by David Edgar
FRAU VON BELOW. No, I don’t my Führer.
HITLER. The Champs Elysée! Come, Frau Brandt, look here . . .
FRAU BRANDT. And those presumably are trees?
HITLER. But unlike Paris, not flanked with plutocratic utilitarian buildings, not by banks, but by monumental architecture, theatres, opera houses . . . Come, Fräulein Braun, Frau von Below, come, look here.
EVA BRAUN. Um, where?
HITLER is making FRAU BRANDT, FRAU VON BELOW and EVA BRAUN look through the arch up the boulevard to the domed palace.
HITLER. No, bend, through there . . .
FRAU BRANDT. Oh, yes, do you see, Fräulein Braun?
HITLER. The view through Speer’s triumphal arch.
SPEER. Your triumphal arch, my Führer.
EVA BRAUN. Yes, I can see, my Führer.
FRAU VON BELOW. Quite magnificent.
HITLER. Itself 72 metres taller than the Arc de Triomphe, bearing the names of the 1.8 million German war dead, leading to . . .
He runs up the North-South axis.
. . . the largest building in the world. Speer, Speer, tell us the dimensions.
SPEER. Well, it is designed to be 290 metres high.
HITLER. And seating . . .
SPEER. My Führer, you always have these figures at your fingertips.
HITLER. One hundred and eighty thousand people!
FRAU VON BELOW. Goodness.
EVA BRAUN (whispers to ANNEMARIE). What are those?
ANNEMARIE. They’re fountains, Fräulein.
FRAU BRANDT. The trees are very beautiful.
HITLER. While here is my new Chancellory, which Speer has promised me will be ready on the 10th of January 1939.
SPEER. As it will be.
HITLER. And do you know how Herr Speer will make this ready for the 10th of January next year?
EVA BRAUN. No, my Führer.
HITLER. By placing orders first for those items which take longest to produce. Which are?
FRAU VON BELOW. I’ve really no idea.
HITLER. The carpets! Can you believe that? It’s the carpets. With a logistic sense like that, this man should head the General Staff!
SPEER. My Führer, I am quite content with my present duties.
HITLER. But you must introduce me to your father.
ALL look at SPEER’s FATHER.
FRAU BRANDT. Ah.
HITLER. Who taught you I have no doubt everything you know.
HITLER goes to the FATHER, gives a kind of bow. Nervously, the FATHER puts his hand out. HITLER shakes it, but holds on, cupping the FATHER’s elbow and turning the gesture into a kind of embrace.
May I introduce Frau Brandt, who is married to my doctor. Fräulein Braun, who is visiting from Munich. My military adjutant, Colonel von Below and Frau von Below. Ladies and gentlemen, the father of my architect!
He turns back to focus on SPEER’SFATHER, who remains struck dumb.
They say I am obsessed with height and width and depth. But it is all your son. I say – 200 metres. He says – why not three?
He looks into SPEER’S FATHER’s eyes.
Now. You have the Führer. And his architect. And his plan to build a capital that will outshine even Paris, the greatest capital existing in the world. Is there anything you want to ask?
Pause.
FATHER. I would . . . I . . . as you raise the matter of the future, I would be interested to know . . . where the people, in the houses you are going to demolish . . . where they will go.
HITLER suddenly snaps round to SPEER.
HITLER. Well? That’s a question!
SPEER (unusually thrown). Um . . .
During this SCHAUB enters and comes forward.
WOLTERS(to the rescue). There is of course a comprehensive plan for the rehousing of those persons who are dispossessed. Garden suburbs will be built in which these people can be housed. Overall, the housing plan for the new Berlin will accommodate –
SPEER (back on track). The plan overall is to house eight million people.
HITLER (to the FATHER). There. You have the answer.
SCHAUB. My Führer. They have found another film.
HITLER. Well, let’s hope it’s better than the last.
The company, a little relieved, is moving to go. Again suddenly, HITLER returns to SPEER’SFATHER.
My esteemed Herr Speer. Your son is a philosopher. He builds with distant posterity in mind. He makes drawings of how the ruins of his buildings might appear when overgrown, abandoned, in a thousand years from now. Like the Pyramids or Agrigento or the Parthenon. What is left of a great age but its monuments? Your son has understood that. He is creating them.
