Goebbels’ lakeside retreat at Bogensee may become a space for artists studios, communal living spaces, and a ‘museum of tolerance’ (via The Art Newspaper).
The residence is located approximately 15 miles north of Berlin’s city centre. It is the only Nazi property that has not been demolished.
Hitler gifted the country house to Goebbels in 1936. Construction of the site was co-financed by German film company UFA. Goebbels used the 70-room ‘love nest’ to have extramarital affairs with German film actresses.
The Berlin city government has struggled to sell the property for more than two decades, and maintenance costs were estimated at €230,000 annually in 2017.
Artists studios and communal living spaces
However, LKC Bogensee (Life & Creativity Bogensee Campus) has proposed plans to reimagine the villa, turning it into a creative utopia.
Plans include an environmentally friendly model village with experimental studios, workshops for artisans and sculptors, and a radical communal living complex offering priority to immigrants and the disabled.
In addition, proposals include a ‘museum of tolerance’. LKC Bogensee plans to pay for the project using both public and private funds.
Bogensee property could become creative utopia
“Our proposal is important because totalitarianism has lost none of its meaning in the present – quite the contrary,” reads a statement from project leader Dirk Schneider.
Discussions are now taking place between LKC Bogensee and Berlin authorities to consider the project. It will take ten years to complete.
Elsewhere, Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum recently installed an innovative sanitation gate to ensure the safety of visitors in response to COVID-19.
To help preserve the site of the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp, German chancellor Angela Merkel previously donated €60 million from Germany.
