The Berlin government is offering to take over a holiday home once owned by Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, and will either reuse or clear the vast disused grounds in the north Berlin countryside. I hope this will bring an end to the decades-long debate.
BERLIN — The Berlin government hopes to end decades of debate over whether to reuse or clear vast tracts of disused land in the countryside north of the German capital. is offering to sell a villa once owned by Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister.
“To whoever wants to take over this place, we offer to take it as a gift from the state of Berlin,” Berlin's Finance Minister Stefan Evers told the state parliament on Thursday, dpa reported.
Rather than continue paying for the upkeep and security of the overgrown and dilapidated complex, the city of Berlin has repeatedly tried to hand over the property to federal authorities and the state of Brandenburg, where the villa is located.
Evers updated that proposal Thursday, asking for proposals that reflect the site's history. He did not say whether proposals from individuals would also be considered.
“If it fails again, as it has in the past few decades, Berlin will have no choice but to carry out the demolition it has already prepared,” Evers said.
Goebbels, one of Hitler's closest allies, built a luxurious villa in 1939 on a wooded lot overlooking Lake Bogensee near the town of Wandlitz, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Berlin.
A retreat from Berlin, where he lived with his wife and six children, Goebbels used the villa and former home on the property to entertain Nazi leaders, artists and actors, and also Rumor has it that it was also used as a love nest for sensitive matters.
After the war, this 17-hectare (42-acre) site was briefly used as a hospital, and then taken over by the Youth Wing of the East German Communist Party, which built a training center that included several large accommodation buildings.
After German unification in 1990, ownership of the site reverted to the state of Berlin. But the city couldn't find a use for it. Since then, the site has become an attraction for day-trippers who can wander through the overgrown grounds and take in the views from the villa's floor-to-ceiling windows.
Goebbels returned to Berlin in the final stages of World War II. As Soviet troops closed in, he and his wife committed suicide with cyanide capsules in Hitler's bunker, killing his children as well.
The family's luxurious home on an island in Berlin was put up for auction in 2011.