SPEER’S FATHER is looking down, a kind of strange bow.
I too was a son who told his father that he yearned to be an artist. There the similarity ends. He told me that this was unthinkable. No! Never! What a thought!
SPEER’S FATHER is shaking.
Well, I have always said, my mission is to realise the hitherto unthinkable.
HITLER puts out his hand to SPEER’S FATHER, who does not respond. Quickly, turning to go.
What a father! What a son!
HITLER walks to SPEER, cups his arm, and walks quickly out.
FRAU BRANDT. Goodnight, Herr Speer. I hope . . . your father . . .
FRAU BRANDT, EVA BRAUN, VON BELOW, SCHAUB follow HITLER out. SPEER goes to his FATHER, tries to take his arm, but his FATHER pulls his arm away.
ANNEMARIE. Perhaps, Herr Speer . . . it’s very late.
SPEER (to ANNEMARIE). Go and call the car.
ANNEMARIE goes out.
SPEER (to his FATHER). He always likes to better me on figures.
FATHER. Hm.
SPEER. But once, I had to tell him that he was in error. We were discussing plans for the development of the Olympic Stadium. I pointed out that the athletic field did not conform to the dimensions laid down by the Federation. He replied that in 1940 the games will be in Tokyo. But after that, for all time to come, they will be here. And it will be us who will decide the necessary dimensions.
Re-enter ANNEMARIE.
ANNEMARIE. The car is here.
Slight pause.
SPEER. So, sir. What do you think?
FATHER looks at SPEER.
FATHER. I think – you’ve all gone insane.
He goes quickly out. ANNEMARIE looks back wide-eyed and then follows. SPEER to WOLTERS.
WOLTERS. He’s wrong.
SPEER. I showed Tessenow the designs for Nuremberg. He said: ‘They’re big, that’s all’.
WOLTERS. They are both wrong. How could they not be?
Slight pause.
You have not begun, Herr General Inspector.
SPEER smiles, and clasps his friend.
SPEER. ‘To have young men about me, for whom the word impossible . . . ’
WOLTERS turns to go.
Will you do the lights?
WOLTERS. Of course.
WOLTERS turns down the lights to a night effect and goes. SPEER looks at the model in the ‘moonlight’. Suddenly the door at the back opens. HITLER re-enters.
HITLER. Well, the second film was rubbish too. What did he think?
SPEER. It is hard for people of his age.
HITLER. Of course. And you are pulled two ways. You love your father, as your father. But your greater love is for your Fatherland. You must not feel guilty, it is rightly so.
Pause. HITLER looks at the model, bathed in the moonlight.
I can tell so few. My mission is to unify a single people in a single state. We are going to create a vast new Empire, combining all Germanic peoples, from Norway down to northern Italy. And your buildings, here, will crown that great achievement. Do you understand now why they must be huge? The capital of the Germanic Reich?
He goes and puts his hand on the top of the dome.
There are two possibilities. To win through, or to fail. If I win, I will be the greatest man since Charlemagne. If I lose
– well, all this might just as well be dust. Goodnight.
SPEER. Heil, my Führer.
HITLER. Heil Speer.
HITLER goes out.
1.6.1 Spandau, 1947–50
Enter CASALIS to SPEER.
CASALIS. So what do you suppose he meant?
SPEER. Hitler?
CASALIS. Your father.
SPEER. He meant that he didn’t understand, like so many of his generation.
CASALIS. I meant, what did your father mean by saying nothing?
SPEER smiles and shrugs, as if this is all a little metaphysical.
You said, when Hitler spoke to him, he bowed and trembled and said nothing. And when afterwards you tried to take his arm he pulled away.
SPEER. Yes?
CASALIS. I wondered if he sensed something that you didn’t sense, yourself, till later.
SPEER. What, a ‘sense of evil’?
CASALIS acknowledges.
Herr Pastor, this was 1938.
CASALIS. So Hitler was not evil at that stage?
SPEER. Look. Of course, we knew that Hitler sought world domination. What my father didn’t understand, and you don’t understand, is that at the time we asked for nothing better. Eighty million Germans didn’t follow Hitler because he was going to murder people in lime ditches and gas chambers. They didn’t follow him because they knew that he was evil, but because they thought he was extremely good.
SPEER puts on his leather overcoat and cap.
