A police station has opened in the house where Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, in a move intended to curb neo-Nazi pilgrimages to the site. The 17th-century building, formerly an inn, has been substantially refurbished and its facade altered.
Hitler lived in the building for only a few weeks after his birth in April 1889 before his family relocated within Braunau. They left the town entirely when he was three years old. Hitler made a brief return to Braunau in 1938 as he traveled to Vienna following the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany.
The opening ceremony for the police station, which featured police musicians performing with brass instruments, was attended by Interior Minister Gerhard Karner and other local officials. Karner stated that Austria was accepting "responsibility" for the "terrible legacy" of the past and expressed his belief that the police station represented "a new chapter" for the building.
"This house will now become a place of democracy, rule of law, security, freedom and human dignity," Karner said. A police chaplain blessed two crosses that will be hung in the new facility.
For decades, Austria's interior ministry rented the property from its owner, Gerlinde Pommer, paying a significant rent to prevent it from being used for extreme right-wing tourism. The transformation into a police station marks the latest effort by Austrian authorities to address the controversy surrounding the property.