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.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Wolters>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
455:
Following the death of Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, the
Vandals led by King Gaiseric sacked Rome, looting treasure from the
city and taking Empress Licinia Eudoxia and her daughters hostage.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandals>
1848:
As part of the Pan-Slavism movement, the Prague Slavic Congress began
in Prague, one of the few times that voices from all Slav populations
of Europe were heard in one place.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Slavic_Congress%2C_1848>
1924:
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into
law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the
territorial limits of the United States.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Citizenship_Act_of_1924>
1995:
United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady was shot down by a
Bosnian Serb Army SA-6 surface-to-air missile while patrolling the NATO
no-fly zone over Bosnia in an F-16, but he was able to eject safely and
was then rescued six days later.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrkonji%C4%87_Grad_incident>
2003:
The Mars Express space probe, the first planetary mission of the
European Space Agency, was launched.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Express>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
over the top (adj):
Excessive; exaggerated; outrageous
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/over_the_top>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The capacity to produce social chaos is the last resort of desperate
people.
--Cornel West
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornel_West>