And I’m afraid, most strongly in June 1940, at the fall of France. When in defiance of the whiners and the moaners, he had the world before him. And he laid it at my feet.
1.6.2 Paris, June 1940
The German anthem. HITLER and his ENTOURAGE stride forward in a line, joined by SPEER. CASALIS watches.
HITLER. I tell you. It was always my dream, to be permitted to see Paris. Haussman’s Boulevards. Les Invalides. I could have walked around Charles Garnier’s opera in blindfolds.
In three months, London will be rubble. And when you have finished, even Paris will be but a shadow.
SPEER turns back to CASALIS.
SPEER. It was his dream. Though of course if you want to visit Paris it isn’t strictly necessary to overthrow the government of France.
And then and there he ordered me to draw up a decree for the commencement of the reconstruction of Berlin. How could I not be his, then, body and soul?
HITLER looks at SPEER in triumph, turns and goes.
CASALIS. So you had your Mephistophilis.
SPEER. And he had his Faust.
And then one evening in his mountaintop retreat, when we had thought he’d long since gone to bed, he told me how he planned to crown his Paris triumph with an even greater victory.
1.6.3 Berghof, Obersaltzberg, July 1941
Two YOUNG ADJUTANTS, two SECRETARIES – FRÄULEIN JOHANNA WOLF and FRÄULEIN CHRISTA SCHRÖDER run in – followed by FRAU BRANDT and MARGRET. The FIRST ADJUTANT holds a large peaked cap. There is a piano in the room.
FRAU BRANDT. No you mustn’t.
FIRST ADJUTANT. I’m shaking! It’s heavy in my hands!
MARGRET. What’s going on?
FRAU BRANDT. Very schoolboyish behaviour.
FRÄULEIN SCHRÖDER. Oh for God’s sake give it here.
She takes the cap.
There are, after all, but two possibilities.
SECOND ADJUTANT. One being that no one puts his hat on.
FRÄULEIN SCHRÖDER. And the other is that someone does.
FRAU BRANDT. Well, on your own heads be it.
FRÄULEIN SCHRÖDER puts the cap on. It’s far too big. The others laugh and applaud.
FRÄULEIN SCHRÖDER. Tara tara. Who’s next?
FIRST ADJUTANT. In such times one cannot use Salvation Army methods.
He puts the cap on. It’s far too big.
FRÄULEIN SCHRÖDER. Extreme times call for extreme measures!
The FIRST ADJUTANT puts the cap on. It’s far too big. He looks round for the next person to try it.
FIRST ADJUTANT. And now, Frau Brandt . . .
FRAU BRANDT. Oh no.
FRÄULEIN WOLF. Herr Speer?
SPEER diffident.
SPEER. Um . . . I . . .
MARGRET. Albert.
FRÄULEIN WOLF (winningly). Herr Speer.
Pause. SPEER takes the cap.
SPEER. Well, I have always said, my mission is to bring the unthinkable about.
He puts the cap on. It fits. Surprised applause. EVA BRAUN has entered.
EVA BRAUN. Dear Herr Speer, what are you doing?
She gestures offstage just in time for SPEER to rip the cap from his head and put it behind his back, before HITLER and VON BELOW enter, the latter carrying sheet music.
HITLER. Ladies and gentlemen, my profound apologies.
FRAU BRANDT. Well, it’s past bedtime . . .
Suddenly HITLER goes to MARGRET, kisses her hand.
HITLER. My own Frau Speer. Gracious ladies. Gentlemen.
Everyone takes this as a dismissal.
MARGRET. Goodnight, my Führer.
She goes out, the OTHERS follow, murmuring ‘Goodnight’ and ‘Goodnight, my Führer’. HITLER a slight gesture to SPEER to stay.
HITLER. Perhaps you too, my little applecake. Colonel, please.
EVA BRAUN shrugs. She goes to SPEER.
SPEER. Goodnight, Fräulein Braun.
With a slight gesture to SPEER.
EVA BRAUN. Goodnight, oh my dear Herr Speer. And goodnight my Führer.
She turns back and smiles at HITLER, taking the cap from SPEER with her back hand. She goes.
VON BELOW sits at the piano and plays a fanfare from Liszt’s Les Preludes.
SPEER. It’s Liszt?
HITLER. Yes. It’s from the Preludes. So what d’you think of it?
