Germany

Battle of the Architects, Part 4

Published by carolyn on Wed, 2014-07-23 21:28

Hermann Giesler on left; Albert Speer on right,

The following is something of a masterpiece of satiric wit from Giesler. -cy

The Column Saint

 From Hermann Giesler’s memoir Ein Anderer Hitler
Der Säulenheilige, pages 355-360
1977 edition, Druffel-Verlag

Translated byWilhelm Kriessmann and Carolyn Yeager
copyright Carolyn Yeager 2014

In the year 113 the Roman senate erected a gigantic column for the emperor and military leader Trajan. (Shown right) On the capital of the column stood the gilded statue of the honored.

The art historian Bruhns writes ”Used to gigantism and always striving to exceed, Rome created that form of eternal triumph which then did mankind not less convince of its greater impression than the older kind of triumphal arch, now of a lesser rank. As the colossal column expresses the idea of “height” exceptionally well, it can also be used very well for the adoration of the “highest.” Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius were given similar columns in Rome. Arcadius got his at the new capital Constantinople.

When Europe during the Napoleon era felt itself specially close to Rome’s greatness, it presented the new emperor with the Vendome column in Paris—and his conqueror, Alexander of Russia, a second one in Petersburg.”

The emerging Christianity overthrew the images of antique greatness and now paid homage to its believers on imposing columns. After the final decline of the ancient dignities around the 4th and 5th centuries, ascetic Christians requested the top of the Roman columns as pleasing to God. The best known among them was Symion Stylites from Aleppo. Those ascetics and penitents, called stylites or “Säulenheilige (column saints), strove to increase their ranking  by self-elevation.

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architects

Will Putin follow Stalin's Katyn strategy on the airline shoot-down?

Published by carolyn on Mon, 2014-07-21 00:18

REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

In dealing with the tragedy of the downed Malaysian airliner MH17, the leader of the Russian Federation, President Vladimir Putin is behaving more and more like a throwback to Josef Stalin and his cover-up of the Katyn massacre. It was Stalin who approved the murder of thousands of Polish nationals in 1940, including military officers, dumping their bodies in mass graves hidden from view in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Russia.

If the Wehrmacht had not invaded Russia in Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, the evidence of this massacre would never have been found. Here is a recount of how the crime was discovered, taken from Wikipedia:

The government of National-Socialist Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in 1943. When the London-based  Polish government-in-exile asked for an investigation by the International Red Cross, Stalin immediately severed diplomatic relations with it. The Soviet Union claimed the victims had been murdered by the Nazis, and continued to deny responsibility for the massacres until 1990, when it officially acknowledged and condemned the perpetration of the killings by the NKVD, as well as the subsequent cover-up by the Soviet government.

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News, Germany, World War II

Battle of the Architects, Part 3

Published by carolyn on Fri, 2014-07-18 17:36

Hermann Giesler on left; Albert Speer on right,

In this section of his book, Giesler gives his impressions and an architectural critique on Albert Speer's June 1971 interview in Playboy magazine. I have included it in its entirety, even the more technical parts that were, in a few places, difficult for me to decipher from the part of Wilhelm Kriessmann's original translation which never went through the editing process between the two of us before he died in December 2012.  ~Carolyn Yeager

Speer in the "Playboy"

 From Hermann Giesler’s memoir Ein Anderer Hitler
Speer im "Playboy", pages 318-329
1977 edition, Druffel-Verlag

Translated byWilhelm Kriessmann and Carolyn Yeager
copyright Carolyn Yeager 2014

In the Summer 1971 my son brought me from America a peculiar magazine: Playboy, June 1971, the great interview “Albert Speer—Hitler’s closest confidant and second in command.”1 That interview in the sensationally edited magazine is accompanied by ill-reputed and illustrated jokes and by naked, boasting 'girls'. The answers given by the great ethicist and titan of repentance to the smartly questioning reporter, Eric Norden, in the multimillion-read magazine, are unique and way-out, and contain such wicked passages that they become unbelievable even at dimensions preferred by Speer.

