A large fire broke out at a historic site north of Berlin that was once a country residence built for Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, police said on Thursday. Authorities reported that no one was injured in the blaze and that a full investigation has been launched.
According to the German press agency dpa, eyewitnesses alerted emergency services after seeing smoke rising from one of the buildings on the shores of Lake Bogensee. Fire service investigators say the blaze started in the roof of one structure and then spread through parts of the complex.
The lakeside property includes several buildings and is best known for the villa constructed for Goebbels during the Nazi era. Police confirmed that Goebbels’s villa itself was not damaged by the fire.
During the era of East Germany, the site was used by the Free German Youth, the official youth organization of the former communist state, and after German reunification it served as a conference center. The property has been unused since 2000 and has fallen into disrepair.
Goebbels — one of Adolf Hitler’s closest associates in the Nazi regime — lived in Berlin with his wife Magda and their six children. In 1939, he had the grand villa overlooking Lake Bogensee built as a place to host and entertain Nazi leadership, artists and actors — and reportedly as a setting for his extramarital relationships.
Berlin authorities have been trying for decades to divest themselves of the property, transferring it to federal authorities or to the state of Brandenburg, where it is located. About a year and a half ago, the estate was even offered for free to potential new stewards.