Olympics Berlin 1936 all over again.
While I don’t think the son should pay for the sins of the father, this is somehow chilling. In my view there is little difference between communist totalitarians and fascist totalitarians. What’s that they say about history repeating itself?
Hillary Clinton’s wondering if he doesn’t interiors—say, oval offices.
That is too odd to be by accident.
What a strange world we live in...
The world really seems to be calling up the demons of the past. Preparing for another major blood letting...
His grandfather, Albert Speer’s father, was a very successful architect. Speer, who came of age during the depression, not so much. Speer was an early Nazi and caught Hitler’s eye, as a fulfillment of his fustrated fantasies. The Nazi party gave Speer work and he gave them an air of respectability with his academic and professional credentials.
Grandpa Speer’s comment on seeing his son and Hitler’s plans for Berlin was, “You people must be crazy.” On being introduced to Hitler after a performance of the opera, the elder Speer became visibily ill, trembling and unable to speak.
A problem for China is that there are no grandfather Speers, who remember a civilized earlier history of their country.
To soften the image, the building that looks like the Reichstag is actually a 1,000-stall public bathroom.
In Germany, traditionally children follow the line of work of their parents.
Asia pinglist ping.
There are many stories about how although this fellow is Hitler’s architect’s son, and although he is also obliterating huge swaths of a country’s capital in order to build a facist vision for the ascendancy of a new superpower, he is in fact very different from his father and the relationship is a mere coincidence, and the relationship to Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics is meaningless.
Isn’t the far more obvious explaination that he is very much like his father, and the Chinese want exactly the same thing for exactly the same reason, and that is why they hired him?
Great, this is pre-Godwinned.
Fascists always make for dramatic architecture. Not always pretty, but imposing.
Ping.
Thanks to Cindy for sending me a ping on this article.
My Lord, the son of Hitler’s milkman is probably out there distributing beverages!!! We’re all gonna die!!!!
Shades of Munich.
My immediate thought: "Gee, I didn't know Hitler had kids."
It would have been clearer to just say "Albert Speer's son redraws Beijing," but it wouldn't attract as much attention.
For one, the audience isn't going to stand at attention and salute the President of China and chant in unison of his greatest when he enters. And while the purpose was to impress 1936 and is to impress in 2008, the Beijing Olympics is not trying to demonstrate the superiority of the Chinese race but rather to demonstrate that China has achieve a certain level of economic development (with some fanfare, of course).
It's a ridiculous comparison.