Berlin Wants to Get Rid of the Villa That Belonged to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda: “

“I offer to anyone who would like to take over the site, to take it as a gift from the state of Berlin,” said Berlin’s finance minister, Stefan Evers, in front of the state’s parliament, DPA reported.

Berlin has repeatedly tried to cede the site to federal authorities or the state of Brandenburg, where the villa is located, instead of continuing to pay for the maintenance and security of the complex, which has fallen into disrepair.

Evers renewed this offer on Thursday, May 2, requesting proposals that reflect the history of the site. He did not specify whether proposals from private individuals will also be taken into account.

“If we fail again, as we have in the last few decades, then Berlin has no choice but to carry out the demolition we have already prepared for,” Evers said.

Goebbels, one of Hitler’s closest allies, built the luxury villa in 1939 on 17 hectares of wooded land overlooking Lake Bogensee, near the town of Wandlitz, 40 kilometers north of Berlin.

Goebbels, who was retiring from Berlin, where he lived with his wife and six children, used the villa and an older house on the site to host Nazi leaders, artists and actors and, it is said, as a nest of love for secret adventures.

After the war, the 17-hectare site was briefly used as a hospital, then taken over by the youth wing of the East German Communist Party, who built a training centre, including several large accommodation blocks.

After the reunification of Germany, in 1990, ownership of the site returned to the Land of Berlin. However, the city found no use for it.

Since then, the site has become an attraction for day-trippers, who can make their way through the overgrown grounds and gaze through the villa’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

Goebbels moved back to Berlin in the final phase of World War II. He and his wife committed suicide, along with their children, with cyanide capsules in Hitler’s bunker as Soviet troops approached. The opulent family home, located on an island in Berlin, was sold at auction in 2011.

Follow us on Google News