A luxury country villa that once belonged to Nazi Germany’s notorious propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is to be given away because nobody wants to buy it.
Desperate government officials in Berlin say the sprawling mansion set in 17 hectares of grounds has become an expensive and hated eyesore.
And, reports local media, no one wants to buy it and they could not even demolish it without creating controversy.
Now despairing city officials say the only way to get rid of the vile villa is to give it away.
Berlin’s Finance Senator Stefan Evers, 44, says the city should simply give the property to anyone who wants it.
Speaking to the city’s House of Representatives on 2nd May, Evers said: “I offer anyone who would like to take over the site to take it over as a gift from the state of Berlin.”
So far neither the municipality of Wandlitz, the state of Brandenburg nor the federal government are interested in the “generous gift.”
Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s closest henchman, had the country house built just outside the German capital in 1936 and it was the scene of numerous trysts with prominent actresses.
It features pristine luxurious parquet floors, wooden panelling and chandeliers.
Goebbels was last at the house in April 1945 before joining other Nazi leaders in Hitler’s Berlin Fuehrerbunker.
A few days later he committed suicide with his wife Magda after they had murdered their six children with cyanide capsules as Berlin fell to Russian troops.
Goebbels was the chief propagandist of Hitler’s Nazi party and was Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 until Hitler’s defeat and death in 1945.
He technically succeeded Hitler as Fuhrer of Nazi Germany after the dictator killed himself on 30th April 1945 but died one day later (on 1st May).
The Allies briefly used the villa as a military hospital in 1945 but it has been unused since 2000 and is said to need substantial repairs.
So far there have been no takers, with Evers saying: “But if this should once again lead to nothing, as it has in the past decades, then the state of Berlin will have no other option than to carry out the demolition in the way that has now been prepared and addressed by us.”
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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