Araweelo News Network
This file photo taken on September 20, 2012 shows the house where Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria.
“We have come to the conclusion over the past few years that expropriation is the only way to avoid the building being used for the purposes of Nazi [sympathizers],” Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said on Saturday. “We are currently examining the creation of a law, which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria.”
The house fell empty in 2011, following a dispute between the owner and the Austrian government, who leased it in 1972 and was using it as a center for the disabled.
Despite the property’s only link to the past being a stone inscribed with the words, “Never again Fascism. In memory of millions of dead,” it still seems to pique the interest of neo-Nazi sympathizers, with large groups of them frequenting there especially on Hitler’s birthday.
The Austrian official did not elaborate on what the government plans to do with the house. But there have been suggestions of turning it into a center for refugees or a memorial to the victims of the war. In 2012, a Russian MP, Frantz Klintsevich, suggested purchasing the property and blowing it up “demonstratively.”