ALBERT SPEER INSCRIBED BOOK TO REICHSMINISTER JULIUS DORPMUELLER

ALBERT SPEER INSCRIBED BOOK TO REICHSMINISTER JULIUS DORPMUELLER

(1905 - 1981) Nazi German architect and Minister of Armaments and War Production, convicted of war crimes at Nuremburg. Rare pair of signed items, dedicated to JULIUS DORPMUELLER (1869-1945), General Manager of Deutsche Reichsbahn from 1926 to 1945 and the Reich Minister for Transport from 1937 to 1945, includes: Speer's signed book, 'Die Neue Reichskanzlei' ('The New Reich Chancellery') (Franz Eher Nachf.: Munich), 1939. 132pp. folio, in blue boards with gilt titles and a gilt imprinted national eagle on the front cover. Speer adds the inscription on the half-title page: 'To Reichsminister Dorpmueller in veneration of your service and life's work...Albert Speer', adding 'Berlin' and 'July 24, 1940'. The book additionally contains dozens of images of the Reich Chancellery, concluding with multiple floor plans of the building. Speer was appointed directly by Hitler to build the New Reich Chancellery, and assigned the work of creating grand halls and salons which 'will make an impression on people'. Hitler, stating that the cost of the project was immaterial, gave Speer was given a blank cheque for the project. In the end, it cost over 90 million Reichsmarks - equivalent to 339 million euros in 2009. Slight crease on the front flyleaf, else fine to very fine condition. WITH: The book's original transmittal letter, a T.L.S. on Speer's professional letterhead in German, 1p. 4to., Berlin, July 24, 1940, wishing the Reichsminister a happy birthday, adding: 'I take the liberty of sending you the book 'The New Reich Chancellery' and I hope that it will give you a little pleasure.' Speer signs at the conclusion in black ink. Mailing folds, else very good. Dorpmueller, the Reichsbahn's General Manager since 1926, replaced nearly all 'non-Aryan' workers with National Socialists after the Nazi seizure of power. Dorpmueller then became Reich Transport Minister on February 2, 1937, where he was in charge of arranging Holocaust trains for transporting Jews and other minorities to Nazi concentration camps and death camps from across Germany as well as occupied Europe. The victims, crammed in windowless cattle cars with little or no water or food, often traveled days without any relief from incarceration where many perished en route. Under Dorpmueller's leadership, the Reichsbahn were paid for every transported victim based on the distance traveled by kilometer, with children under ten benevolently going at half-fare to their deaths, and children under four traveling for no cost.