Introduction
Albert Speer (German pronunciation: [ˈʃpeːɐ̯]; born 29 July 1934) is a German architect and urban planner. He is the son of Albert Speer (1905–81) who was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming the office of Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich during World War II. Albert Speer Jr.'s grandfather, Albert Friedrich Speer, was also an architect.
Career
Speer won his first international prize in 1964, and opened his own architect's office. He has had great international success, and has done a great deal of work in Saudi Arabia. In 1977 he became professor of urban planning at the University of Kaiserslautern. His firm has had an office in Shanghai since 2001.
In 1984 he founded the company Büro Albert Speer & Partner in Frankfurt am Main, which currently has more than 100 employees and is one of the largest and most reputable architectural and urban planning companies in Germany. He was responsible for the design of Expo 2000 in Hanover, design of the Shanghai International Automobile City, and the central axis in Beijing created while serving as lead designer for the 2008 Olympics. Speer was part of the architectural firm involved in Munich's bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, and in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.