The house in Braunau am Inn where Adolf Hitler was born officially opened Wednesday as a police station, following years of debate over what should be done with the property and how to prevent it from becoming a gathering place for neo-Nazis.
Austria’s government took control of the building in 2017 after a lengthy legal dispute with its former owner. Authorities later approved plans to convert it into a police station, arguing that placing law enforcement inside the property would strip it of its appeal as an extremist pilgrimage site.
The renovation cost approximately €20 million and included major changes to the building’s exterior. Its former yellow facade was replaced with white, while the windows and overall appearance were redesigned. The new facility will serve as the local police station in Braunau am Inn.
A memorial stone outside the building remains in place. Taken from the grounds of the Mauthausen concentration camp, it carries a message calling for peace, freedom and democracy and declaring, “Never again fascism.”
The conversion has drawn criticism from the Mauthausen Committee, Austria’s largest Holocaust survivors’ organization, which argued that a police station does not adequately confront the site’s history. The group said more should have been done to educate visitors and memorialize the victims of Nazi crimes.
Some local residents also questioned the decision, while others supported the move as a practical way to prevent the building from being used as a symbol by neo-Nazi groups.
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