Rudolf Wolters - Nazi Era

Nazi Era

In 1933, Wolters returned to Berlin, where he briefly worked as an assistant in Speer's office before returning to the Reichsbahn, this time getting paid for his work. Speer had forged a close relationship with Hitler, and in late 1936, Speer informed Wolters that the dictator would soon appoint Speer as Generalbauinspektor (GBI) or General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital, and suggested that Wolters resign his post with the railway and come work for him again. Wolters did so, beginning work at the GBI office in January 1937 as a Head of Department in the Planning Bureau. Wolters was one of a number of young, well-paid assistants of Speer at the GBI, who were collectively nicknamed "Speer's Kindergarten". Most of the Kindergarteners were not Nazi Party members, since Speer found that Party duties interfered with working time, and the Kindergarten was expected to work long hours. Speer had Hitler's permission to hire non-Nazis, so the GBI became something of a political sanctuary.

Wolters later wrote of his views at this time:

I had viewed Hitler and his movement with some skepticism, but when the abolition of the multi-party mess removed the obscenity of unemployment, and the first 1,000 kilometers of autobahns opened up a new era of mobility, I too saw the light: this was the time when Churchill said he hoped Great Britain would have a man like Hitler in time of peril, and when high church dignitaries and distinguished academics paid the Führer homage.

Much of Wolters' work at the GBI was connected to Hitler's plan for the large scale reconstruction of Berlin. The dictator had placed Speer in charge of this plan. The centerpiece of the scheme was a grand boulevard, 4.8 kilometres (3.0 mi) long, dubbed by Speer as the Prachtstrasse (Street of Magnificence) or "North–South Axis", for which the main design responsibility was delegated to Wolters. Wolters was also responsible for transport rings in the new Berlin, for museums, and for the GBI's press office. In 1939, Wolters became responsible for the architecture portion of the magazine, Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich (Art in the German Reich).

Wolters made several trips abroad in connection with his duties for the GBI. He visited the United States to study advanced transport systems, and Paris for the 1937 international exposition there. In 1939, Joseph Goebbels appointed him Exhibition Commissioner. Wolters took charge of organizing German architectural exhibits presented in other countries. Until 1943, Wolters traveled to other European capitals, and in addition to his duties as commissioner, gathered political intelligence. On his return, Wolters passed along his insights to Speer and some of these thoughts reached Hitler's ears.

In 1940, Wolters, a longtime diarist, suggested to Speer that he begin keeping a Chronik, or chronicle of the GBI's activities. Speer agreed, and instructed department heads to send Wolters raw material for the Chronik on a regular basis. Among other matters, the Chronik detailed the GBI's responsibility for administering a 1939 amendment to the Nuremberg Laws which allowed Aryan landlords to evict Jewish tenants with virtually no notice. For example, the entry for August 1941 included this information: "According to a Speer directive a further action for the clearing of some five thousand Jewish flats is being started." The November entry noted that "roughly 4,500 Jews were evacuated". The dispossessed Jews were sent to the occupied territories, with the newspapers reporting, as directed by Goebbels: "Over the past few days many Jews have hurriedly left Germany, leaving debts behind them."

Wolters was given the additional task in 1941 of setting up a special section of the government publishing house which specialized in works of architecture. Wolters wrote several books on the Third Reich's architectural works during the war years. He rejected the notion that Nazi architecture was an imitation of classical models: "Those who speak of neo-classicism have not understood the spirit of our buildings."

In February 1942, following the death of Fritz Todt, Hitler appointed Speer as Minister of Armaments and War Production. Wolters followed Speer to his new ministry, becoming head of the Department of Culture, Media, and Propaganda of the Organization Todt. Wolters continued his Chronik in the new position.

In December 1943, Speer put Wolters in charge of planning for the reconstruction of bombed German cities. Wolters organized a working group of about twenty architects and city planners, mostly from northern Germany. The work of this group, known as the Arbeitsstab Wiederaufbauplanung (Task Force for Reconstruction Planning), would form the basis for the actual postwar reconstruction of Germany. Speer, who authorized the group, saw an opportunity to make German cities more habitable in the age of the automobile. The group sought solutions which would use the existing street system, rather than the grand ceremonial boulevards common in Nazi city planning. In addition, the Arbeitsstab issued extensive guidelines, ranging from the width of avenues that carried streetcar lines to the ratio of theatre seats to inhabitants.

Wolters rarely met Hitler, and only in the company of other members of Speer's office. He later recorded,

Of course, from these few experiences, I cannot judge Hitler's personality, but having shared with Speer his virtually daily contacts with him, and being familiar with Hitler's ideas, for example, on town planning, I think that commentators are making it easy for themselves now when, as they frequently do, they resort in their descriptions to simplistic epitaphs such as "buck private", "wall painter", "petit-bourgeois philistine", or "history's greatest criminal".

Wolters' longtime secretary, Marion Riesser, was half-Jewish, and Wolters protected her throughout the war. In late 1944, word reached them that those with Jewish ancestry who remained free would be called up and used for cannon fodder. Wolters met with Riesser and the three other half-Jews in the Speer organizations, telling them if it became necessary (which it did not), the four would be transferred to essential war factories where they would be safe. Wolters told them, "With Albert Speer's help one can do anything."

In February 1945, as the Nazi regime collapsed, Speer instructed Wolters to take other high-ranking officials in his department, including Heinrich Lübke, and set up architectural offices in the north of Germany to work on large-scale prefabricated housing. Speer expected to join them, but not then, as he anticipated that the Allies would want to use his expertise towards the reconstruction of Germany. This did not come to pass; Speer was arrested and charged with war crimes.