific materials and building concepts, Speer
already foresaw their future role (becoming) as bridging the gap between today’s (WWII) and
future generations of Germans, when the buildings would have reached a state of ruin (alreadiness)
that could compete with Roman examples. So his architecture is intended to be ‘the present
moment emerging only from where our projected future is curled back into a past’. 15 Now to reach
this goal Speer is faced with a dilemma. On the one hand he needed to create structures, that
(because of their size and dimensions) needed to have a sound structural design and on the other
hand he wanted to apply certain materials, that had specific textural qualities, but might not be
the best of choice f rom an engineering point of view. 16 Speer foresaw in the distant future a decline
of the Nazi German regime. This was even acknowledged by Hitler himself. Speer claims to have
shown as an example to Hitler a romantic drawing of the Zeppelin Tribune in Nürnberg after
centuries of use 17. What is visible are: decayed brickwork and crumbled pillars overgrown with ivy.18
They both saw in architecture a means, by which the current time spirit could be transferred to
future generations. 19
12 Meraz Avila, Architecture and temporality in conservation philosophy: Cesare Brandi, p. 13. Meraz bases himself mainly on the work of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur. 13 Ibidem, p. 19 14 Speer, Erinnerungen, p.69. The authors translation of the following original German text: Modern
construirte Bauwerke, das war ihr Ausgangspunkt waren zweifellos wenig geeignet, die von Hitler
verlangte ‘Traditionsbrücke’ zu künftigen Generationen zu bilden: undenkbar, dass rostende
Trümmerhaufen jene heroischen Inspirationen vermittelten, die Hitler an den Monumenten der
Vergangenheit bewunderte. Diesem Dillema sollte meine ‘Theorie’ entgegenwirken: Die Verwendung
besonderer Materialien sowie die Berücksichtigung besonderer statischer Überlegungen sollte Bauten
ermöglichen, die im Verfallszustand, nach Hunderten oder (so rechneten wir) Tausenden von Jahren
etwa den römischen Vorbildern gleichen würden. 15 N.a. [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporality, [Accessed 2 May 2010] 16 It is the reverse of modern architects who used traditional building techniques that were plastered afterwards to give it a modern impression like the brick structure of Erich Mendelsohn’s Einsteinturm. 17 In the research for this thesis, no evidence has been found about the survival of this drawing. 18 Speer, op. cit. p. 69 19 Ibidem p. 68
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So both temporality and cosmic time; ‘the time of the world that unfolds as a sequence
of uniform, qualitatively undifferentiated moments in which all change occurs’20, were
somehow immediately linked in Speer’s theory. Or to make a parallel with the concept
of time of the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur; Speer’s architecture is intended to
function as a device that cosmologizes lived time and humanizes cosmic. Cosmic time
is for Ricoeur, ‘the time of the world that unfolds as a sequence of uniform,
qualitatively undifferentiated moments in which all change occurs, in contrast to lived
time in which some moments are more meaningful than others’.21 This can be on a
family level like marriage and birth or a more global level like war and destruction. So
again the architecture of Speer is meant as a device which stages ‘a noteworthy present’
against an ‘anonymous background’.22 The architecture is made the beholder of
political and cultural events, and will bear its traces and scars through time. The
assimilation of these two particular notions of time is what Ricoeur calls historical
time.23 Taken a step further one could argue, that his architecture functions as a
narrative mode which makes the historical time, human time. So not only the architect
himself but also the beholder and users are constantly part of a (creative) process, or
talking about architecture: ‘its creation last long periods or in truth it never ends’.24
4. Temporality in conservation values.
The element of time also plays a major role in conservation values. By foreseeing
(designing) how future generations might view the past, Speer in a unique way bridges
the unbridgeable gap within Alois Riegl’s division of conservation values. As massive,
rigid and static his megalomaniac projects were in their appearance, as easy, f lexible
and indifferent are his buildings towards most of the conservation values. Riegl
distinguishes different values for which a building could be preserved for future
generations. These values not only differentiate from each other, they also clash and
often ask for a different set of solutions. Speer miraculously brings together some of
the most ardent values (age, historic, commemorative).
First there is the category of values which criticises any kind of restorations e.g. on the
ground of the historical value, ‘which emphasises the original state of creation:
distortions and partial disintegration are disturbing and unwelcoming ingredients.
