Editing Albert Speer (section)

==Early years and personal life==
Speer was born in [[Mannheim]], into an upper-middle-class family. He was the second of three sons of Luise Máthilde Wilhelmine (Hommel) and [[Albert Friedrich Speer]].{{sfn|Schubert|2006|p=5}} In 1918, the family leased their Mannheim residence and moved to a home they had in Heidelberg.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|p=15}} [[Henry T. King]], deputy prosecutor at the [[Nuremberg trials]] who later wrote a book about Speer said, "Love and warmth were lacking in the household of Speer's youth."{{sfn|King|1997|p=27}} His brothers, Ernst and Hermann, bullied him throughout his childhood.{{sfn|Taylor|2010|p=124}} Speer was active in sports, taking up skiing and mountaineering.{{sfn|van der Vat|1997|p=23}} He followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and studied architecture.{{sfn|Fest|1999|pp=11–13}}

Speer began his architectural studies at the University of Karlsruhe instead of a more highly acclaimed institution because the [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|hyperinflation crisis of 1923]] limited his parents' income.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=17–18}} In 1924, when the crisis had abated, he transferred to the "much more reputable" Technische Hochschule München (now [[Technical University of Munich]]).{{sfn|Sereny|1995|p=63}} In 1925, he transferred again, this time to the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Chalottenburg (now [[Technische Universität Berlin]]) where he studied under [[Heinrich Tessenow]], whom Speer greatly admired.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=18–19}} After passing his exams in 1927, Speer became Tessenow's assistant, a high honor for a man of 22.{{sfn|van der Vat|1997|pp=34–36}} As such, Speer taught some of his classes while continuing his own postgraduate studies.{{sfn|Sereny|1995|pp=71–73}} In Munich Speer began a close friendship, ultimately spanning over 50 years, with [[Rudolf Wolters]], who also studied under Tessenow.{{sfn|van der Vat|1997|pp=33–34}}

In mid-1922, Speer began courting Margarete (Margret) Weber (1905–1987), the daughter of a successful craftsman who employed 50 workers. The relationship was frowned upon by Speer's class-conscious mother, who felt the Webers were socially inferior. Despite this opposition, the two married in Berlin on 28 August 1928; seven years elapsed before Margarete was invited to stay at her in-laws' home.{{sfn|Sereny|1995|pp=47–49}} The couple would have six children together, but Albert Speer grew increasingly distant from his family after 1933. He remained so even after his release from imprisonment in 1966, despite their efforts to forge closer bonds.{{sfn|Kitchen|2015|pp=327–328}}