In Hitler’s Birthplace, Soul-Searching Over a Poisonous Past

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Austrian government is turning the house where Hitler was born into a police station. But many think it should be used instead to teach essential lessons about history.

The building where Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria. | Marylise Vigneau for The New York Times
The Austrian town of Braunau am Inn, sitting just at the border with Germany, has a 15th-century church tower, cobblestone streets and cluttered rows of charming, colorful houses, some in green, pink and blue.

It also has a fraught historical burden. On the upper floors of the house at Salzburger Vorstadt 15 on April 20, 1889, Adolf Hitler was born.

One recent afternoon, Annette Pommer, 32, a history teacher, stared through the window of the Sailer cafe at the three-story 17th-century building across the street where Hitler spent the first few months of his life. She could hear the pounding of jackhammers; an excavator was crawling over a pile of bricks at the rear of the house while workers in hard hats swept the soil.

For many years, Braunau residents say, few gave the house a second thought, except when tourists asked for a photograph, or the occasional neo-Nazi showed up on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday with a candle or wreath.

But in 2017, the Austrian government, acutely sensitive to the house’s poisonous symbolism and potential for abuse, expropriated the property, and after a period of debate, announced the building would be renovated to become a police station. The goal was to stop it from attracting any modern supporters of Hitler and to sever associations with its painful history. Construction began in October.

“It’s a missed opportunity,” Ms. Pommer said.

Like many in Braunau, she had wanted the building to become a museum or exhibition space to explore Austria’s part in the Nazi regime, a usage that could provide an especially valuable lesson at a time when war again rages in Europe, antisemitism is rising and far-right parties are stirring.

“It should be about how people become Hitler,” she said. “It’s not a house of evil. It’s just a house where a child was born. But it’s right to explain what became of that child.” » | Graham Bowley, Reporting from Braunau am Inn, Austria | Sunday, November 19, 2023

Hitler's House in Austria | Focus on Europe

Braunau is a pretty Austrian town with an ugly legacy: Adolf Hitler was born here. The house has stood empty for years. Now the state plans to expropriate it to prevent neo-nazis from turning it into a shrine.

Birthplace of a Dictator: Austrian Town Wonders What to Do with Hitler's Home

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A debate has erupted in the tiny Austrian town of Braunau over what to do with the building where Adolf Hitler was born. The mayor said last week he wants it to become residential apartments, but many would like to see a memorial instead. The property has been vacant for over a year.

The building, for the moment, is empty. Most recently, it was used as a workshop operated by a charitable organization for disabled people. But the group moved out a year ago and since then little has happened at Salzburger Vorstadt 15.

This week, thought, the site has found itself at the center of a heated debate over its future. The structure, after all, is located in the tiny town of Braunau am Inn on Austria's border with Germany. And it is the place where Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889.

The back-and-forth was triggered last week when the mayor of Braunau, Johannes Waidbacher, hinted in an interview with the Austrian daily Der Standard that he was in favor of using the property merely as a residential building. "It would certainly be easier to transform the site into apartments," he said.

Waidbacher didn't stop there. Saying he was "open to many ideas," he added: "One should also ask the question in general as to whether a further Holocaust memorial makes sense when there are already so many in the area. We are stigmatized anyway. Hitler spent the first three years of his life here in our city. And it most certainly was not the most formative phase of his life. As such, we in Braunau are not prepared to take responsibility for the outbreak of World War II."

Waidbacher's comments, perhaps unsurprisingly, were not universally well received. Local politicians have since demanded that the site be transformed into some kind of memorial and the reaction from overseas has also made it clear that simply ignoring the building's history would not go over well. » | Charles Hawley | Tuesday, September 25, 2012