by David Edgar
SPEER. Well, I said, the decoration for a rifle meeting. Not for a May Day rally to be addressed by the Chancellor of Germany.
HANKE (looking at another design). And you think that this is better. Just these . . . three big flags.
SPEER. Well, they are are tall. But like the pillars of the Parthenon, they are proportionate.
HANKE hands him the drawings.
HANKE. Well, then. Why not.
HANKE goes out.
SPEER (out front). And I have to say that the effect was considered something of a triumph.
We see the flags.
So much so, that Goebbels claimed it as his own idea. And when the time came to design the annual party rally at Nuremberg in 1933, I was called to Munich.
1.3.5 Munich, June 1933
Enter HESS, now 39, who takes the drawings from SPEER and looks at them.
HESS. It is an eagle.
SPEER. Yes.
HESS. Around 20 metres wide?
SPEER. That’s right. Of course . . .
HESS. And mounted . . .
SPEER. On a truss. With nails.
HESS. Just like a butterfly.
SPEER. The idea is to overwhelm the viewer with its power and strength.
HESS. Hm. Only the Führer can decide if this will do.
A decision.
You will go and see him. He is here in Munich, in his apartment on the Prinzregentenstrasse. That will do.
HESS gives SPEER back the drawings and goes out. We see a MAN’s back, sitting at a desk. SPEER approaches him.
SPEER(to CASALIS). And so there he was. Sitting, looking at a pistol he’d dismantled on his desk. He didn’t look up once. I put the drawing down, he looked it, and said:
HITLER. Agreed.
And now we see the great eagle too.
CASALIS. And that was it? How did you feel?
SPEER. I felt – well, maybe, just a little disappointed. But he was the Chancellor of Germany. And then having finished Goebbels’ flat in record time, I was asked to join the team rebuilding the Chancellor’s apartments. Out of which arose an incident which was far from disappointing.
1.4.1 Chancellory apartments, Berlin, October 1933
SPEER goes out as HITLER enters, at speed, followed by his adjutant Julius SCHAUB and other AIDES. SCHAUB is 35, currently a Sergeant, though he will rise to General by 1945 without substantially changing his role. There could be painters and plasterers at work.
HITLER. When is this happening? I was assured that this was happening. Ah. It has happened.
He looks upwards.
Yesterday this room had not been plastered. Now it has. The ceiling moulding’s very handsome.
ANNEMARIE and WOLTERS rush in.
And the windows? When will they be glazed?
WOLTERS (looking in panic at a sheaf of worknotes). Um – I . . . I believe that they are due . . .
SPEER enters in a hurry. He now wears a waistcoat, collar and tie. He has a large plaster mark on his coat.
ANNEMARIE (prompting). The windows.
SPEER. Yes. The glazing in this section will begin on Friday.
HITLER. Will begin?
SPEER. And will be completed.
HITLER. And is the work on schedule, as a whole?
SPEER. It is.
Pause.
HITLER. I am in a hurry. All I have now are the state secretary’s apartments. How am I supposed to invite anybody there? It’s ridiculous how penny-pinching the Republic was. The entrance! And the elevator!
Slight pause. Suddenly, looking straight at SPEER.
You say this will be done on time?
SPEER. Yes, my Führer.
HITLER. So many people tell me what I need’s impossible.
SPEER. This is absolutely possible.
HITLER looks piercingly at SPEER.
HITLER. You are the man who refurbished Dr Goebbels’ flat. And designed the flags for the May Day rally at the Tempelhof?
SPEER. Yes, my Führer. But here of course I am merely making sure that the work’s completed in the timescale you have set.
HITLER. Of course. Well, you must come to lunch.
SPEER. Thank you my Führer. I look forward to it.
SPEER gives a slight bow. HITLER works out SPEER’s mistake.
HITLER. I meant, today.
SPEER’s second thought is the plaster on his jacket. He can’t stop looking down at it.
Don’t worry about that.
He turns and goes. SPEER turns to his colleagues.
WOLTERS. Who would have thought . . .
ANNEMARIE. Herr Speer.
SPEER. Well, I . . .
SCHAUB. Herr Speer, I think the Führer means that you should follow him.
