INSIDE THE THIRD REICH: MEMOIRS by Albert Speer. 596 pages. Macmillan. $12.50.
Like an ancient despot, Hitler meant to commemorate his schemes of grandeur with great avenues and overpowering buildings. In Berlin alone, he planned a three-mile-long street of splendor, with the centerpiece a domed hall that would hold 150,000 people. The man Hitler took into his intimate circle to create these edifices was a fledgling architect named Albert Speer.
At 28, Speer thought he saw in the Führer an alternative to the Weimar Republic's decadence. In Hitler's monumental designs, he hoped to...