SPEER. I suppose, my Führer, that depends on what it’s for.
HITLER. This will be ‘for’ the decisive confrontation of our epoch. Of course I am told I must ‘negotiate’ with our enemies. That traitor Hess flies off to Scotland to sue for peace with that alcoholic gangster Churchill. But I say that we are now engaged in the final battle between Western civilisation and the international Jew-Bolshevik conspiracy. Our aim must be nothing less than the complete destruction of that criminal conspiracy, with implacable and iron zeal. Naturally I am told this is unthinkable. But I say, one good strong German kick, and the whole rotten edifice falls in.
SPEER. Russia.
HITLER. Yes.
He looks at SPEER. It’s the stare game. Without taking his eye off SPEER.
HITLER. The victory fanfare. You will hear it frequently.
He holds the stare.
And for those who make the final sacrifice, your Germania will stand as their memorial for ever; the names of our heroic fallen carved on every stone.
Finally, HITLER breaks the stare, then goes to SPEER and cups his elbow.
And you will have all the granite and the marble that you need.
The fanfare continues orchestrally. Exit HITLER and VON BELOW.SPEER turns to CASALIS. Behind him, a dark void from which snow billows.
SPEER. But it was clear within months of the actual invasion of the Soviet Union that there were much more immediate construction needs.
1.7.1 Ukraine, February 1942
Outside, at night, in the winter snow. SPEER in a heavy overcoat. Enter WOLTERS, also heavily overcoated. Enter a young railway engineer, Theodor GANZENMÜLLER, with a mess-tin of caviare and spoons.
GANZENMÜLLER. Ah, Herr Wolters, please try this.
WOLTERS. What is it?
GANZENMÜLLER. It’s the real stuff.
WOLTERS. Herr Ganzenmüller, this is General Inspector Speer.
GANZENMÜLLER. Welcome to the Ukraine, sir. Please try some caviare.
WOLTERS. Herr Ganzenmüller is performing miracles with what we must call for want of any better term the Ukraine railway system.
SPEER. Well
, I’m all for miracles.
He takes caviare.
That’s good.
Enter a group of SPEERCONSTRUCTION WORKERS and SOLDIERS, led by a MAJOR, MUSICIANS and two TUFTIES – young Ukrainian women – with trays of glasses and vodka.
MAJOR. Now after so many cheerful days with the Speer Construction Squad can this be Herr Speer himself? Tufty One, vodka for Herr Speer!
SPEER. Tufty?
WOLTERS. Ukrainian girls.
MAJOR. You will find this a change from building palaces and opera houses.
SPEER takes vodka from one TUFTY, as the other hands vodka out to the rest.
SPEER. It is a change which I enthusiastically proposed, Herr Major. Over half my workforce is assisting with reconstruction work in Russia.
MAJOR. A toast! In acknowledgement of Herr General Inspector’s visit from Berlin! To our matchless constructional facilities! To our Repair Sheds!
FIRST SPEER SQUAD. Water tanks.
MAJOR. To our insulated water tanks!
SECOND SPEER SQUAD. Lumber!
THIRD SPEER SQUAD. Tracking!
FOURTH SPEER SQUAD. Nails!
All drink. Recovering from the hit:
SPEER. Well, in that case, all these things will be provided instantly. Herr Wolters, see to it at once.
Cheers, on the edge of mockery, but ambiguous enough for the MAJOR to move on.
MAJOR. Then – music!
Sad music is played. The MEN move upstage.
SPEER(to GANZENMÜLLER). So the problem is supplies.
GANZENMÜLLER. Supplies of the right thing at the right time. Guns, no ammo. Tanks, no fuel. Troops, no trains.
SPEER. You mean it’s not production, it’s logistics.
GANZENMÜLLER. Of course I needn’t tell you this. The man who worked out that the first thing that you have to order for a building is the carpeting.
SPEER (smiles). Yes.
GANZENMÜLLER. Apparently, the war economy was two days from collapse through a shortage of ball-bearings.
He does a gesture – a machine turning.
Work it out.
SPEER. Oh, I don’t need to.
GANZENMÜLLER is fearful he may have gone too far.
GANZENMÜLLER. But then again, we both know the order: ‘Everyone need only know what is going on in his domain’.
The MAJOR approaches.