SPEER. Ah. Right.
SPEER hurries out, followed by SCHAUB, into:
1.4.2 Hitler’s apartments
HITLER has a blue jacket with a party badge pinned on to it. SPEER hurries in.
SPEER. I’m sorry, I didn’t realise you intended –
HITLER. Now, do you think that this will do?
He hands SPEER the jacket.
SPEER. But surely, this is your own special –
HITLER. Please.
SPEER hurries to change.
So tell me, how did you complete the Goebbels project by that deadline?
SPEER. Well, naturally, my team were all infused with commitment to the task –
HITLER. – with National Socialist ardour. Naturally. And?
SPEER. And I persuaded them to work around the clock.
HITLER. But even so . . . ?
SPEER. I had to dry the plaster every night, with an industrial fan I borrowed from a laundry.
HITLER. Then I have made the right decision.
SPEER has changed his jacket. HITLER looks fixedly into SPEER’s eyes. After a moment, SPEER turns away.
Or have I?
SPEER turns back, staring into HITLER’s eyes. Enter SCHAUB, allowing both SPEER and HITLER to break the stare.
SCHAUB. Your guests await, my Führer.
HITLER. Good. Come, let me introduce you to the Merry Chancellor’s Café.
HITLER hands SCHAUBSPEER’s old jacket and leads him out towards:
1.4.3 Hitler’s dining room in the Chancellory apartments
The LUNCH GUESTS are standing, waiting for Hitler’s arrival. They are all men, mostly in Party or military brown: they include DÖNITZ, SCHIRACH, the elegant and patrician Colonel Nicolas VON BELOW(25) and the bull-necked and balding Dr Fritz TODT (44). They could also include NEURATH and FUNK. HITLER comes in, SPEER following. The conversation dries up as HITLER quickly works the room.
HITLER. Party Comrade Schirach.
SCHIRACH. Heil, my Führer.
HITLER. Dr Todt.
TODT. My Führer.
HITLER(to DÖNITZ). Admiral.
Enter HESS, clearly late. He sees SPEER standing nervously on the edge of things, in Hitler’s jacket.
HITLER (to von BELOW). Colonel.
VON BELOW. Führer.
HESS. Speer what are you wearing?
EVERYONE turns and looks.
Speer, this will not do. That is the Führer’s party badge!
HITLER. Yes, and the Führer’s jacket too. Herr Speer’s was soiled in his morning’s work.
HESS. My Führer, I apologise for lateness.
HITLER, going to his place at the table:
HITLER. No matter. No doubt you had last minute orders for your ‘special cook’.
Laughter.
I have the best vegetarian chef in Germany.
He sits. Others sitting. SPEER doesn’t know where to go.
And yet here I am . . . surrounded by eaters of burnt carrion! Herr Speer, please, sit by me.
After a moment, SPEER hurries over to sit by HITLER, who turns to HESS.
Now, Hess, you know Herr Speer.
HESS. I do.
HITLER. He refurbished Dr Goebbels’ rooms in record time.
And he conceived the podium display at the May Day rally.
HESS. Not to mention the eagle design at Nuremberg.
HITLER. Ah.
SPEER. Indeed, my Führer, you did me the honour of approving my design in person.
HITLER looks to SPEER, a little surprised. Then he turns back to the company.
HITLER. I am asked why I am so concerned with beauty, and I answer with a question.
Slight pause. No one likes to volunteer the question.
It is this. How could the great betrayal have occurred, in 1918, quite so quickly, so dramatically?
Slight pause.
And the answer is, as I have said a thousand times, that the best of Germany had been destroyed, shot to blazes by French niggers in the trenches. So but the weakest elements remained. Leaderless, feminised, and naturally prey to any revolutionary bacillus Jewish agitators might care to spread among them. That is why our only duty is to purge the nation of this pestilence, to pass on a healthy Germany to future generations. That is why I surround myself with young men who are passionately committed to the pure and to the beautiful. Those for whom the word ‘impossible’ does not exist!
He turns to SPEER, gazing into his eyes.
Of course. I remember you exactly.
