Hitler's old house gives Austria a headache

It was once a day-care centre for the disabled. Now it is empty, as the owner has not agreed to any plans for its future use.

Braunau am Inn is a pretty little town in northern Austria, right on the border with Germany. But it has a heavy legacy.

Just off the main square is Salzburger Vorstadt 15: a solid, 17th-Century former inn, where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889.

Adolf Hitler only lived in Salzburger Vorstadt 15 for a few weeks, before his family moved to another address in Braunau.

They left the town for good when Hitler was three years old. He returned briefly to Braunau in 1938, on his way to Vienna, after he annexed Austria to Nazi Germany.

Hitler visited Braunau after Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938

Locals say the house still attracts some neo-Nazi sympathisers.

"I've even witnessed people from Italy or from France coming here… for adoration purposes," Josef Kogler, a teacher in Braunau, said.

"One Frenchman, a history teacher I think it was, came and asked me for Hitler's birthplace… It's hard to understand."

These days, the house is locked up and empty.

The Austrian interior ministry was so concerned about the possibility of neo-Nazis using the building as a site of pilgrimage that, since 1972, it has rented it from the owner, Gerlinde Pommer, to prevent any misuse.

Mrs Pommer currently receives almost €5,000 (£3,925; $6,140) a month, according to town officials.

For many years, the house was used as a day-care centre for people with special needs. But in 2011, they had to move out.

 

(BBC)