Adolf Hitler’s Birthplace Will Be Transformed Into a Police Station to ‘Neutralize’ Its Appeal as a Pilgrimage Site for Neo-Fascists

In an attempt to neutralize the political significance of Adolf
Hitler’s birthplace in Austria, authorities will transform the
building into a modernized police station.

The renovation plans for the 17th-century building in
Braunau am Inn, a town of 16,000 people, were unveiled on June 2
and include a new, white exterior; a redesigned roof with two
peaks; and an extension at the back of the building.

According to authorities, the design is meant to be “neutral” to
deter neo-Nazi sympathizers who have reportedly gathered at the
space. The plan will be executed by the Austrian architecture firm
Marte Marte, which won out over 11 competitors from Austria,
Germany, and Switzerland. According to Euronews, the
renovation is expected to be finished by early 2023 at a cost of
around €5 million ($5.5 million).

“We are opening a new chapter today in dealing with our
historical responsibility,” Austrian interior minister Karl
Nehammer said in a statement. “The house where [Hitler] was
born in Braunau is becoming an antithesis to everything he stood
for: a place where democracy and human rights are defended, a place
that offers security from persecution and allows us to look ahead
in peace and freedom.”

The Austrian Ministry did not immediately respond to
questions from Artnet News about what new design features
neutralized its appeal among Nazi sympathizers.

The building’s fate has been the subject of intense debate, with
varying proposals put forward to transform it into an education
center or even to knock it down. The decision to make it into
a police headquarters was announced in November.

“There is a strong wish that the history of this building is
diminished,” historian Andreas Maislinger, the founder of the
Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service, tells Artnet News. “A few
years ago, there was the idea to destroy the house. If the house
does not exist anymore, there is no birth anymore. This is a
fiction. To make it neutral is to wipe out history.”

But Maislinger is not sold on the idea of transforming the
building into a police station, arguing that visitors will come
with questions that police cannot answer. “A policeman or
woman’s job is security,” he says. “They are not historians.”

Hitler was born in the building on April 20, 1889, but moved
with his family weeks later. During the Second World War, it was a
center of National Socialist activity. In 2017, it was taken
by the government from a private owner following a court ruling in
the state’s favor. The owner was paid €812,000 for the
handover in 2019, according to Merkur.

A stone that sits outside the building, which reads “for peace,
freedom, and democracy,” will be removed, and perhaps taken to a
museum in Vienna, according to Der Standard.

The post Adolf Hitler’s Birthplace Will Be Transformed Into
a Police Station to ‘Neutralize’ Its Appeal as a Pilgrimage Site
for Neo-Fascists appeared first on artnet News.