1.4.4 Berlin, April 1934
The lunch party disappears. SPEER breaks forward, to CASALIS, handing HITLER’s jacket to SCHAUB:
SPEER. So do you see? Do you understand? At the age of 28, to be plucked from nothing, to be chosen as the brightest and the best of my profession, by the man who as we saw it was the saviour of Germany.
CASALIS. ‘Saviour’. ‘Chosen’.
SPEER. Yes.
A social affair. Enter HANKE with MARGRET in formal dress. HANKE hands SPEER his jacket.
HANKE. Well, go on, Speer. Now is the moment.
SPEER (to CASALIS). The privilege of being in his closest circle.
HANKE. Introduce her.
SPEER. And yes, the thrill of being close to power.
HITLER comes over.
HITLER. Speer. You are able to grace us with your presence. Can this mean that we’ve run out of work for you?
SPEER. No of course not. Führer, may I present my wife?
HITLER. Your wife?
Slight pause.
HITLER. Of course. I am enchanted by the privilege of your acquaintance. Frau Speer, how do you do.
He kisses her hand.
MARGRET. I am very well, my Führer.
HITLER. A redoubled pleasure, being unaware for all these months of your existence.
MARGRET flashes a look at SPEER.
SPEER. Um I . . .
HITLER. You will forgive me, madam, if I ask how long . . . ?
MARGRET. Six years, my Führer.
HITLER. What? Six years?
SPEER. Um, I . . .
HITLER. And may I ask if there is any more concealment? Have you children?
MARGRET. No, my Führer, not as yet.
SPEER. In fact, my Führer, as it happens we are planning –
HITLER. What, six years married and no children? Speer.
Slight pause.
On this occasion I can hardly praise your prompt delivery.
EVERYONE laughs.
Frau Speer, your husband is going to make me buildings that will last a thousand years.
He looks at SPEER, bows, turns and goes. SPEER turns to CASALIS.
1.4.5 Spandau, 1947-1950
SPEER. And from then on, it was one task after another. Buildings. Pavilions. The Chancellory. And of course the party congresses.
CASALIS. The searchlights in the sky.
SPEER. The cathedral of light, as it was called.
Which emerges from the darkness behind SPEER.
Which served to dramatise the spectacle, while concealing the unattractive paunches of the party bureaucrats. It’s funny, isn’t it, that if anything, it will be these, dramatics, that I’ll be remembered for?
CASALIS. Does that concern you?
SPEER. Do you think it should? Sometimes I feel quite stirred, that the most successful creation of my life is an immaterial phenomenon.
CASALIS. Well, I can understand that. Dealing also as I do with immaterial phenonema. What is not there, as well as what is there.
SPEER. What do you mean?
CASALIS. I mean that perhaps those searchlights concealed more than the bellies of the bureaucrats.
SPEER. In Nuremberg, they had psychologists. They showed us inkblots. We had to tell them the first thing that we thought of.
CASALIS. And?
SPEER. I said: ‘You’ve got it upside down’.
Behind SPEER, Germania is beginning to materialise.
CASALIS. Yes of course. It is possible to read too much into these things. Please do go on.
SPEER. And then one day in 1936 I was told there was another job for me. ‘The greatest and the best of all’. Well, even he had got to be impressed with this.
CASALIS (surprised). uh – Hitler?
SPEER (suddenly aware of his slippage). My father.
1.5 General Inspectorate, Berlin, 1938
Suddenly through the darkness we see a vision of the new Berlin at night. In fact, it is the model of Speer’s design for the city Hitler would call Germania, 100 metres long, erected in the basement of the General Inspectorate of Buildings, Speer’s office in Berlin. We understand this when what initially appears to be a giant appears behind the huge, domed hall at the end of the main north-south axis. It is Speer’s 75-year-old FATHER. He has a scrap of paper he tries to look at in the gloom. He looks at the model. Then he calls:
FATHER. I am looking . . . I understand this is . . . I am looking for the headquarters of the General Inspectorate . . .
Lights come on, illuminating the model. Enter WOLTERS followed by ANNEMARIE.
WOLTERS. Herr Speer, how good to see you.
ANNEMARIE. We didn’t know that you’d arrived.
