Bogensee
About 15 kilometres northeast of Berlin, the Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels received a luxurious villa with 200 hectares of land by the state in 1936. The villa is located next to a large lake called Bogensee, therefore the name. In 1939 the villa was expanded and several smaller houses were built adjacent to the villa. Shelter in case of an air raid was also built. In total, there were twenty rooms at the family’s disposal. Goebbels spent most of the weekends at the villa together with his wife and six children. As the Allied bombings over Berlin intensified in 1943, the villa became more or less a permanent residence for Goebbels and his family.
Current status: Preserved (2010).
Location: 52°46'27.42" N 13°31'34.90" E
Get there: Car.
Follow up in books: Longerich, Peter: Goebbels: A Biography (2015).
The villa was 2010 uninhabited and for sale. For a while it was discussed whether there would be a museum in the villa about Nazism, but this was abandoned. The villa is inaccessible and cannot be reached by public transport.
Hitler had come into contact with Goebbels in the mid-twenties and initially Goebbels politically distanced himself from Hitler but he was soon taken by Hitler’s charisma. In 1926, Hitler appointed Goebbels as Gauleiter (highest political leader in a particular district) in Berlin. Goebbels eventually came to be one of Hitler’s most faithful and closest associates, but ideological they differed from eachother.
Goebbels considered socialism to be an ideological cornerstone of national socialism and wanted, among other things, to nationalize all industries and rural properties, which was the opposite of Hitler’s view. Hitler had a lot of support from voters who was against nationalizing industries and rural properties. Goebbels also saw the Soviet Union as a future ally and harbored a great grudge against Britain. Hitler thought the opposite. They were united around anti-Semitism. But in order to win over the left in Berlin for his own political ends, Hitler understood that Goebbels’s socialist traits, his undoubted loyalty, his tireless energy and demagogic ability made him perfect for the task. That Goebbels would openly go against Hitler’s wishes and go his own way was out of the question and Hitler knew that.