NOS News•today, 10:12
Berlin is making a new attempt to get rid of a villa owned by Joseph Goebbels. Free if necessary. “If it doesn’t work out again, we have no choice but to demolish it. Preparations have been made,” says City State Minister of Finance Stefan Evers.
Villa Bogensee is located just north of Berlin in the municipality of Wandlitz, in the state of Brandenburg. The city gave the 17 hectares of land to Goebbels as a gift for his birthday in 1936. The German film company UFA built him a villa with thirty rooms where Goebbels received friends, relations and reportedly also his mistresses.
The Nazi leader and his wife took their own lives and those of their six young children just before the conquest of Berlin in May 1945. After the war, the villa came into the hands of the communist youth movement of the GDR. After the fall of the Wall and the unification of Germany, Berlin got the estate back, but it was not possible to find a good destination for it.
Evers said last week that he is aware of the special historical value of the estate and that the city has made efforts for years to give it a new purpose. “However, we cannot do this alone, we need partners, especially the state of Brandenburg and the municipality.” But an agreement was not reached while the costs for maintenance and insurance continue, amounting to millions of euros per year. That’s why the city wants to get rid of it now.
Little understanding
The municipality is afraid that the villa will end up in the hands of right-wing radicals. “I would not like to see Berlin give the area to someone who has an ideological goal,” Mayor Borchert said in the Berliner Morgenpost. The newspaper points out that a group that is considered part of the Reichsbürger movement tried to take control of the estate years ago.
The German government may offer a way out. The Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Construction informed the DPA news agency that it is examining with the authorities involved whether the estate can be given a new purpose. Berlin is then prepared to part with it for free.
