66 Facts About Rudolf Wolters

Rudolf Wolters was a German architect and government official, known for his longtime association with fellow architect and Third Reich official Albert Speer.

Rudolf Wolters, who was born to a Catholic middle-class family in the northern German town of Coesfeld, obtained his degree and doctorate in architecture from the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg, forging a close friendship with Speer while a student.

In 1937, Speer hired him as a department head, and Rudolf Wolters soon took major responsibility for Hitler's plan for the large scale reconstruction of Berlin.

When Speer became Minister of Armaments and War Production in 1942, Rudolf Wolters moved to his department, remaining his close associate.

Rudolf Wolters was involved in the reconstruction of West Germany following World War II, rebuilding his hometown of Coesfeld among many other projects.

Rudolf Wolters wrote several architectural books during the war, as well as a biography of Speer.

Rudolf Wolters was born into a Catholic family in Coesfeld, Germany on 3 August 1903, the son of an architect who had married the daughter of a master carpenter in the shipbuilding trade.

Rudolf Wolters regarded his mother as "a highly practical woman, full of zest for life, who in hard times thought nothing of serving a delicious roast without letting on it was horsemeat".

Rudolf Wolters passed a generally happy childhood, punctuated by the chaos of the war years, and by a childhood illness that resulted in his being taught at home for a year by two priests.

In 1924, Rudolf Wolters met Albert Speer, who was a year behind him.

Rudolf Wolters transferred to the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg later that year, followed by Speer in 1925.

Rudolf Wolters sought to study under Professor Hans Poelzig, but there was no room in the course for the transfer student.

Rudolf Wolters obtained his degree in 1927, and earned his doctorate at the school two years later.

In class prize competition, Rudolf Wolters generally finished second to Speer.

Rudolf Wolters' graduation coincided with the start of the Great Depression, and he had great difficulty finding a job, eventually settling for an unpaid position at Reichsbahn headquarters in Berlin in 1930.

In 1933, Rudolf 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.

Rudolf Wolters did so, beginning work at the GBI office in January 1937 as a Head of Department in the Planning Bureau.

Rudolf Wolters was one of a number of young, well-paid assistants of Speer at the GBI, who were collectively nicknamed "Speer's Kindergarten".

Rudolf Wolters was responsible for transport rings in the new Berlin, for museums, and for the GBI's press office.

In 1939, Rudolf Wolters became responsible for the architecture portion of the magazine, Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich.

Rudolf Wolters made several trips abroad in connection with his duties for the GBI.

Rudolf Wolters visited the United States to study advanced transport systems, and Paris for the 1937 international exposition there.

Rudolf Wolters took charge of organizing German architectural exhibits presented in other countries.

Until 1943, Rudolf Wolters traveled to other European capitals, and in addition to his duties as commissioner, gathered political intelligence.

On his return, Rudolf Wolters passed along his insights to Speer and some of these thoughts reached Hitler's ears.

Rudolf 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.

Rudolf Wolters wrote several books on the Third Reich's architectural works during the war years.

Rudolf Wolters followed Speer to his new ministry, becoming head of the Department of Culture, Media, and Propaganda of the Organization Todt.

Rudolf Wolters organized a working group of about twenty architects and city planners, mostly from northern Germany.

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

Rudolf Wolters met with Riesser and the three other half-Jews in the Speer organizations, telling them if it became necessary, the four would be transferred to essential war factories where they would be safe.

In February 1945, as the Nazi regime collapsed, Speer instructed Rudolf Wolters to take other high-ranking officials in his department, including Heinrich Lubke, and set up architectural offices in the north of Germany to work on large-scale prefabricated housing.

Later in 1945, the office was dissolved, and Rudolf Wolters returned to his hometown of Coesfeld where he had been commissioned to rebuild the ruined city.

Rudolf Wolters was forced to rebuild in Coesfeld almost from scratch.

Rudolf Wolters built a road through the grounds of the local castle, and converted the building into a hotel and conference center.

In 1947 and 1949, Rudolf Wolters organized meetings of the former Arbeitsstab members, many of whom were intensively involved in the postwar reconstruction efforts.

