Chapter II: Part VI
Chapter II: The Gambit of the West
Part VI
February 25, 1936
Adolf Hitler’s private office in the Reichschancellery had been substantially cleared upon Cristoph Scholl’s arrival at eight. He found the Führer in an anteroom, chatting with a secretary and keeping a watchful eye over the stacks of his papers that had been piled temporarily onto several folding stands. Three workmen labored at the doorway, tilting a large wooden table to get it through the narrow doorframe and into the office. The Führer had explained that chief architect Albert Speer had at last completed what Hitler only called “The First Envisionment”. Scholl could tell that the Supreme Leader was almost giddy with excitement, but decided to humor him in his mysteriousness and await Speer’s arrival to learn more. The office doors had been closed, and those in the anteroom had listened silently to the shufflings and thuds coming from within.
Just after nine, Speer emerged from the office to greet the Führer. He was a keen-looking young man of thirty, a little balding, but set with a serious, straightforward face. Hitler rushed to see him -- Speer deftly blocked his Führer’s attempts to see past him into the office -- and clasped his hands enthusiastically.
“Albert, this is Scholl, my able young adjutant.”
“I’m pleased, Herr Speer. I have, ehm, looked forward to your presentation.”
“Splendid! I am honored by your interest. Here --” From a pocket, Speer produced a photograph of himself and signed it, handing it to Scholl. “-- with my best compliments.”
Albert Speer. Photograph autographed for Cristoph Scholl, 1936.
Speer had already met the other secretaries, and so after brief greetings, he took hold of Hitler by an arm, and led him to the office door. “Are you ready?”
“Greatly.”
Speer opened the door and led the Führer inward, followed by Scholl and the secretaries.
When Scholl entered, he found the normally reserved Hitler embracing Speer ecstatically. The office was now dominated by a huge table on which there lay a large and highly detailed cardstock model of a domed building. The edges of the table were filled with page after page of sketches.
“You are a definitive genius, Speer!”
The young architect was clearly delighted to have pleased the Führer. “May I begin my presentation?”
“Yes, please do.”
“Mein Führer, Fräulein Wolf, Fräulein Falke, Herr Scholl -- these months I have labored in the first step toward the realization of the New Berlin and the New Germany. The Führer wrote me at the beginning of last month to convey his intent to enlarge the scale of this work far beyond that even he had previously envisioned. I have answered this challenge to the best of my ability.
“As an overview, one day Berlin will be born anew. Not as the inelegant industrial city of today, but as a World Capital to humble Paris, London and Rome. While the buildings of modern Berlin fall to ruin in a generation or two, Berlin Reborn will last a thousand years and three thousand more as ruins.
“Mussolini in Italy can point to the great architecture of Rome, and show his people ‘That is what we will become again. That is the timeless greatness of our race.’ Thus, he can bring his people into communion with a past that was ancient in the time of Christ. In Berlin, the buildings of Bismarck have already largely fallen away. One of the few remnants is this very building, which itself lacks an architectural greatness worthy of its function. A paper-goods company could be housed here, perhaps, but not the government of the Third Reich! Millennia hence, Germans must be able to look back on our own ruins and say: ‘That is the meaning of the German People.’
“Thus, the Führer has resolved that this city be reborn as the eternal Welthauptstadt Germania -- a fitting World Capital and monument to the German People.
“First, Berlin shall be reorganized along a central axis -- a grand ceremonial avenue running north-south three miles through the Tiergarten. This grand avenue will be used for parades, and open only to foot-traffic -- encouraging the people to take in the majesty of the city as pedestrians. A second highway, running beneath the first, will carry automobile traffic.”
From the table, Speer held up a watercolor showing hundreds of automobiles driving through a well-lit tunnel.
“At the southern end of the axis, a colossal victory arch will frame the avenue -- one hundred fifty meters high! It will be the focal point for military triumphs after the fashion of the Caesars, and through it mighty armies shall pass.
“Beyond the Arch shall be the new Chancellery. I have discussed the plans in private with the Führer, but let it suffice now to say that its largest enclosed space shall be able to contain the entire Old Reichschancellery within it!”
Fräulein Wolf gasped openly.
“That shall be the reaction of all the world, Fräulein Wolf!
“Now, proceeding southward still, a great bath and health complex will be built for the use of all Germans. Parts of the complex will be modeled on the water and steam baths of the Romans, while other buildings will be devoted to swimming, weight-lifting and the most modern forms of exercise and fitness.”
Speer showed his audience a second painting, depicting a great many nude bathers in and around a gigantic swimming pool.
“Southeast of the baths will be one of the latter stages of this project -- the closure of the Tempelhof Airport. It will be replaced by a massive and fully modern Aerodrome near Potsdam which will service the entire city. On the site of the old facility, a great university shall be founded. Not a shrine to academia like the other universities, no. This university shall be large enough for a quarter-million people to receive an education in the ways of the future German Nation. These men and women shall bring that education to the farthest corners of the world, and the university will become the great learning center of National Socialism.”
Speer paused a moment, shuffling through his sketches.
“Ah! The first stage of this project is already nearly complete. The stadium that right now is being constructed for this summer’s Olympic Games shall be, with its surrounding fields, a great center of athletics for the city, and national competitions will regularly be held there, for the entertainment and edification of the spectators.
“Moving back to the great north-south axis, it will intersect an imposing, but somewhat less grand east-west axis, along which will lie a great Opera and many other cultural and artistic buildings, as well as buildings for the furtherance of civic life.
“The junction of the two axes will be marked by a forum -- half a million square meters in size. On one side of this shall be a residence for the Führer. Opposite it, on the east, shall be a fitting headquarters for the War Ministry. A central space, designed to accommodate a million people, shall lead at the far northern end of the Great Axis to the very heart of the National Socialist movement.”
Speer gestured to the cardstock model dramatically.
Speer’s initial model of the Volkshalle.
“The Volkshalle! Central gathering place for the German People. This dome you see, Fräulein Wolf -- how tall is it?”
The woman blinked, taken aback at having been asked her opinion. “Herr Speer, I, well, hmm. I’m sorry.”
The chief architect nodded. “Herr Scholl?”
Scholl estimated the height of the columns and multiplied that up to the top of the dome.
If the columns are the first level, it must be six stories tall. “Thirty meters tall!”
A wry grin crossed Speer’s face. “Herr Scholl, you shall notice a very small model in front of the Volkshalle, on your right. Do you recognize what that is?”
“The Brandenburg Gate, but --”
“The models are exactly to scale. The Volkshalle is three
hundred meters tall.”
Hitler let out a triumphant shout, clapping Speer upon the back. Speer turned to the secretaries and Scholl.
“Here, the Führer will one day address up to two hundred thousand people at once. The Volkshalle will be auditorium, meeting hall, temple and monument. It will be the crowning symbol of the Weltherrschaft -- World Domination -- of the German People.”
The Führer now wept openly. “My Speer, my Speer. This is the new Pantheon, the new Acropolis. To think that I myself first sketched this hall, and now you have realized it. I hope that I live to see it completed.”
“When,” Scholl asked, “shall this great reorganization of Berlin be completed?”
Speer bit his lip. “It is too soon to say. It is my hope that it shall be completed some time between the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties.”
Hitler circled the model, admiring it from all angles. At last, he wiped his eyes and nodded to Speer. “I shall authorize the project immediately. Not a day must be lost.”
