About a 40-minute drive north of Berlin....you end up in a heavily wooded area near Wandlitz.
Back in the mid-1930s (the Nazi era)....the local authority granted a land deal to build what was a former university of the “Free German Youth” (FDJ) and the house/villa of the Nazi boss of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
If you stand there in the woods facing the general area today....you'd say that no one much has occupied or used the property....in thirty-odd years. Disrepair? It's to the stage where most agree...either you fund some massive renovation within five years, or you just yank the whole thing down.
So this has become a top 300-discussion topic in Berlin (the city).
Presently, there is a marginal protest going on about the demolition of the structures. Most folks don't see any purpose to be made of the university building and frankly....if you bring up the Goebbel's villa....no one wants to associate with it.
Where things are going? The mayor made a statement that no destruction should occur for five years....giving the public a chance to find a purpose for the university buildings and the villa.
To keep the buildings/villa in some order....the region spends in the area of 280,000 Euro. What that pays for? I would assume some facility manager.....some minor roof repair here and there...with some minor landscaping work to ensure trees don't fall onto any structure.
The idea of this going into a pot for private-use? No....no one wants to open up this Pandora's Box and have a pro-Nazi group acquire the villa. Whatever happens....it has to be a city organization or federal organization that determines a purpose.
This being in the middle of nowhere? Yeah, it is an odd aspect. It's not like you could ride out there on a S-Bahn/U-Bahn and hope off.
The oddest suggestion? It was to yank down the bulk of the university buildings and put up a 4,000 apartment complex. Berlin is short on apartments, and it made sense until you discuss how people would move back and forth to Berlin-city. There is a station in Wandlitz itself (about 2.5 km away).
How the FDJ University came about? Well....the Soviets in 1946 didn't see much purpose, and released the property to become the university. Within months after the 'wall' came down, the FDJ University became a joke and was shut-down.
If you asked me? There are plenty of private business colleges around Europe, and if you offered up some deal....where they could 'own' the grounds....it might make sense for a updated college to be there. But then you bring up the funding of this....probably well over 300-million Euro, and it's not likely to occur.
I'll make the prediction....by 2030....the whole thing will be demolished (villa and university grounds)....returning to some nature-preserve area.
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