ANNEMARIE nods to WOLTERS to go off and find SPEER. WOLTERS goes.
FATHER. I lost . . . I must have come round the wrong way. There was a garden and a little door . . .
ANNEMARIE. My name is Annemarie Wittenberg. I am your son’s secretary.
FATHER. He has a secretary?
ANNEMARIE. Oh, he has a staff of 85!
She sees SPEER coming in and goes to him.
SPEER. Sir, you’re here.
ANNEMARIE (whispers). He came in through the Chancellory entrance.
SPEER is going to his FATHER. They shake hands.
FATHER. Albert.
SPEER. You are welcome, sir.
Pause. SPEER waits for his FATHER to acknowledge the model.
FATHER. You’re not in party uniform.
SPEER. No, I wear civilian clothes.
Pause.
FATHER(to ANNEMARIE). He was always slovenly in dress, as a young man.
SPEER. Sir, you will remember Rudi Wolters.
FATHER looks to the only person WOLTERS can be.
FATHER. Yes. I think I do.
WOLTERS. How are you sir?
FATHER. I am so-so.
SPEER is growing desperate.
SPEER. How is my mother?
FATHER. She is in good spirits. As are both your brothers.
Slight pause.
How is your family?
ANNEMARIE can’t bear it any more.
ANNEMARIE. Herr Speer, this is the model for the new Berlin.
FATHER. Yes so I see.
A telephone rings offstage.
ANNEMARIE. Herr Wolters, I’m sure Herr Speer would welcome a short interpretation.
ANNEMARIE goes out to answer the telephone. The FATHER looks at the model as WOLTERS starts the usual pitch.
WOLTERS. Well, sir. The overall principle is the intersection of four thoroughfares of equal width, themselves linked at their extremities with the autobahn –
FATHER. So where’s the south station?
Re-enter ANNE
MARIE in some concern.
SPEER. Well, sir, in fact, the reordering of rail is Herr Wolters prime responsibility/. I’m sure –
FATHER. And the Tiergarten?
SPEER. But the major feature is the North-South axis flanked by state and representative buildings, 120 metres wide and five kilometres long running from –
FATHER. Ah. the figures. Always Albert and his figures. You know he wanted to do mathematics as a life career?
SPEER. Yes, sir. And it was you who persuaded me to change my mind.
ANNEMARIE (whispers). The Chief is on his way.
SPEER (whispers). He’s what?
FATHER. Rather than end up at a dead-end university, cramming little mediocrities to scrape through their exams.
SPEER. Well, I think we can agree that between us we took the right decision. But now, sir, I am told that we have guests . . .
FATHER. What at this hour?
The door at the back opens and Colonel VON BELOW admits HITLER with FRAU VON BELOW, 20, FRAU ANNI BRANDT, 33, and EVA BRAUN, 26.
HITLER. Come, come, this is much better.
SPEER. Yes, at this hour.
EVA BRAUN (seeing the model). Oh, look!
FRAU VON BELOW (to VON BELOW). What’s this?
HITLER (barring the model). Stop. Now.
VON BELOW. The Führer will outline –
HITLER. – will explain. I have always said: a new nation needs new buildings, most especially in its capital. Ladies and gentlemen, Germania.
A ‘reveal’ gesture.
EVA BRAUN. Well, look at that.
FRAU VON BELOW. Aha.
HITLER. And, see – here is its creator.
FRAU BRANDT. Good evening, Herr Speer.
SPEER (trying to introduce his FATHER). My Führer,/ may I introduce –
HITLER. We have all been looking at some movie. It is stupid. I ring Goebbels, ‘what is this stupid film? In the bin with it, in the bin!’ Now shall you explain it or shall I?
SPEER. My Führer, I would like you –
HITLER (prompting). The principle . . .
SPEER (giving up). The principle is the meeting of four equal thoroughfares, linked at their extremities –
HITLER. Yes, yes, yes. But this.
SPEER. Well, starting with the east-west axis, running along what is now –
HITLER. No. No. Starting with the North-South axis, here, Frau von Below, five kilometres long, 120 metres wide, do you know what that is wider than?
