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.
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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