Police station opens in Hitler's birth house
Controversy has surrounded the renovation of the building in Braunau, Austria to this day. The debate points to something larger: the continued need to remember
Controversy has surrounded the renovation of the building in Braunau, Austria to this day. The debate points to something larger: the continued need to remember history and confront the Nazi past. Starting Wednesday, July 22, the police in Braunau am Inn, Austria, have new headquarters. The local police station and district police command have moved into Salzburger Vorstadt 15. The address would attract little attention — had Adolf Hitler not been born there in April 1889. Hitler, the self-declared "Führer" of the German Reich who started World War II, which claimed tens of millions of lives across Europe and beyond. Hitler also bore primary responsibility for the Holocaust, the systematic murder of approximately six million Jews. Adolf Hitler as a baby: A 1889 card announcing his birth Image: picture-alliance / akg-images The house didn't belong to Hitler's parents; they were tenants there and moved out only a few months after his birth. The building has had a turbulent history ever since. After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the Nazi Party purchased the house and turned it into an ideological cultural center dedicated to its leader. After World War II, ownership returned to the original family. The Austrian government later leased the property, which has served at various times as a library, a school and, most recently, a workshop for people with disabilities. Starting 2011, the building stood vacant for years. In 2016, Austria expropriated the property from its private owner to prevent neo-Nazis from turning it into a pilgrimage site. Officials said they wanted to "neutralize" the location. A €20-million renovation Austria's Interior Ministry appointed a commission on the historically appropriate use of Hitler's birth house, charging it with developing a concept for the site's future.
The commission recommended either a social service organization or a government office. Oskar Deutsch, president of the Jewish Community of Vienna and member of the commission, told DW in 2023: "The goal was always to ensure this house wouldn't become a pilgrimage site for Nazis." Deutsch said he could have supported other uses for the building. Still, he emphasized that "a police station of a democratic state governed by the rule of law will be located here, and one of its responsibilities is combating neo-Nazi activity." Historian Oliver Rathkolb, another commission member, recalled that the group's first unanimous recommendation was to house a social welfare organization there — an institution that embraced life. That proposal was declined. "The police station will discourage Hitler admirers from taking selfies in front of the completely redesigned building," Rathkolb wrote. A photo from 2019: This is what the house looked like before the renovation Image: Martin Siepmann/imageBROKER/picture alliance To that end, the government spent about €20 million ($23 million) completely renovating the building, which included replacing its facade with a deliberately understated design. Residents of Braunau remain divided over the result. "A unique historical opportunity was missed to use the birth house of history's greatest mass murderer in a sustainable and historically responsible way," Eveline Doll, a Braunau native and spokesperson for the local citizens' initiative Diskurs Hitlerhaus, told DW. "The city is, of course, not responsible for Hitler's crimes. But around the world, Braunau will always be associated with the fact that history's greatest mass murderer was born here." A 2023 survey found that only 6% of respondents supported converting the building into a police station.
The BriefWire