New plans for brownfield land
Will the Federal Police soon use the area around Goebbels Villa?
April 22, 2024, 7:45 p.m
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In the 1930s, Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels had a country house built on Lake Bogensee near Berlin. After the war, a GDR youth college was built nearby. The area has been unused and falling into disrepair since 2000. Now there are new ideas for the future of the site.
After disputes over feared demolition plans for a villa belonging to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in Wandlitz, the state of Berlin wants to enable further use and development of the area. The Berlin real estate management company (BIM) announced that the municipality of Wandlitz, in whose territory the site at Bogensee is located, should be able to apply for funds from the “National Urban Development Projects” funding program to develop the area. The supervisory board decided this on Friday.
The area where Goebbels had a country house built has been unused and fallen into disrepair since 2000. The district and the community were committed to preserving it. If no economically viable prospects are found for the area, the BIM will examine and prepare “possible steps to convert” it into a reforestation area or hand over the area to the Berlin Forests, the real estate management company said. Then a demolition is likely to be the result.
It was also agreed that the BIM would try to agree on interim use with a federal institution. Several media outlets reported unanimously that it was the federal police, who could possibly set up a training facility there in the meantime. The real estate company has not yet commented on this when asked. If an interim use by a federal institution fails, the municipality of Wandlitz should be offered a transfer of the site, it was said.
Several attempts to sell failed
The area at Bogensee in the Brandenburg municipality of Wandlitz belongs to the state of Berlin. In a letter to Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH, the district administrator of the Barnim district, Daniel Kurth, and the mayor of Wandlitz, Oliver Borchert, among others, demanded that there should be no measures or decisions regarding demolition for a period of five years. During this time, a concept for future possible uses should be developed.
District Administrator Kurth said that the area, which is unique in Germany, is of outstanding historical and architectural importance and is definitely worth protecting. The mayor also wants to preserve an important place of remembrance. Several attempts to sell have so far failed.
In 1936, the city of Berlin donated the Bogensee and the surrounding area to Reich Propaganda Minister Goebbels. After the end of the Nazi dictatorship, the Allies briefly used the site as a military hospital. In 1946, the Soviets handed the site over to the Free German Youth (FDJ), which founded a youth college there. The rest of the building ensemble was built in the 1950s. After the fall of communism the school was closed.