The house where Adolf Hitler was born officially began a new chapter on Wednesday as it reopened as a police station in Braunau am Inn, near Austria’s border with Germany.
The large terraced building had long been the subject of public debate. