These luxury apartments used to be a Nazi resort
Back before the beginning of World War II, Adolph Hitler constructed a massive holiday camp intended as a respite for busy German factory workers. The sprawling property spans over 3 miles on beachfront property on the German island of Rugen.
Called Prora, the austere buildings were designed to accommodate up to 20,0000 families. While you may not associate Nazis with leisure time, the resort was part of a Nazi program known as Strength through Joy—Kraft durch Freude, or KdF—which aimed to exert control over all aspects of a worker’s time.
When the war started, construction at Prora halted. During the conflict, Prora was briefly used as a a military hospital and training center and also housed refugees, according to Slate. After that, the property remained vacant and fell into disrepair—until now. In 2013, German real estate company Metropole Marketing bought the rights to refurbish Prora and covert it into luxury summer homes and a full-time apartment complex.
Construction is still underway, with many facets already completed. Here’s a pool near the completed holiday apartments.
While the property has many of the amenities to make for an idyllic vacation, including a beachside setting, modern design aesthetic, glass elevators, heated floors and laundry facilities, some wonder if its controversial history is enough to keep potential customers away.
“This is a place where 20,000 people were groomed to work and wage war,” historian Katja Lucke, who runs a museum on the island, told the Daily Mail.
Indeed, as this photo of a tank on one of the property’s walls demonstrates, evidence of the past is not completely hidden from view.
Nevertheless, as of September 2016, about 95 percent of the apartments had been sold, ranging in price from $519,000 to $960,000. Because the property is considered historic, German buyers are given tax breaks. Metropole anticipates that the final restoration will be complete by 2022.