Austria opens Hitler's birthplace as a police station

In Austria, the building where Adolf Hitler was born has been opened as a police station following long-standing debates and extensive renovation work. The 17th-century structure in the town of Braunau am Inn had been a public concern for years due to its potential to become a symbolic pilgrimage site for far-right groups.

Hitler was born in the former inn located at Salzburger Vorstadt 15 in April 1889. He lived there with his family for only a few weeks before moving to another address in the town; he left Braunau at the age of three.

Austrian authorities evaluated various options for the building's future for years to prevent it from being used by neo-Nazi circles as a memorial and visitation site. The Ministry of the Interior rented the property for a long time to prevent it from being used for far-right tourism.

The building was used for a period by an association supporting people with disabilities. However, the association left the building in 2011 after the property owner, Gerlinde Pommer, refused to allow renovations. With Pommer refusing to sell, the building remained vacant for a long time.

DEMOLITION DEBATE HAD OCCURRED

The Austrian parliament seized the building with a law passed in 2016 and paid 812 thousand Euros in compensation to Pommer. The lawsuit filed by Pommer challenging the compensation amount was unsuccessful.

During the process, the demolition of the building was also on the agenda. The then-Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Sobotka, had proposed completely removing the structure and building a new one in its place. However, this plan drew criticism that Austria was avoiding confronting its Nazi past.

In 2019, the government decided to convert the building into a police station and launched an architecture competition across the European Union. As part of the renovation, which cost millions of Euros, the building's exterior was altered, and security infrastructure was established for its new purpose.

The decision was not met with universal approval in Austria. Some segments argued that instead of a police station, the building should have been organized as a center focused on confronting the Nazi past.

In its new state, the building is monitored by security cameras and does not feature a sign indicating its connection to Hitler. The only element pointing to the structure's history is a memorial stone placed in front of the building in 1989.

The stone, brought from the Mauthausen concentration camp, does not bear Hitler's name. The inscription on the stone reads, "Never again fascism, in memory of the millions who died."

Local historian Florian Kotanko emphasizes that even if the number of visitors decreases, the historical responsibility carried by the site will not disappear, and that there must be a clear confrontation with the past.

News Source: 12punto