Work to transform the Austrian house where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 into a police station began Monday, a project intended to render it unattractive as a pilgrimage site for people who glorify the Nazi dictator.
The decision regarding the future of the building in Braunau am Inn, a town on the Austrian border with Germany, was made at the end of 2019. Plans call for a police station, the police headquarters district and a branch of the security academy where police officers will receive human rights training.
On Monday, workers erected fences and began taking measurements for construction work. Police are expected to occupy the premises in early 2026.
The renovation project was preceded by a years-long back-and-forth over ownership of the house. The issue 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 it. The idea of demolition was abandoned.
The building had been rented by the Austrian Interior Ministry since 1972 to prevent it from being misused, and was sublet to various charitable organizations. It had been empty since a care center for disabled adults moved in 2011.
A memorial stone inscribed “For Liberty, Democracy and Liberty.” Never again fascism. Millions of deaths remind us” must remain in place outside the home.
Absence of “historical contextualization”
The Austrian government believes that the installation of the police, guardian of civil liberties, constitutes the best use of the building. However, this project has attracted criticism.
Historian Florian Kotanko complained of the “total lack of historical contextualization.” He said the Home Office’s intention to remove the building’s “recognition factor” by redeveloping it “is impossible to achieve”.
“Demystification should be a key element,” he added, favoring a suggestion to have an exhibition in the building about people who saved Jews during the Nazi regime.