In a last-ditch attempt to avoid the demolition of a lakeside villa built for Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, the state of Berlin decided last year to offer it as a "gift" to anyone willing to take on the hefty upkeep.

Built in the National Socialist architectural style and located on Bogensee Lake in the northeast of Berlin, the crumbling villa complex, which has been left unused since 2000, may now have been saved following the site's temporary transfer to the municipality of Wandlitz to host guided tours and events, as reported the German Press Agency (dpa).

Berlin has not relinquished ownership of the property and will continue to pay the annual management costs of around €200,000 ($233,000).

According to German public broadcaster RBB, the Wandlitz municipality had been trying for years to obtain permission to use the site and ultimately plans to raise funds to fully renovate the property, which will cost an estimated €300 million.

Rise and fall of Villa Bogensee

The villa was constructed for Goebbels on a 17-hectare (42-acre) plot of land just outside Berlin gifted to him by the city in 1936.

The former Nazi PR chief used the residence as a retreat from his Berlin-based wife and six children. Apart from entertaining Nazi leaders, artists and actors, Goebbels was also believed to have used the villa as a love nest for his many secret affairs.

After Goebbels and his wife killed themselves and their children in a Berlin bunker in 1945, the villa was briefly used as a military hospital before being used by the youth wing of the East German communist party.

For about a decade following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the villa was put to various uses before being largely abandoned. Maintenance and upkeep have become an onerous task for the state of Berlin and the federal government.

Germany has long struggled with how to deal with former Nazi sites. Demolishing them would mean erasing the history they represent. But there is also always the risk that far-right extremists will congregate if the sites are left abandoned.

sb/rmt/nm (AFP, AP, dpa)