Austrian minister: Hitler birth house may be demolished

Wolfgang Sobotka calls demolition ‘the cleanest solution’ to prevent neo-Nazis from turning home into pilgrimage site

By AP 13 June 2016, 2:28 am

Edit

Adolf Hitler's birth house in Braunau am Inn, Austria. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)

BERLIN — Austria’s interior minister says he can imagine having the house where Adolf Hitler was born demolished, calling it “the cleanest solution.”

The Austrian government wants to expropriate the house in Braunau am Inn on the German border where the future Nazi leader was born in 1889 to ensure that it doesn’t become a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis.

The Interior Ministry has rented the house since 1972 to prevent its misuse, subletting it to various charitable organizations. The building has stood empty since a care center for adults with disabilities moved out in 2011.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka told ORF television late Saturday that the expropriation is “necessary.” He said that “we have tried to clear up all possibilities for using it and buying it with the owner, but with no results.”

“For me, a demolition … would be the cleanest solution,” Sobotka said.

On Sunday, Sobotka’s ministry described that as the minister’s personal opinion and noted that it would have to be clarified whether the demolition is legally feasible, the Austria Press Agency reported.

A commission of historians is to consider the house’s future.