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The three-story building in Braunau am Inn, near the German border, is set to undergo a substantial revamp that authorities hope will prevent it becoming a pilgrimage site for Nazi sympathizers.
Hitler was born in an apartment in the building on April 20, 1889, as his father worked as a customs official in the town. The family left Braunau am Inn, which was then part of Austria-Hungary, when Hitler was three years old.
The builing that Adolf Hitler was born in, pictured in 2015. Credit: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images
According to a government press release, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told Tuesday’s press conference that the town had become “the antithesis of everything (Hitler) stood for.”
Ongoing debate
The fate of the building has long been a contentious issue in the town, where many wish to demolish the painful reminder of Hitler’s brief time there.
Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer presents the chosen plan for the architectural redesign the house where Hitler was born Credit: JOE KLAMAR/AFP/AFP via Getty Images
For decades, the controversial building belonged to Gerlinde Pommer, whose family owned the property before Hitler’s birth. Austria’s Interior Ministry began renting the site from her in 1972, subletting it to various charities. But the building has stood empty since the last occupant, a disability center, vacated in 2011.
Legal wrangling over the seizure and compensation followed, during which time plans to tear the building down were shelved.
The exterior of the building shown in digital mock-ups by Austrian architecture firm Marte.Marte, which won a competition to renovate the site. Credit: Marte.Marte
After securing the site, the Austrian government remained concerned that it might attract neo-Nazis and others sympathetic to Hitler’s ideology. Announcing the decision to transform it into a police station last year, Austria’s then-Interior Minister, Wolfgang Peschorn, said that “the future use of the house by the police will be an unmistakable signal that this building will never serve to commemorate National Socialism.”
Renovation work of the building is expected to be completed by early 2023, and to cost around €5 million ($5.6 million).
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