Berlin gives away a villa that was owned by Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels

The city-state of Berlin is willing to give to whoever wants to take over a villa once used by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and which has been decaying due to lack of care for two decades.

“I offer, to anyone who wants to take over the property, to obtain it as a gift from the ‘Land’ of Berlin”said the Finance Minister of the German city-state, Stefan Evers, this week in the regional parliament.

Until now neither the municipality of Wandlitz, where the 17 hectare estate where the village of Bogensee is located, nor the ‘Land’ of Brandenburg – to which it geographically belongs – nor the central State have wanted to take charge of the property that is being deteriorating since 2000.

The villa was given for life by the city of Berlin to Goebbels as a birthday gift in 1936 and the Nazi Propaganda Minister used it to spend weekends, meet lovers and also to conduct his official activities.

After the end of the Second World War, the town was used temporarily by the Allies as a military hospital; It later passed into the hands of the Free German Youth (FDJ) of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), which founded an educational center there.

After reunification, the building complex became the property of the city-state of Berlin, it was used until 1998 and since then, although the ‘Land’ invests about 250,000 euros annually in maintenance, the facilities are in little decline. little by little.

According to estimates by the Berlin Property Management Company (BIM), which manages the property, about 350 million euros would be needed to fix and fine-tune the complex and the infrastructure, while the option of demolition, which this entity favors, It would cost only 45 million euros.

Evers assured that the city-state is open to proposals to reform the estate that do justice to the historical significance of the area and do not contravene the interests of the ‘Land’.

“But if this ends once again on a road to nowhere like in recent decades, then Berlin’s ‘Land’ has no choice but to proceed with demolition”, he warned.