Hitler's Austrian Birthplace Converted to Police Station in Bid to Deter Neo-Nazi Pilgrims

Local politicians say they were excluded from the years-long debate over what to do with the building Adolf Hitler was born in, while others question the project's $22.8-million price tag

July 22nd, 16PM July 22nd, 16PM

BRAUNAU AM INN, Austria – Representatives of the Austrian government opened a new police station in Braunau am Inn on Wednesday in the house in which Adolf Hitler was born.

The controversial project in the historic border town of 17,500 people was first announced in 2019, with construction commencing in 2023. Costs ballooned from an estimated $5.7 million in 2020 to around $22.8 million.

"The goal was to break the magical allure around Hitler's birthplace" that draws Hitler fanatics and neo-Nazis to the site, which only a "radical structural transformation" could shatter, leading Austrian historian Oliver Rathkolb tells Haaretz.

The Hitler-Haus, as it's known locally, is an accident of history. Hitler had to be born somewhere, and it happened to be Braunau. As Mayor Johannes Waidbacher tells Haaretz: "Our city is defined not by the birth of a dictator."

Under a full July sun, the grand opening was attended by current and former interior ministers who played a role in the project, as well as state and local politicians.

"The opening of a new police station is always special, but this one is more unusual than most. Salzburger Vorstadt 15 is something else. The darkest chapter in our history did not begin here, but still this place has a symbolic power," said interior minister Gerhard Karner. "It is an accident of history, but we have to take responsibility for it."

Practically, stationing the police here, added former interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka, means "an institution of the republic will have a permanent presence" to combat neo-Nazi activity at what is still "a place of pilgrimage."

The renovation has transformed a faded, water-damaged building into something functional while retaining its essential historic character. It will serve as a police station for the town and the headquarters of the district police force. Forty officers will be permanently stationed there.

"Architecturally, I think the renovation and new construction were successful," local historian Florian Kotanko told Haaretz, "but the issue of costs is open to debate."

Signs of the house's former use as a library during the Nazi period have been removed and given to the House of Austrian History in Vienna. Out front remains a memorial stone, installed in 1989, which reads: "For Peace, Freedom, and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn Us."

While initial plans called for its removal, "we fought to keep [it], a decision that was subsequently affirmed by all parties on the local council," Martina Schäfer, leader of the Social Democratic Party in Braunau, told Haaretz.

'Preferred the house be used for charitable purposes'

Hitler was born at Salzburger Vorstadt 15 on April 20, 1889, though he only lived there for a month, and at the age of 3 moved across the border to Passau, Germany.

The address' last tenant was the non-governmental organization Lebenshilfe, which works with people with disabilities. They moved out in 2011. "We would have preferred the house be used for charitable purposes: for example, by having Lebenshilfe take over and adapt the building for its own use," says Schäfer.

A senior figure in the interior ministry tells Haaretz that Lebenshilfe's plans for the building were not compatible with the law governing its requisition, hence the pivot to an administrative use, an idea they said also had the buy-in of Austrian Jewish community leaders.

"As far as I know, the decision to house the police there was made without the direct involvement of local residents," says Kotanko. This view is supported by Schäfer, who adds local politicians "did not feel included in the decision-making process regarding the building's future use."

The interior ministry rejects this view, noting the involvement of Mayor Waidbacher. He seems satisfied with the outcome of the renovation process, telling Haaretz that putting the house "in service of the rule of law underscores our commitment to neither repress nor romanticize history, but to engage with it responsibly."

"I have no fundamental objection to [the house's] use by the police," adds Kotanko, "because Austria is a democratic state governed by the rule of law, in which even the police may and can act only within legal boundaries."

On the ground floor are rooms set aside for police training. "When I inquired" about this, says the Social Democratic Party's Schäfer, "I received no concrete plans regarding the start of the training sessions."

Critics like Günter Schwaiger, who made a film about the Hitler-Haus in 2023, worry that converting Hitler's birthplace into a police station is an "attempt to obscure Hitler's Austrian origins" that "fits into the sad Austrian tradition of playing the 'first victim'" of National Socialism.

Rathkolb rejects this view: "It is a central mandate for both the police and judiciary to combat neo-Nazi activities using all means available under the rule of law."