The building where Adolf Hitler was born in Austria more than 137 years ago opened as a police station on Wednesday morning, the country’s interior ministry announced, concluding a yearslong effort to prevent any attempts from making the location an attraction for Nazi sympathizers.
The refurbishing and repurposing of the building has reignited a debate about what to do with sites associated with the Nazis in a country that is still grappling with how to acknowledge its role in the Holocaust.
“You could make the point that now is a watershed moment,” said Stefan Benedik, the deputy director of the House of Austrian History, a museum in Vienna. But, he added, when it comes to grappling with the past, “such processes are never over.”
The 17th-century building where Hitler was born — at Salzburger Vorstadt 15 in the center of the small, medieval town of Braunau am Inn, along the German border — has been undergoing renovations for about three years. Now, the exterior is a crisp white. The windows are new. No remnants of Nazi influence remain.
“The future use of the house by the police should send an unmistakable signal that the role of this building as a memorial to the Nazis been permanently revoked,” Wolfgang Peschorn, the interior minister of Austria, said in a statement. » | Claire Moses | Wednesday, July 22, 2026
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Soll Neonazi-Pilger abschrecken: Hitlers Geburtshaus ist jetzt eine Polizeistation: Nach jahrelangem Streit um die Nutzung hat Österreich das Geburtshaus Adolf Hitlers zur Polizeidienststelle umgebaut. Am Umgang mit dem NS-Erbe gibt es Kritik. »