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Germany wins the World Cup in soccer

Published by carolyn on Mon, 2014-07-14 02:21

Mario Goetze scores single winning goal in extra time

We are the champions! Germany captain Philipp Lahm holds the World Cup aloft at the Maracana Stadium on Sunday, July 13, 2014.

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News, Germany

Battle of the Architects, Part 2

Published by carolyn on Wed, 2014-07-09 02:25

Hermann Giesler on left; Albert Speer on right,

The Contradictious Speer

 From Hermann Giesler’s memoir Ein Anderer Hitler
Der zwiespältige Speer, pages 332-339
1977 edition, Druffel-Verlag

Translated  by Wilhelm Kriessmann and Carolyn Yeager
copyright Carolyn Yeager 2014

This section from Giesler's memoir Ein Anderer Hitler deals with his correction of Albert Speer’s insulting statements about the Fuehrer at occasions when Giesler was present or knew differently because of his own experience with Hitler.

To add some perspective to Giesler’s account, we remind you that Speer’s biographer Gitta Sereny titled her book, Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth.

In addition, Nicolaus von Below, Hitler’s Luftwaffe adjutant from 1937-45, wrote in his memoir At Hitler’s Side about an incident of seeing a striking red color appear in the sky while in the company of Hitler on the terrace at Obersaltzberg in Aug. 1939. He told Hitler it augured a “bloody war.” He said he “recounted this conversation to Speer in 1967 but later he (Speer) attributed my remark erroneously to Hitler in his book Erinnerungen.”1

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architects

The Heretics' Hour: Traitors and Misfits - Richard Sorge

Published by carolyn on Tue, 2014-07-08 00:44
 
00:00

July 7, 2014

Called the best spy of all time for his "impeccable" work, Richard Sorge was a German national born in Russia of a German father, Russian mother who became a very successful intelligence agent for the Soviet Union against Weimar Germany following WWI. When Hitler rose to power, Sorge joined the National-Socialist party and made a convincing 'Nazi.' Other highlights:

  • Ernst Zundel writes to Ingrid that treason within caused Germany to lose the war in 1945;
  • Sorge's great uncle was a friend and associate of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and a leading Socialist labor organizer in the U.S.;
  • Sorge became an avowed Marxist because of disillusion about the war and bourgeois political complacency;
  • As an secret agent of the Red Army's Fourth Department, he worked in Britain, Germany and Shanghai as an agricultural journalist/expert before being assigned to Japan in 1933;
  • Though he developed a useful network of informants, his greatest success came from gaining the trust and friendship of the German Ambassdor to Japan, and others in the embassy in Tokyo;
  • Sorge passed on the actual date of the Barbarossa invasion but was not believed, however his further information was and saved Moscow for Stalin;
  • Sorge was arrested in 1941 because he failed to heed warnings in time, perhaps due to depression and drinking;
  • Sorge was hanged by the Japanese in Nov. 1944 because the Soviet Union refused to recognize him as "one of theirs" when Japan 3 times tried to arrange a prisoner exchange.

Image: Cover of the brilliantly executed 'graphic novel' (like a comic book) about Richard Sorge by award-winning German cartoonist Isabel Kreitz.

The Heretics' Hour: What is and isn't National-Socialism

Published by carolyn on Mon, 2014-06-30 19:05
 
00:00

June 30, 2014

Of the Winterhilfswerk Hitler said, “This great campaign against hunger and cold is governed by this principle: We have broken the international solidarity of the proletariat. We want to build the living national solidarity of the German people!” 

National-Socialism cannot easily be separated from Adolf Hitler and the German Third Reich even though some try to do it. To put it in biblical language, Many say they are National-Socialist, but few there are who can truly demonstrate it.

