Berlin takes down ‘for sale’ sign over top Nazi’s love nest

Berlin may be filling up with techie startups and desperate refugees, but one corner of the history-drenched German capital is failing to attract any new comers. The city’s real estate arm has been forced to give up on efforts to sell a “sprawling lakeside villa” that was once a “lovenest” for Hitler’s propaganda minister …

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it near a lake?

German version of the Sound of Music?

Nein?

[MyffyW]

Re: I know the perfect buyer.

Not sure about a buyer, but sounds like an ideal set for a film adaptation of "The Lady from Zagreb" by Phillip Kerr.

Bernie Gunther would either applaud or turn in his grave.

[Anonymous Coward]

once

we opt out of the EU we can refuel that vulcan (cause Eurofighters would be politically incorrect) and send it off to finish the job. Ha, that would be the proper auf wiedersehen pet!

[Peter Simpson 1]

Re: once

Isn't their still an airworthy Lancaster?

Would be more historically accurate.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: once

"Isn't their still an airworthy Lancaster?"

*There* is still an airworthy Lancaster (both grammatically and historically accurate)

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: once

Grammar 'Nazi' ?

[Peter Simpson 1]

Re: once

"Their" wasn't enough coffee in my system...:-)

[John 104]

Re: once

Or perhaps a B24? Pretty sure we sent a lot of those over there before we joined the party. :)

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: once

Two (airworthy Lancasters) to be exact.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bbmf/gallery/2lancspda2014.cfm

http://www.warplane.com/reunion-of-giants.aspx

"It had been 50 years since two Avro Lancaster bombers flew side by side. In the summer of 2014, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Avro Lancaster, VeRA, flew from Hamilton, Ontario to meet her British counterpart, Thumper—the only other surviving flight worthy Lancaster bomber in the world—the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's (BBMF) Lancaster in England."

[Tony S]

"Alternatively, she said, the most sensible option might be to just raze it to the ground."

Didn't the Russians already try that?

I'll get my coat...

[Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese]

Eagle's Nest

"By contrast, the local reports, Hitler’s own love pad, the Eagle’s Nest in Bavaria, has a restaurant, cafe and book shop."

But, sadly no accommodation. Visitors wishing to stay overnight can, however, pitch a tent in the designated area in a nearby quarry. This is known as Mine Camp.

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: Eagle's Nest

Yes, but I struggled to book a plot.

[ColonelClaw]

Between 1988 and 1992, as the son of a diplomat, I lived in a house next door to the former site of Hermann Göring. I say former, because when the Brits took control of their sector they knocked it down and replaced it with some nice low-rise flats. Obviously this is what the authorities need to do in this case.

Spooky bootnote: Our house must have also been occupied by a senior Nazi - it was built in 1933 and had a room in the cellar that had no window, an iron door, and a big iron bar on the outside to stop whatever was inside from getting out.

[Mike Moyle]

The iron bar on the door was just a backup -- you didn't break any of the lines in that weird design on the floor, did you?

[Anonymous Coward]

Goebbels

"The city’s real estate arm has been forced to give up on efforts to sell a “sprawling lakeside villa” that was once a “lovenest” for Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels"

Himmler had something similar.

[Ali Um Bongo]

The PC Advocate's Dilemma

*"...Alternatively, she said, the most sensible option might be to just raze it to the ground..."*

I couldn't agree more. The only way we combat fascism is by completely destroying everything that was ever associated with it –even if that means listed buildings and works of art that happened to have been 'touched' by one of those monsters.

<Reads news story about ISIS destroying ancient artefacts in Syria, Afghanistan, etc, because they deem them 'idolatory'>

This is disgraceful. These people are destroying historical relics, just because they don't fit in with their fanatical viewpoint. Won't somebody do something!

[Steven Roper]

Re: The PC Advocate's Dilemma

Fully agree with you, just one thing:

PC isn't a dilemma. It's simple hypocrisy.

[cd]

Why not hire immigrants to turn it into immigrant housing? A political karma wash.

[Steven Roper]

Except that IIRC, Hitler and his cronies thought quite highly of Muslims; it's even probable they'd rather have seen the property given to them, than to the crop of wankers that pass for modern neo-Nazis!

[John 104]

Flatten It

Can't sensibly nuke it from orbit without political fallout.

Raze it and put something else up. Keeping that sort of thing around for movies doesn't cut it IMHO.

[Anonymous Coward]

If nobody buys it, it's too expensive... Free market and all... Lower the price and at some point *someone* will buy it. Heck, if the place had a DSL landline, I'd buy it myself (for cheap of course).

[Steven Roper]

Apparently most landlords, realtors and property owners have yet to comprehend free-market economics; it's going to take a serious worldwide (not just US) property crash to hammer the lesson home to them it seems. Like the owners of this Pentagon-imitating Chinese shopping mall, which is all but abandoned because the rent is way too high and the owners are so fucking pigheaded they'd rather sit on an empty building than lower the rent to the point where shops can actually afford to set up in it.

Landlords and property owners need a serious kick up the collective bum to wake them up to the realities of the market.

[Jan 0]

> "Heck, if the place had a DSL landline"

Hmm, maybe it does. Where did the 1930's Berlin - Leipzig HD videophone cable terminate?

[Brian Miller]

Trash heap

Why nobody wants it:

"At present there is no heating, no running water, there is serious damage to the facades, the roofs are falling apart and inside there is a lot to do too," Moehring admits, saying renovation costs would be "considerable".

It's a heap, so of course the best option is to raze it. House refugees in it? No, that would not do because the conditions would be substandard. I'm sure that there are enough refugees who have the necessary skills to do the work, though. Actually, that's a great option for a lot of unused government buildings. (And why is the government so intent on building more when they have so many vacant?)

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor presentation

Trim the bushes, powerwash the building. It has no curb appeal. If the inside is as poorly maintained as the outside, no one they are having trouble moving it. They need to get one of those Beverly Hills power realtors on the case to figure out the backstory of the person who will want to buy it, and stage it to fit that person's desires. Spent an afternoon talking to one of them once, it is amazing what they go through but for 3% of a $10 million sale I'd be willing to put in a little work too!