Hitler Youth HQ to Become Posh Club

An idling behemoth in Berlin that has housed both the Hitler Youth and the East German Communist Party will soon become a swanky media club, complete with a 42-seat theater, a swimming pool and upscale bars. A secretive British investor recently bought the Bauhaus landmark, and hopes to open a Soho House-style club next year.

The Nazis seized the structure, put up by two Jewish businessmen as a department store, shortly after it opened. They converted it to Hitlerjugend HQ, which the East German Communist Party in turn rechristened the "House of Unity" after the war. Its new proprietor bought it from descendants of its original owners. (More Hitler youth stories.)