An entire German village was sold under the hammer at an auction in Berlin
According to "Russkaya Germaniya", an unknown buyer who participated in the auction in Berlin, where a "settlement with a village character" was put up for bidding, paid 140,000 euros for his purchase, with a starting price of 125,000. The anonymous bidder made his offer by phone. It seems very likely that this was the first and only bid at this auction. A whole series of potential buyers, after visiting the dilapidated village, one after another began to withdraw from the deal, as they did not want to invest huge sums in repairing the local buildings and infrastructure.
About the new owner of Alwine, it is only known that he is an elderly man, a resident of the German capital. According to the head of the auction house, Matthias Knake, who handled the sale of the village, the man "wanted to do something good" with his purchase.
For the village, which currently has only 15 residents, "something good" is indeed necessary. Before the reunification of Germany, the village of Alwine, which is part of the Brandenburg municipality of Uebigau-Wahrenbrück with a total area of 135 square kilometers and only 5,500 inhabitants, belonged to a local factory producing coal briquettes. In reunified Germany, this production turned out to be unprofitable and was soon closed. Consequently, funding for the budget of the village of Alwine, whose residents worked at this factory, also ceased. The houses began to fall into disrepair, and the residents moved to other regions.
In 2001, the Federal Agency for the Management of GDR Real Estate sold the village to two brothers for a symbolic price of one mark. However, the new owners were in no hurry to invest their own funds in the repair and renovation of the houses, so the destruction of the village continued in recent years. After the death of one of the brothers, Alwine was put up for sale.
Now the fifteen remaining residents of the village hope for positive changes. After all, the buyer acquired at auction not only nine houses in need of repair with stove heating, but also several utility rooms, ten garages, and sheds. It is assumed that all these real estate objects, including the only broken village road, will be gradually repaired.
As Peter Kroll, the acting village head on a voluntary basis, has already stated, the most important thing now is "to bring all residential buildings into decent condition." According to him, in recent years, due to huge housing problems, tenants paid the owners only 16,000 instead of the required 30,000 euros per year in rent. "All the residents of our village want to meet with the new owner of Alwine and personally tell him about all our problems," said Mr. Kroll.
He also hopes for help from Brandenburg politicians. The fact is that the villagers have to go to the neighboring municipality, located almost twenty kilometers from Alwine, for shopping. The only bus that passes near the village once a day has long since stopped making a stop here. It is also very difficult for local residents to get to the nearest doctor or simply to the post office.
"Interest in the auction was great not only in Germany but also in many countries around the world. I would like this story to now give impetus to the development of tourism in our municipality," noted Mr. Kroll.