In 1950, Rudolf Wolters won a competition to design the new police headquarters in Dortmund.

The Hotel Konigshof in Bonn, rebuilt by Rudolf Wolters, had previously been the leading hotel in the city.

Rudolf Wolters received so many commissions from the government of North Rhine-Westphalia that he opened an additional office in Dusseldorf.

In 1955, Rudolf Wolters won a competition to design the Industrie-Kreditbank building in Dusseldorf.

Rudolf Wolters was awarded a prize for his design to reconstruct Dusseldorf's Altstadt.

Rudolf Wolters considered himself to be a "functionalist", designing a number of concrete, flat roofed, modern hospitals.

In 1978, Rudolf Wolters published a book on the town centre of Berlin, but despite suggestions from his son, he declined to include his views about Nazi architecture, and never did set forth such views to his colleagues.

In 1949, Rudolf Wolters opened a special bank account for Speer, the Schulgeldkonto or "School Fund Account", and began fundraising among those architects and industrialists who had benefited from Speer's activities during the war.

Rudolf Wolters raised a total of DM158,000 for Speer over the final seventeen years of his sentence.

In 1951, with secret means of communications established, Rudolf Wolters sent his first letter to Speer in five years.

Rudolf Wolters suggested that Speer move ahead with his memoirs.

Rudolf Wolters objected that Speer called Hitler a criminal in the draft, and Speer presciently observed that he would likely lose a good many friends were the memoirs ever to be published.

Rudolf Wolters had come to believe that reports of Nazi genocide were exaggerated by a factor of at least ten, that Hitler had not been given credit for the things he did right and that Germany had been harshly treated by the Allies.

Rudolf Wolters was tireless in his efforts on behalf of Speer and his family to such an extent that his son, Fritz, later expressed feelings of neglect.

For Speer's fiftieth birthday in March 1955, Rudolf Wolters gathered letters from many of Speer's friends and wartime associates, and saw to it that they made their way inside the walls of Spandau in time for Speer's birthday.

Rudolf Wolters constantly sought Speer's early release, which required the consent of the four occupying powers.

Rudolf Wolters engaged Dusseldorf attorney, and later state minister, Werner Schutz to lobby high German officials to get them to advocate Speer's release.

Rudolf Wolters had more success fending off denazification proceedings against Speer, collecting many affidavits in Speer's favor, including one from Tessenow whom Speer had shielded during the war.

Speer added that during the Spandau years, Rudolf Wolters performed invaluable services for him and that he did not know how he would have survived Spandau without Rudolf Wolters' assistance.

When Speer invented the concept of his "world wide walk", imagining his daily exercise around the prison yard to be segments in a long walk from Europe through Asia to North America, Rudolf Wolters supplied Speer with details of what he would "see".

Rudolf Wolters responded that he and Speer were "too far apart".

Rudolf Wolters was perturbed by an interview with Speer published in Der Spiegel in November 1966, in which Speer, while again taking responsibility for crimes of the Nazi era, blamed Hitler, rather than Germany, for starting World War II.

However, Rudolf Wolters' name appears nowhere in the published version, and no mention is made of Rudolf Wolters' help, essential to the writing and preservation of the draft memoir.

Rudolf Wolters advised against it, sarcastically suggesting that he was surprised that the author did not "walk through life in a hair shirt, distributing his fortune among the victims of National Socialism, forswear all the vanities and pleasures of life and live on locusts and wild honey".

Rudolf Wolters did not destroy the original as Speer had hinted.

Rudolf Wolters concluded his letter with a suggestion that they avoid seeing each other in future, a suggestion with which Speer concurred.

In 1975, Rudolf Wolters attempted a reconciliation, sending Speer a letter for his seventieth birthday in March.

Rudolf Wolters bequeathed his papers to the Federal Archives, ensuring the record would be corrected one day.

Rudolf Wolters took a liking to Schmidt, and showed him both the original Chronik and the correspondence in which Rudolf Wolters had informed Speer of the censoring of the record.

Rudolf Wolters had donated many of his papers to the Archives in 1982; after Wolters died, Riesser, as his literary executor, donated the remainder.