Martin Kitchen > Quotes

“Speer to him was ‘a brilliant man, incapable of abstract thinking and I think incapable of sensual love and thus, finally, an incomplete man’.63 Pity, compassion, sympathy and empathy were not part of Speer’s nature. It would seem that he could only be touched emotionally through music and art, but to a very limited extent.64”
― Martin Kitchen, Speer: Hitler's Architect

“The V2 was also a unique weapon in that its manufacture caused more deaths than its deployment.”
― Martin Kitchen, Speer: Hitler's Architect

“Hans Kehrl admired Speer’s energy, determination and ability to find imaginative solutions to seemingly intractable problems, but he also knew that it was not enough simply to lay plans and issue orders. Without an effective administrative structure none of these ideas, however ingenious, could be put into practice. That was a fundamental structural failure of the Third Reich. The glorification of leadership in the ‘leadership principle’ led to an underestimation of the importance of subordinates.”
― Martin Kitchen, Speer: Hitler's Architect

“It is typical that Speer should be offended not by Hitler’s brutality, arbitrariness and lack of moral scruples, but by the shape of his nose or such things as his ungallant attitude to women, his lack of decorum and his poor taste.”
― Martin Kitchen, Speer: Hitler's Architect

“With the Great Depression capitalism seemed to be on its last legs and offered no hope for a better future.”
― Martin Kitchen, Speer: Hitler's Architect