The monument is seen as fundamentally inviolable.’25 For Speer this historical value is
not so much situated in the direct appearance of the building, but in its concept and
use through time. Even more stringent is the age value, which considers the 20 N.a. Ricoeur, [online], available: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ricoeur/#3.5 ed. 2005, [Accessed 17
april 2010] 21 Ricoeur, [online] 22 Ibidem 23 Ibidem 24 Meraz Avila, ‘Architecture and temporality in conservation theory: the modern movement and the
restoration attitude in Cesare Brandi´, in: Van den Heuvel, 10th International Docomomo conference.
The challenge of change: dealing with the legacy of the modern movement, p. 24 25 Riegl, ´The modern cult of monuments: its essence and its development´, in: Price, Historical and
philosophical issues in the conservation of cultural heritage, p.75
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monuments as fixed objects of lawful production, that over time are subject to the
same lawful decay and destruction. Therefore the monuments may suffer neither
addition nor subtraction; neither a restoration of what was disintegrated by the forces
of nature in the course of time, nor the removal of whatever nature added to the
monument during the same period of time, disfiguring its original discrete form. This
will ultimately lead to destruction.’26 Exactly this was visualized by Speer as the
ultimate consequence in his Ruin theory. In this state the monument is a pre-
anticipated form of ‘backward utopia; if there is a utopia it will be found in the past
rather than in the future’.27
Of a different category is the Commemorative value. ‘It makes a claim for immortality,
an eternal present, an unceasing state of becoming. The fundamental requirement of a
deliberate monument is restoration.’28 As such it is a denial of temporality. In an even
more spectacular way this is also the fundament for the newness value. Every
monument, suffers to a greater or lesser extent the disintegrating effects of natural
forces. The monument will therefore simply never (again) attain the completeness of
form and color that newness value requires. Newness character can therefore only be
preserved by means that are absolutely contradictory to the cult of age value.29 All
preservation in the 19th century was based on the newness value. The work was to be
restored to a complete, unified whole.30 For Speer newness was relevant as long as the
Third Reich was still the dominant factor. After its foreseen decline no necessity was
there to keep the monuments preserved according to this value.
Use value. In general, one could say that use value is basically indifferent to the kind of
treatment a monument receives, as long as the monument’s existence is not
threatened. In a certain way this is a combination of temporality and immortality. It
takes benefits from both sides.
The final implication is that buildings designed according to Speer’s theory are
completely indifferent to the point of conservation values. During the course of time
their role change (or might change) and they will be appreciated from a newness value
(for the duration of the Third Reich), through a commemorative and historic value
into the age value. It is the use value, which makes the buildings constantly susceptible
to a different kind of perspective. So its shift towards these values comes close to
Rossi’s mentioned definition of the category of impelling monuments, in which the
monuments are constantly able to integrate new functions and play a vital role in the
public space. It is only for the artistic value (a subjective aesthetic value), that one
would hesitate to acknowledge Speer’s architecture. And this is exactly the point of
view of the art historian, which we wanted to exclude in this survey. But we got help
from the perspective of Paul Ricoeur:
26 Ibidem p.73 27 Meurs, Building in the stubborn city, Inaugural address, p. 19 28 Riegl, op. cit., p. 79 29 Ibidem, p. 80 30 Ibidem, p. 81
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‘Each new building is inscribed in urban space like a narrative within a setting
of intertextuality. And narrativity impregnates the architectural act even more
directly insofar as it is determined by a relationship to an established tradition
wherein it takes the risk of alternating innovation and repetition. It is on the
scale of urbanism that we best catch sight of the work of time in space. A city
brings together in the same space different ages, offering our gaze a sedimented
history of tastes and cultural forms. The city gives itself both to be seen and to
be read. In it, narrated time and inhabited space are more closely associated
than they are in an isolated building’.31
So there are other equally valid values applicable to consider conservation, in which
isolated architecture plays only a minor role in the wholeness of the city.
