... had he conquered Europe he could have built whatever he wanted indeed to do anything less would have been an exemplary show of will power. How exactly are these concerns obvious? I didn't know Hitler was an architect? And if Speer wanted to egg on Hitlers grandiose architectural desires it makes sense to me considering the patronage like system which operated, and who would have benefited from the architectural munificence of Hitler in any case? Further context would be desired
This structure would not be sound, architecturally, and is indicative of both Speer's and Hitler's delusions of grandeur (I say delusions, not in the sense of power, but of architectural colossuses). It shows that both he and Speer had severely impaired judgement, indicating his lack of leadership ability.
As Joachim Fest puts it, "Speer was what Hitler would have wanted to be if he didn't go into politics." That is, a megalomaniacal architect. Now, Speer would have been the one to benefit from Hitler's architectural excesses due to the patronage system, as you state, and so it can be seen that Speer successfully manipulated Hitler's architectural ambitions in order to gain more power (which he did, becoming the heir presumptive to Hitler in the forties). Now, this not only shows Speer's lust for power
über alles, including his architectural integrity, but also shows that Hitler was a leader that could be successfully manipulated, without too much trouble, due to impaired judgement, no less, showing that he wasn't a very good leader at all, putting aside the crimes against humanity, etc.
If Hitler wasn't the driving force behind reform, who or what was?
I don't really know what you mean by reform, but if you mean getting Germany out of the Great Depression, that probably had more to do with Foreign Policy than Economic Policy. Huge spending was made in the economy, on the military, in order to fulfil the ambitions of conquest that Hitler had. So, I'd say that while the economic recovery can be attributed to Hitler, it was more of a side-effect to his policy than the object of them.
As for the rest of the Nazi's economic policy, that was put in the hands of others, namely Hjalmar Schacht, Goering, and later Todt and Speer. Particularly in the earlier years, Schacht, who was a banker (and eventually got sent to a concentration camp) controlled the economy. Basically, Hitler had no interest in the German economy, other than that it produce weapons for his war machine, and his foreign policy ambitions.
I now know my mission in life.
Yeah, I must admit it would be pretty neat, but it was completely and outrageously unrealistic and unachievable (or unusable).
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