Berlin administration intends to sell the Villa once used by the Friend of Hitler, Joseph Goebbels

The Berlin government is offering to gift the villa once owned by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels to public institutions, failing which it will demolish the long-abandoned property.

The Berlin city council is exerting renewed attempts to unload again a notorious piece of property - a villa formerly owned by Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister during WWII. The vast lakeside property outside the town of Wandlitz has stood untouched for years, a devastating memento of Germany's misled Third Reich.

Goebbels had this luxurious villa built in 1939 and it offers a magnificent view of Bogensee Lake. The Eagle’s Nest, however, was the place where he spent his personal life with his wife and six children and it was also used occasionally to entertain the most senior Nazi officials, artists, and actors. Later, the villa was used as a hospital before it was taken over by the youth of communist East Germany.

So far since reunification in 1990, the crumbling villa has been under the control of the Berlin state government. Although there were meticulous periodic requests to tear it down, the site has been protected, guarded, and kept in the exact condition it used to be at a very high cost to Berlin’s taxpayers.

Now departing Finance Minister of Berlin, Stefan Evers, is making his last efforts to get somebody to take the "troublesome" villa off their hands - for free. In an interview with the German press agency DPA, Evers stated bluntly: "I am offering now to those who would like to take over the site, as a gift from Berlin, the state.

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In contrast, there is a trap: the offer is just for government agencies, like the federal or Brandenburg state government where the villa is located. Not for the private buyers to bid on, this is intended to prevent any commercial exploitation or Nazi fetishization of the site.

If no takers emerge, Evers warned Berlin will have "no other option" but to proceed with prepared demolition plans. The site has been a headache for Berlin for over 30 years, with no easy solution to its haunting existence. By gifting away the villa, Berlin may finally be able to shed itself of this unwanted Nazi relic.