{"id":129817,"date":"2026-07-22T20:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=129817"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:25:12","slug":"hitlers-austrian-birthplace-transformed-into-police-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129817\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitler’s Austrian birthplace transformed into police station"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(National Times)- Austria opened a\u00a0new police station<\/a>\u00a0in Adolf Hitler\u2019s former house on Wednesday, in the hope of deterring today\u2019s ascendant far-right extremists from making the pilgrimage to the Nazi dictator\u2019s birthplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a ceremony to mark the opening, Johannes Waidbacher, mayor of the small town of Braunau-am-Inn, said he hoped the transformation would show that the local community is \u201cconfronting its history, that it is assuming responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision to turn the house into a police station follows a long and delicate debate over what to do with the site, in a country often criticised for not taking full responsibility for its role in the Holocaust.A police priest hands over a blessed cross to police officers during an inauguration ceremony of the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler that is turned into a police station, on July 22, 2026 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that the opening of the police station today brings clarity to the discussion, perhaps also a bit of calm for the people of Braunau,\u201d the mayor said, in a ceremony also attended by Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few local residents were present, but 90-year-old Erna Seidl said she was \u201crelieved\u201d that at last \u201csomething\u201d had been done and \u201cvery happy with the result\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a \u20ac20 million ($23m) refurbishment finished three years behind schedule, the unassuming building where one of history\u2019s most notorious figures was born is all but unrecognisable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2018Place of democracy\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The roughcast yellow walls of the 17th-century home near the German border, where the future dictator was born on April 20, 1889, have been whitewashed over by the Austrian architecture firm Marte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A police sign hangs above the entrance, while the pavement still bears a memorial stone with the inscription: \u201cFor Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interior Minister Karner said that from now on the house would be \u201ca place of democracy, of the rule of law, of security, of freedom, and of human dignity\u201d.This combination of pictures created on July 22, 2026 shows Adolf Hitler\u2019s birthplace, photographed on September 20, 2012, in Braunau, Austria and (R) Adolf Hitler\u2019s birthplace in Braunau, Austria, photographed on July 22, 2026. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd at the same time \u2026 the memory does not disappear, nothing is covered up. The memorial stone in front of this house, hewn from the granite of the former Mauthausen concentration camp, remains in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Hitler\u2019s Germany annexed its Alpine neighbour in 1938, 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed and another 130,000 forced into exile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the country\u2019s most popular political party is now the far-right FPOe, which was founded by former Nazis. Around 37 per cent of Austrians back the party, according to polling aggregator Europe Elects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The house, which had been in the hands of the same family from 1912, was from 1972 leased to the Austrian state and used as a centre for disabled people, who were also among the Third Reich\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite neo-Nazis frequently flocking to the address, its last private owner, Gerlinde Pommer, vetoed any transformation of the house and contested its expropriation by the state until the very end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three years after Austria passed a law in 2016 to take control of the dilapidated building, the Supreme Court finally approved the \u00ad\u20ac810,000 purchase of the 800 square-metre property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u2018Humanity will not forget\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Demolishing the site was out of the question for historians. They urged Austria to face up to its role in the Nazis\u2019 murder of more than six million Jews, along with Roma, LGBTQ people and communists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An expert commission decided to make it a police station, with the Austrian government insisting that would \u201cclearly show\u201d that no commemoration of Nazism would be acceptable and would \u201cneutralise\u201d the site.Austria\u2019s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner speaks during an inauguration ceremony of the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler that is turned into a police station, on July 22, 2026 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s absurd: humanity will not forget where the worst mass murderer in history was born,\u201d Robert Eiter, spokesman for the Mauthausen Committee Austria, an association of escapees from the concentration camp, told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd this renovation will not prevent a single neo-Nazi from making the pilgrimage to Braunau.\u201d Former Interior Minister Wolfgang Peschorn, in office at the time of the decision, said Wednesday that putting a police station \u201ctasked with \u2026 safeguarding the rule of law\u201d in the house was \u201cthe clearest sign of a democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andreas Pilsl, head of the regional police in Upper Austria, said he believed that \u201cthe officers here are very much aware of where they are working and of the context\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Florian Kotanko of Braunau\u2019s Association for Contemporary History said he doubted the conversion would end the controversy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBraunau will always be associated around the world with the town where Adolf Hitler was born \u2026 This is not the end of the story,\u201d he told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(National Times)- Austria opened a\u00a0new police station\u00a0in Adolf Hitler\u2019s former house on Wednesday, in the hope of deterring today\u2019s ascendant far-right extremists from making the pilgrimage to the Nazi dictator\u2019s birthplace. In a ceremony to mark the opening, Johannes Waidbacher, mayor of the small town of Braunau-am-Inn, said he hoped the transformation would show that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nHitler's Austrian birthplace transformed into police station - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/129817\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hitler's Austrian birthplace transformed into police station - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(National Times)- Austria opened a\u00a0new police station\u00a0in Adolf Hitler\u2019s former house on Wednesday, in the hope of deterring today\u2019s ascendant far-right extremists from making the pilgrimage to the Nazi dictator\u2019s birthplace. 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