26-06-2025
Cold War watchtower for sale. It's a bit of a fixer-upper
By the standards of the auctioneer trade, the listing for the period property in rural Brandenburg is strikingly restrained.
Situated in the 'picturesque' district of Cumlosen with 'numerous opportunities for nature lovers', it says, the five-storey building is of solid construction but requires quite considerable repairs and renovation work. All offers in excess of €5,000 are welcome.
The sober language has a lot to do with the period in question: during the Cold War, the structure was built as a watchtower to prevent people from fleeing communist East Germany across the River Elbe.
The listed building, which will be sold on Friday by the German federal government's auctions agency, consists of a tiled ground-floor hallway with an office annex, and concrete and iron staircases leading up to what used to be the guards' lounges and the observation deck on the top floor. The total indoor space is 180 sq m (1,940 sq ft).
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the watchtower overlooked the frontier between East and West. Many people on the socialist German Democratic Republic's (GDR) side of the Elbe valley in this region had their homes demolished and were resettled.
Stretches of the riverbank were fenced off with barbed wire and there was a 9pm curfew. That did not prevent some East Germans from swimming across the river, or even crossing it on foot when it froze over.
After the collapse of the GDR, the watchtower at Cumlosen was transferred to the federal government and abandoned, with much of the guards' electrical equipment left to moulder in the basement. It has been repeatedly vandalised and the paint is peeling from the walls.
The building has often been vandalised and paint is peeling from the walls
OLIVER GIERENS/DPA/ALAMY LIVE NEWS
However, the local district council in Prignitz said it had received a number of expressions of interest from potential buyers. 'It is certainly a subject that interests many people,' Bernd Atzenroth, the council's spokesman, told RBB, the regional public broadcaster.
The district tourism association has suggested that the watchtower, which is located on a fairly popular cycle path along the bank of the Elbe, could be converted into a visitor centre.
