Hi,
I'm currently attempting this personality question in relation to Albert Speer:
"All great individuals are a product of their time." To what extent does the study of your personality support this view? (15 marks)
I was wondering if anyone could help me out with some type of structure or what I should be writing for this as I'm not really sure what events to refer to etc.
i recently did this question, the points i used were as follows
1. he was a product of his time in his early life as he too was swept away by hitler's charisma and skills as an orator
some quotes to back it up from albert speer himself:
"to me, i joined hitler's party not the nazi party"
"captivated by the magic of Hitler's voice"
"here it seemed to me was hope"
the last two quotes are reference to his opinion of hitler as a speaker
then to show he is a product of his times i had a quote by cbs correspondent william shirer, who heard hitler - "hitler had a magic power to sway millions with his voice"
therefore a product of his times as he too like many discontented germans were swept away by hitler's charisma to join the nazi party
2. speer's rise to prominence was primary due to opportunities which came his way, therefore making him a product of his time
eg. his first patron as a nazi car driver was karl hanke, who was the leader of kreisleuteng west and as hanke progressed through the ranks to state secretary in the propaganda ministry, he brought speer up with him. hanke provided him with his first job, a series of minor renovations for his and Goebbel's headquarters, which impressed Hitler (speer noted that this commission was "the luckiest turning point" in his life) therefore, highlighting how he was a product of his times as he was provided with opportunities to initially rise to power
eg. he also received promotions through the deaths of troost and todt and therefore was a product of his time as he came to power initially through circumstance
3. however, his actual success as armaments minister and hitler's architect has been interpreted as a result of his own skill therefore making him not entirely a product of his time
ARCHITECT
- speer was a good organiser and understood "the pyschology of the movement" (fest) which enhanced the image of the nazi party as grand and stable (therefore not product of own time)
ARMAMENTS MINISTER
- was highly efficient
- fest suggests that without speer hitler would not have been able to sustain the war and that speer "Reshaped the ministry according to his own ideas" including replacing civil servants with experts in their field
- his efficiency was on display as in the 1st 6 months (mar-july 1942) armaments production was 3x greater than the 1941 figure by 1944
- kershaw notes speer's rise as armaments minister as due to his "driving ambition and undoubted organisational talent"
- therefore, his actual success was not due to being a product of his time but his actual organisational skills
4. However, he was a product of his time in regards to his indifference of the exploitation used by the nazis
- eg. as armaments minister speed needed to expand his workforce and used slave labour from foreign occupied territories and concentration camps
- sereny therefore suggested that human cost was not speer's concern rather efficiency was more important which was consistent with other technocrats who were absorbed with their own work but failed to see the moral dimension
- eg. at the dora factory, speer demands conditions be better not for the welfare of the workers but for their efficiency
- therefore, product of time r.e suceeding at the expense of the jews and tacit acceptance of it
5. finally, not product of time re. nuremberg trial
- distinguished himself from other nazi leaders through remorse and shared responsibility
- journalist at nuremberg saw him as "the only defendant whom i respect for his personal honesty and courage"
- went against the rest of nazi leaders who wanted to immortalise hitler at nuremberg
- schmidt sees speer as "an organiser of his own legend" therefore emphasising that he was not a product of his time as he, unlike the other nazi leaders, due to his remorse and shared responsbility without admitting his own individual guilt
sorry for ranting on but thats how my essay was structured in terms of ideas so just to wrap quickly
1. early life = part of time because swept away by hitler's charisma
2. early rise to prominence = part of time as rose due to opportunities
3. success as architect and armaments = not part of time due to skill as organiser therefore built his own success
4. was a part of his time in his exploitation of slave labour for efficiency
5. nuremberg trial = not part of time as built his own image and therefore avoided death sentence
hopefully that makes it clear as i rambled a bit ahaha