Workers have put up fencing and have begun taking measurements for the construction work. Photo: Supplied.
The problem of what to do with the house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 has been solved by turning it into a police station.
Authorities believe having police in residence at the house in Braunau am Inn, a town on the Austrian border with Germany, will make it unattractive as a site of pilgrimage for people who glorify the Nazi dictator.
Work has begun on the site with plans calling for a local police station, the District Police Headquarters and a Security Academy where police officers will get human rights training.
Workers have put up fencing and have begun taking measurements for the construction work. The police are expected to occupy the premises in early 2026.
A years-long back-and-forth debate over the ownership of the house preceded the overhaul project.
The question was resolved in 2017 when Austria’s highest court ruled that the government was within its rights to expropriate the building after its owner refused to sell. A suggestion it might be demolished was dropped.
The building had been rented by Austria’s Ministry of the Interior since 1972 to prevent its misuse, and was sublet to various charitable organisations. It stood empty after a care centre for adults with disabilities moved out in 2011.
The Ministry says that having the police, as the guardians of civil liberties, move in is the best use for the building, but there has been criticism of the plan.
Historian Florian Kotanko complained that “there is a total lack of historical contextualisation”.
He argued that the Ministry’s intention of removing the building’s “recognition factor” by remodelling it “is impossible to accomplish”.
“Demystification should be a key part,” he said, arguing in favour of a suggestion that an exhibition on people who saved Jews under Nazi rule should be shown in the building.
Vienna, 3 October 2023
