A former lakeside retreat gifted by Hitler to Joseph Goebbels, at which the Nazi Party propaganda minister conducted his various extramarital affairs, is to become an artist residency under new proposals.
The property, located 15 miles from Berlin on the lake of Bogensee is currently owned by the Berlin government. Attempts to sell the property, which Goebbels described as a ‘an idyll of solitude’ have so far failed despite costing the local taxpayer an estimated €230,000 a year in maintenance costs. Now, however, a non-profit co-operative LKC Bogensee (Life & Creativity Bogensee Campus) has proposed transforming the site into a campus of artist studios and artisan workshops, complete with communal living facilities for 250 people. Priority would be given to those in the greatest need, the organisation says, including recent immigrants and asylum seekers.
As well as the Nazi-era main building, various additional outhouses were constructed in Soviet times. Goebbels was given the property, which expanded to a 70-room complex, complete with a private cinema, oak-panelled banqueting hall, bunker and SS barracks, in 1936 for his 39th birthday. Among the women Goebbels romanced at the retreat was Czech actress Lida Baarova, though the relationship ended after Hitler feared it would break the minister’s marriage.
A spokesperson for LKC told the Art Newspaper that part of the organisation’s aim is to prevent the Nazi sex nest from becoming ‘a historical revisionist pilgrimage site.’ Speaking to The Mirror, LKC Bogensee spokesperson Arnim Beutel said: ‘It should be a diverse community. I think they would hate it because of course we do the opposite of what they would do… We want to create an area for an alternative way to live and to work.’
There is no confirmation as to the likely success of the proposal, though talks are under way. Some city politicians have previously called for the site’s demolition.
