Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 2, 2009



Rudolf Wolters (1903–1983) was a German architect and government official, known for his longtime association with fellow architect and Third Reich official Albert Speer. The two formed a friendship while students in the 1920s. In 1937, Speer hired him as a department head, and Wolters soon took major responsibility for Hitler's scheme to reconstruct Berlin on a massive scale. When Speer became Minister of Armaments and War Production in 1942, Wolters moved to his department, remaining his close associate. After Speer's indictment and imprisonment for war crimes, Wolters stood by him loyally. In addition to receiving and organizing Speer's clandestine notes from Spandau Prison, which later served as the basis of his best-selling books of memoirs, Wolters quietly raised money for Speer. These funds were used to support Speer's family and for other purposes, according to directions which Wolters received from his former superior. Following Speer's release in 1966, their friendship gradually deteriorated, until the two men became so embittered that Wolters allowed papers demonstrating Speer's knowledge of the persecution of the Jews to become public. (more...)

Recently featured: Tropical cyclone – SMS Von der Tann – Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine