Adolf Hitler’s birthplace turned into a police station. The redevelopment of the historic structure, part of a $24 million project, has faced criticism from anti-Nazi groups. It is located in the center of Braunau am Inn on a narrow street lined with shops and shares the border with Germany.
Memorials associated with Hitler revive graphic memories of the country’s Holocaust, in which nearly 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed while 130,000 others were forced into exile during Nazi rule. In 1938, Hitler’s Germany annexed Austria and kept it under the Nazi regime until 1945.
Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 and lived for a short period of his early life in an Austrian home. Since World War II, there have been debates about what purpose this house should serve. This building is said to have been used as a school, a library and a makeshift museum. In 2016, the government took control of the dilapidated building to make sure it did not become a symbol of neo-Nazis. It was a private structure that came under state control through law in an effort to “neutralize” the site.
The decision to convert the building, which was a popular tourist destination, into a police station was made on 19 November 2019. An official statement from the Home Secretary at the time said: “The future use of the house by the police should send an unmistakable signal that this building’s role as a Nazi memorial has been permanently revoked,” Now This Impact reported.
A memorial stone placed in front of the reconstructed house says: “For peace, freedom and democracy. Never again fascism. Millions dead warn.”
With the final touches completed, the Home Office said officers are due to move in during the “second quarter of 2026”. Before the police station was rebuilt, the building was leased by the Ministry of the Interior and operated as a center for people with disabilities.
Adolf Hitler’s birthplace is a “double-edged sword”
“It’s a double-edged sword,” office assistant Sibylle Treiblmaier was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post. The 53-year-old office assistant suggested the site could have been “used better or differently”, saying it could deter far-right extremists from gathering at the site.
Author and member of the Austrian Mauthausen Committee, Ludwig Laher, who represents Holocaust victims, said: “The police station is problematic because the police … are obliged in any political system to protect what the state wants.”
According to Ludwig Laher, discussions about turning the house into a place where people would meet to discuss peace building “gained a lot of support”.