  • Four examples in as many days of those claiming to be N-S when Carolyn thinks they don't quite fit the bill;
  • The foundations of National-Socialism lie in the German Volkisch nationalist movement combined with the anti-communist Freicorps paramilitary culture following the World War, plus the humiliation of Versailles;
  • Where and how Fascism and Nat-Soc veer away from each other;
  • Idealism is a characteristic attributed to Germans in particular which is abused by the Jewish spirit of selfishness and materialism;
  • Scientific racism and antisemitism are essential to protect the Folk, otherwise it's only economic theory;
  • Carolyn reads off some of her family genealogy and talks a little bit about her family culture.

"Hitler's Table Talk" Study Hour: Episode 16

Published by carolyn on Thu, 2014-06-26 11:11
 
00:00

June 26, 2014

Adolf Hitler in pre-Chancellor days, signs something for Julius Streicher, NSDAP Gauleiter of Nuremberg.


Carolyn Yeager and Ray Goodwin read and comment on the Dec. 17-31, 1941 dinner table monologues by the German Leader, as taken down in shorthand by trusted aide, attorney Heinrich Heim. Some highlights of this episode:

  • Hitler tells stories about Karl Lueger and Georg von Schoenerer of Vienna, plus other mayors of German cities;

  • The difficulty of building an art collection when Jews are dishonest dealers - finding the Bordone Venus;

  • More on how cooked food causes disease, and the achievements of the Party men;

  • Hitler defends Julius Streicher, who has been removed as Gauleiter of Nuremberg - says Dietrich Eckart had also thought men like Streicher were necessary;

  • Hitler treats his political opponents well;

  • Ruhr industrial district - the need for increased production of coal and iron;

  • Some thoughts on the Japanese.

The Heretics' Hour: Traitors and Misfits - Albert Speer, ambitious disloyalist

Published by carolyn on Mon, 2014-06-23 19:40
 
00:00

June 23, 2014

Carolyn goes for a three-hour show because Speer is such an interesting character! Some highlights:

  • How Architect Speer found work with the NS Party, came to the attention of Hitler and designed the Zeppelin Field Stadium;
  • After the death of Fritz Todt; Speer becomes Reich Minister of Armaments in 1942;
  • Speer's Final Statement at the Nuremberg Tribunal reveals his strategy of total cooperation with his captors
  • Former assistant and friend Rudolf Wolters disapproves of Speer's increasing harshness toward Hitler and insistence on piling guilt upon himself, and breaks the relationship;
  • Speer goes out of his way [scroll to June 15, 1977] to support the Jewish fable of extermination of Jews in concentration camps;
  • Hermann Giesler points out lies and/or total contadictions told by Speer about Adolf Hitler in times when he (Giesler) was present;
  • Speer seemed totally bent on regaining the respect of the world by professing total disrespect for everything about the Third Reich he had served.

Image: Albert Speer enjoys the confidence of Adolf Hitler during a walk at Wolf's Lair military headquarters in East Prussia. Enlarge

Giesler on Speer: The Battle of the Architects

Published by carolyn on Sat, 2014-06-21 12:32

Hermann Giesler on left; Albert Speer on right, both in their NSDAP uniform and wearing the Golden Party Badge.

In his memoir about the Adolf Hitler he knew (Ein Anderer Hitler), Hermann Giesler devoted a section to his difficult relationship with architect Albert Speer. Divided into six parts, it covers 42 pages, from pg. 318 to 360. Wilhelm Kriessmann translated the entire section in 201l, but we decided not to include it as part of our series from Ein Anderer Hitler, but to publish it separately. However, Willis Carto never decided to buy the right to publish it in The Barnes Review, as he did the others, even after we condensed only selected parts of it.

Thus it is that now, several years later, I am finally getting back to this project and putting what I consider the most relevant parts of Giesler's commentary on Speer into shape for publication on my website. I will first post these parts separately in the blog, and then archive them under Ein Anderer Hitler on the sidebar.

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