Police station opens at Hitler’s birthplace in bid to rid site of Nazi link
Austria has opened a police station inside the house in Braunau am Inn where Adolf Hitler was born, in a long-running effort to stop the building becoming a site of neo-Nazi pilgrimage. The 17th-century former inn had been a source of controversy for decades, as authorities sought to control its use without either demolishing it, which critics said would amount to denying Austria's Nazi past, or turning it into a shrine.
The government rented the property for years from its owner, Gerlinde Pommer, before seizing it under a 2016 law and paying her €812,000 (£690,000) in compensation, a sum she unsuccessfully challenged in court. A charity that once ran a day centre there was forced out in 2011 and declined to return, fearing it would be used as political cover, so ministers instead pursued a police station following an EU-wide architectural competition launched in 2019. The refurbished building bears no signage referencing Hitler, relying instead on a nearby 1989 memorial stone reading "Never again Fascism", though some locals feel the decision fails to properly confront the site's history.
- Austria turns Hitler's birthplace into a police station to deter neo-Nazis.
- Building seized from owner in 2016 after years of disputes.
- No Hitler references on site; only a 1989 anti-fascism memorial stone.