5. Transgression as part of temporality.
On another level the architecture of Speer implies the metaphorical rot of Bernard
Tschumi; the point which modernity so ardently tried to avoid, by shaping their sun
white plastered buildings, their shiny steel constructions, made for eternity. This lack
of ruin-value which according to Speer was embedded in the use of the applied
materials is, according to Tschumi, based on the concept of architecture: not so much
as objects meant for eternity, but in the acceptance of the mnemonic side of
architecture; its temporality. So in the view of Tschumi ‘the villa Savoye has never been
more beautiful as when the plaster fell off its concrete blocks’.32 So Tschumi comes
close to Speer when he admires the part of architecture, that comes close to death, ‘…
decaying constructions, the dissolving traces that time leaves on buildings’33 This is the
moment when, what Tschumi calls, transgressing takes place; ‘the point where concept
architecture and reality of its use meet. The place where the limits of space are, both
by users and nature, exceeded beyond the concept of the architect. One of the
consequences are: ‘the meeting place becomes the memory of life between death, the
rotten place where spatial praxis meets mental constructs, the convergence of two
interdependent but mutually exclusive aspects.’34
This transgression is a temporal state which changes constantly. The two necessary
parameters are on the one hand the (concept of the) building itself and on the other
the ‘spatial stories’35 and human interactions, that take place in or around the building.
When both parameters are constant we arrive at a dead point, an unchangeable
condition. When both are subject to change we can achieve transgression. The
consequence or example of the first possibility is, when a building is being conserved
according to the newness value and leaves the city in a state of stagnation or ‘a frozen
state’36 and the function of the building is reduced to an example of artist or historic
value. To a certain extent Rossi’s pathological monument is created. The second 31 Ricoeur, Memory, history, forgetting, pp. 150-151 32 Tschumi, Architecture and disjunction, Cambridge (Mass.), MIT Press, 1994, p. 74 33 Ibidem, p. 74 34 Ibidem, p. 77 35 De Certeau, The practice of everyday life, pp. 115-130 36 Meurs, ‘Vormgeven aan de herinnering, restauratie en bewaarzucht’, De Architect, pp. 52-59
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possibility is the consequence, when the building is being conserved according to the
use value and the building is given a new value, a new destination in which: ‘the
adventure of humanity is being fed by the memory of the mental and material life,
which every society should appropriate in order to move forward’.37 This creates the
possibility of transgression which can be defined as an added value.
It was the intention of Tschumi to use the folly in his most known architectural and
urban realisation: Parc la Vilette. Speer on the other hand uses more conventional
architectonical typologies, like the stadium, the office building (Reichskanzelei) and
the tribune. The folly, which by its fantasy and valour upsets the standard rules. The
folly, which only exists by the grace of its human contemplator and by human
interaction. The folly is the champion of perishableness and temporality and the
architectural object to which the age-value adapts itself so easily, requiring a minimum
of human interference when it comes to conservation. So transgression for Tschumi is
immediate at the moment the building is in use. By contrast Speer’s building due to its
size and appearance almost dehumanizes. Transgression for him is slow and will only
take place over centuries of time.
6. Conclusion.
The four different routes have shown that although certain architecture might not be
of ‘high culture’ or even condemned on moral grounds, their function could be
important on a completely different level. It seems, when Speer’s architecture is
evaluated from a narrative and theatrical point of view, that holes are punctuated in
his meticulously made armour. Of the four routes, the narrative came closest to his
morality. Bernlef's conclusion was, though, that Speer had no moral, only emptiness.38
It also questions the way Speer was (or would be) able to realize his ideas. Supposedly
it was based on enormous human sacrifices.
In the cases of both temporality and conservation values, we saw that the architecture
of Speer showed a remarkable vitality and f lexibility. It combined elements of both
temporality and eternity (cosmic time for that matter). In the case of conservation
values it almost anticipated and antedated any future use, addition or subtraction,
whether it is conservation or restoration. Finally, parallels can be drawn with
Tschumi’s concept of Transgression. Speer’s architecture one could say was meant,
time and again, for these moments in which transgression would take place. Not so
much as with Tschumi an immediate transgression, but a transgression which slowly
develops itself and which might not even be visible to the beholder or user, but only
perceptible over centuries of time.
37 Francoise Choay is cited in: Tilman, ´Herontdekking van de ruimtelijke potenties. Vier
architectonische benaderingen van hergebruik’, in: De architect, p. 44 38 Roggeman, Bernlef [online]