From the DW:
“Hitler's birthplace to be turned
into police station”
Austria's government has
struggled for years to decide what to do with the house where Adolf Hitler was
born, including considering tearing it down. The building will now house a
police station to deter neo-Nazi tourism. The building where Adolf Hitler spent
the first few months of his life will now be turned into a regional police
headquarters, the Austrian government announced Tuesday. "The future use
of the building by police will be an unmistakable signal that this building
shall never serve to commemorate National Socialism," Austrian Interior
Minister Wolfgang Peschorn said in a statement. Extremists have been traveling
to the town to have their pictures taken in front of the house, news agency DPA
reported, citing local witnesses.
Legal battle over Hitler house
Police won't move in right away,
as the government is holding an EU-wide architectural competition to redesign
the building and outer facade. According to the Interior Ministry, the winner
of the contest is expected to be announced in the first half of 2020. Tuesday's
decision comes after a lengthy legal battle between the Austrian government and
the previous owner of the house. In early 2017, the government expropriated the
building from its private owner, triggering a years-long legal battle over
compensation. The legal battle finished in August this year, with the
government paying €810,000 ($897,600 at today's exchange rates).
From Nazi cult site to police
station
Hitler, who led Nazi Germany into
a global war that killed more than 50 million people, was born in an apartment
on the top floor of the building in 1889. He lived there for a few months
before his parents moved to Passau, Germany. When the Nazis came to power, they
turned the house in Braunau am Inn into a form of fascist center. After World
War II, the building was used as a library, a care center for the disabled and
a technical school. The Austrian government previously considered a range of
proposals for the building, including possibly demolishing it.
^ The building really should be
torn down completely and then replaced with something like a police station –
that way there’s no physical trace of Hitler’s birth for Nazis and Neo-Nazis to
go worship at. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.