Matthias Schmidt (born 1952) is a German historian and author who first revealed in a university dissertation and then in the book, ''Albert Speer: The End of a Myth'', the role that

Albert Speer Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, he ...

had played in the Holocaust.

History

Schmidt earned his doctorate at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute for Historical Research at the Free University of Berlin. In 1980 he was given privileged access to the personal chronicle (diary) of

that had hitherto been held privately by

Rudolf Wolters Rudolf Wolters (3 August 1903 – 7 January 1983) was a German architect and government official, known for his longtime association with fellow architect and Nazi Germany, Third Reich official Albert Speer. A friend and subordinate of Spee ...

, the long time friend and collaborator of Speer. After Speer's death Schmidt published a dissertation and then a book that for the first time detailed Speer's expulsion of the Jews from their Berlin homes and accused Speer of lying about his involvement in the Holocaust.

''Albert Speer: The End of a Myth''

Schmidt wrote ''Albert Speer: The End of a Myth''. The book was reviewed by Henry A. Turner Jr. in '' The New York Times''. Turner wrote "By demolishing Speer's carefully tailored image of himself, Matthias Schmidt has contributed to setting the record straight" and "Through some resourceful research, he has compiled an impressive catalogue of discrepancies between Speer's postwar versions of his career and the documented record, which Mr. Schmidt has augmented with some hitherto unused materials". A review in Kirkus said "from records in the possession of Speer's closest associate, and other researches, German historian Schmidt (Free Univ. of Berlin) sets forth Speer's verifiable role in the Nazi hierarchy and his literary strategems to conceal it. The documentation is damning, the account stinging."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Matthias Nazi Germany 1952 births 20th-century German historians Living people