Attachments:
Access this URL (/attachments/article/1607/Evdokimova-TV- Smusev-VA-vestnik-2025-3-ru.pdf)Evdokimova-TV-
18
Tat`yana V. Evdokimova
Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogic University
Viktor A. Smusev
Museum-Reserve ‟Battle of Stalingrad”
The Nazis’ means and methods of implementing Hitler’s architectural designs
Evdokimova T.V., Smusev V.A. The Nazis’ means and methods of implementing Hitler’s architectural designs. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2025, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 133–138. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-3-133–138
DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2025-31-3-133-138
УДК: 711(091)
EDN: TXSWEU
Publish date: 2025-04-22
Annotation: The culture of Germany under the domination of National Socialism underwent a significant transformation. Changes included the architectural and construction sphere manifestations of this process which combined classical samples of antiquity and Nazi means of their realisation. The article analyses the activities of Nazi functionaries to find resources for the architectural redevelopment of German cities, particularly Berlin. Realisation of Hitler’s architectural plans required mutually beneficial cooperation between the chief architect of Nazi Germany Albert Speer and the SS head Heinrich Himmler. Along with the forced eviction of Jews from Berlin neighbourhoods, the labour of concentration camp inmates was widely used. The internal architectural and construction tasks of the Nazi state involved a whole list of major concentration camps and some branch camps. The official architectural and construction apparatus, represented by Speer, performed key functions (financial and informational and advisory) in the process of erecting and expanding the system of concentration camps designed for mass extraction and manufacture of building materials by their inmates. The result of following the racial-political guidelines of the Nazi Party ideology, the mutually beneficial interests of the architectural and construction inspectorate of Speer and the SS organisation were construction of the notorious concentration camps. That claimed hundreds of thousands of lives of the concentration camp system prisoners and can be classified as genocide of representatives of society and entire peoples, unwanted from the Nazis’ point of view.
Keywords: National Socialism, German cities, architecture, forced labour, concentration camp system, Speer, Himmler.
Literature list: Galkin A.A. Germanskij fashizm [German fascism]. USSR Academy of Sciences, 2nd ed., exp. and revis. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1989, 350 p. (In Russ.) Konopatchenkov A.V. Dinamika izmeneniya ispol`zovaniya truda uznikov fashistskih konczlagerej na primere konczlagerya Mauthauzen v 1938-1945 gg. [Dynamics of changes in the use of labor by prisoners of Nazi concentration camps on the example of the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1938-1945]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie: informacionny`j gumanitarny`j portal [Knowing. Understanding. Ability: Information humanitarian portal], 2010, no. 6. URL: zpu-journal.ru (access date: 17.11.2023). (In Russ.) Markin Yu.P. Iskusstvo Tret`ego rejkha. Arxitektura. Skul`ptura. Zhivopis` [The art of the Third Reich. Architecture. Sculpture. Painting]. Moscow, BuksMArt Publ., 2018, 384 p. (In Russ.) Plenkov O.Yu. Tretij Rejkh. Arijskaya kul`tura [The Third Reich. Aryan culture]. Saint-Petersburg, Neva Publ., 2005, 480 p. (In Russ.) SS Adol`fa Gitlera [The SS of Adolf Hitler], transl. from English by M. Ivanov. Moscow, TERRA Publ., 1997, 191 p. (In Russ.) Sukhin D. Al`bert Shpeer, ili Neob``yasnimaya arxitektura Tret`ego rejkha [Albert Speer, or the Inexplicable Architecture of the Third Reich]. Saint-Petersburg, Monumentalita & Modernita Publ., 2017, 46 p. (In Russ.) Shpeer A. Vospominaniya [Memories], transl. from Germ. by S.O. Fridlyand and I. Rozanova], 2nd ed., revis. Moscow, Zaxarov Publ., 2010, 688 p. (In Russ.) Vasil`chenko A.V. Imperskaya tektonika. Arhitektura v Tret`em rejkhe [Imperial tectonics. Architecture in the Third Reich]. Moscow, Veche Publ., 2010, 350 p. (In Russ.) Wachsmann N. Istoriya nacistskih konczlagerej [A history of the Nazi concentration camps]. Moscow, Centrpoligraf Publ., 2017, 782 p. (In Russ.) Allen M. The Business of Genocide: The SS, Slave Labor, and the Concentration Camps. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press Publ., 2002, 377 p. Berlin In Zahlen 1945. Taschenbuch. Berlin, DAS NEUE BERLIN Verlagsgesellschaft m. b. H., 1947, 459 s. Hitler's Table Talk, 1941-1944: his Private Conversations. Enigma Books Publ., 2000, 746 p. Fest K.J. Speer: The final verdict, transl. from the Germ. by Ewald Osers and Alexandra Dring. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson Publ., 2001, 417 p. Gusen Memorial Committee website. URL: Gusen | Willkommen (access date: 17.11.2023). Gussak A. Memories of a former prisoner of the Mauthausen concentration camp. URL: bbk.ac.uk (access date: 17.11.2023). Jaskot P. The Architecture of Oppression: The SS, Forced Labor and the Nazi Monumental Building Economy. London, New York, Psychology Press Publ., 2000, 207 p. Kitchen M. Speer: Hitler's Architect. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press Publ., 2015, 442 p. Longerich P. Heinrich Himmler: Biographie. Munich, Siedler, 2010, 1035 s. Mediathek des KZ-Gedenkstätte Neungamme. URL: Mediathek Neuengamme (neuengamme-ausstellungen.info) (access date: 17.11.2023). Moss T. Remaking Berlin: A History of the City through Infrastructure, 1920–2020. Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press Publ., 2020, 452 p. Webseite der KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg. URL: Flossenbürg | KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg (gedenkstaette-flossenbuerg.de) (access date: 17.11.2023). Webseite der KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen. URL: Die Endphase - KZ-Gedenkstätte Mauthausen (mauthausen-memorial.org) (access date: 17.11.2023). Webseite der KZ-Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen URL: 1936-1945 Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen | Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen (sachsenhausen-sbg.de) (access date: 17.11.2023). Webseite des Forschungsprojekts des «Förderverein Buchenwald E.V.». URL: Förderverein Buchenwald e.V. (foerderverein-buchenwald.de) (access date: 17.11.2023). Website «Zwangsarbeit in der Hamburger Kriegswirtschaft 1939-1945». URL: Zwangsarbeit in der Hamburger Kriegswirtschaft 1939-1945 (zwangsarbeit-in-hamburg.de) (access date: 17.11.2023).
Author's info: Tat`yana V. Evdokimova, DSc in History, Professor, Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogic University, Volgograd, Russia, eva_tan@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0017-1363
Co-author's info: Viktor A. Smusev, Museum-Reserve ‟Battle of Stalingrad”, Volgograd, Russia, petrencko.1999@yandex.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1175-0763