After Much Debate, House Where Hitler was Born Will Go Down

Austrian Government will tear down the house where Adolf Hitler was born after long years of debate. According to an Austrian newspaper Die Presse, the Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said a committee of experts decided to demolish the house. This prevents the house in becoming a crucial point to any neo-Nazis movement.

Braunau Am Inn

Gerlinde Pommer, a retiree, owns the guesthouse, Braunau am Inn. Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, on the top floor of the Inn near the Austro-German border.

Intense debate surrounds the former guesthouse, concepts from destroying to converting the building for another use.

The house was also the subject in years of legal battle between Pommer and the Austrian Government. Since 1972, the government rented the guesthouse in a staggering amount of $5,300 a month to prevent any inappropriate use of the building.

Pommer constantly rejects government offers to sell the three-story building. She refused any renovation work as the building stood empty for the last five years.

New building to be built over the old one

The former guesthouse served as a facility for people with disabilities. The Austrian Government decided to have a new building erected to be used for administrative or charitable purposes. Minister Sobotka told the Die Presse: “The Hitler house will be torn down. The foundations can remain but a new building will be erected. It will be used by either a charity or the local authorities”.

According to the ministry spokesman, legalities to seize the properties were still “under way”. The Parliament has not decided to approve any construction of a building.

The government decision to destroy the building upsets several local communities. Some of them propose that the building can be a refugee center. While others pushed to convert the building into a museum dedicated to Austria’s liberation from the Nazi government. Cultural organizations firmly oppose the former guesthouse demolition. They argue that the building was part of a historic past and should be under heritage protection.

However, in the past years, local authorities prohibited any movement of neo-Nazi sympathizers going to Braunau am Inn. Unfortunately, despite the efforts, it still draws attention.

A teacher in Braunau said, “I’ve even witnessed people from Italy or from France coming here… for adoration purposes. One Frenchman, a history teacher I think it was, came and asked me for Hitler’s birthplace… It’s hard to understand.”

During the Nazi regime, the house drew thousands of tourists where it became a shrine for Hitler. When the Nazis began to lose command in 1944, the house was shut down.

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Germany Says Tesla’s Use of Term ‘Autopilot’ is Misleading

Tesla’s (TSLA.O) advertises their electric vehicles as having an autopilot function. However, the German government views the term “autopilot” as deceptive. On Sunday, German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt asked the company to stop advertising the autopilot feature of the electric cars.

According to a report by Bild am Sonntag, (BamS), the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) wrote a formal request letter to Tesla about the commercial. A spokesperson for the ministry said, “It can be confirmed that a letter to Tesla exists with the request to no longer use the misleading term autopilot for the driver assistance system of the car”.
However, Tesla defended the autopilot function in defining the system as an additional safety feature. A spokeswoman for Tesla reiterated that the system operates alongside a human driver. She also said that the autopilot function had been used for decades in aerospace technology. Tesla’s autopilot includes cameras, radar even ultrasonic sensors to automatically steer, change lanes and adjust speed depending on the traffic situations. Tesla also pointed out to their customers that the system still entails drivers to always be vigilant when driving.

Tesla’s Autopilot function includes cameras, radar even ultrasonic sensors to automatically steer, change lanes and adjust speed depending on the traffic situation. Tesla also pointed out to their customers that the system still requires drivers to always be vigilant when driving.

The spokeswoman also said, “Just as in an airplane, when used properly, Autopilot reduces driver workload and provides an added layer of safety when compared to purely manual driving”.

The KBA, under Minister Dobrindt’s supervision, warned Tesla car owners that they need to operate their vehicles under continuous attention and must remain cautious of traffic regulations.

In a letter KBA sent to Tesla, it said, “In order to prevent misunderstanding and incorrect customers’ expectations, we demand that the misleading term Autopilot is no longer used in advertising the system.”

Tesla’s Autopilot received serious criticism after the May 7 incident, wherein the driver of a Tesla Model S was killed using the system. The vehicle collided with a truck in Florida while using the Autopilot function.

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Syrian Suspect in Bomb Plot, Jaber Albakr, Kills Self

Jaber Albakr, 22, who was arrested in Germany for a suspected Islamic militant bomb plot killed himself in a prison cell in Leipzig on Wednesday, according to Saxony’s state Justice Ministry.

Justice Ministry spokesman Joerg Herold said Albakr killed himself sometime in the evening and the incident is still under investigation.

This development will surely raise pressure on state authorities. Saxony state officials have already been criticized for letting Albakr escape on Saturday as they prepared to raid an apartment in Chemnitz where he had been staying.

The suspected Islamic militant had been under German intelligence surveillance since last month. The authorities fired a warning shot when he was seen exiting the apartment building. Nevertheless, he was able to evade police on the scene and flee the city. Officers found highly volatile explosives and a home-made bomb vest inside the apartment.

Detained by fellow Syrians

Albakr was granted asylum after arriving in Germany last year. He was eventually arrested in Leipzig on Monday after three fellow Syrians tied him up and notified the police.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said earlier Wednesday that Albakr had undergone a security assessment. They did the evaluation last year but nothing suspicious turned up.

German authorities believe he had connections to the Islamic State group. Furthermore, as soon as this week, he was thought to be preparing to attack a Berlin airport.

According to reports from German media, after he first came to Germany, Albakr returned to Syria through Turkey and then went back to Germany. That part was also being investigated and De Maiziere said he would not comment on it.

The three Syrians who captured the suspect, in response to calls for their applications to be accelerated, have already been awarded asylum.

De Maiziere said that their behavior deserves praise and recognition

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Another Apartment Stormed in Germany in Hunt For Refugee Planning Bomb Attack

Police commandos held a man in connection with a hunt for a Syrian refugee believed of plotting a bomb attack. They assaulted his apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Sunday.

Saxony state criminal investigation office spokesman Tom Berhardt said that there were no casualties and no shots were fired during the incident. They’ve taken the man into custody and are questioning him now.

In another apartment the police stormed in the city on Saturday, they found explosives but lost track of Jaber Albakr, the 22-year-old suspect. He slipped through their hold after police spotted him at the door of the apartment block.

The quantity of explosive discovered suggests that the person was preparing to carry out an Islamist-motivated attack, a Federal Prosecutor’s Office spokesman said.

The apartment the police raided on Saturday yielded several hundred grams of explosives.

Unpopular policy

This development is unwelcome news for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her open-door migrants policy has caused her conservatives to lose support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Merkel said last month that she wished she could turn back time by several years. She wanted to better plan for last year’s inflow of close to one million refugees. The leader has yet to declare if she will pursue a fourth term as chancellor in next year’s election.

Islamic State claimed responsibility in July for attacks at a music festival in Ansbach and on a train near Wuerzburg.

Albakr is still at large with hundreds of police officers trying to track him down.

The government officially recognized Albakr as a refugee after he entered Germany last year. The police did not previously know him when they raided the first apartment after a tip-off from the domestic intelligence service.

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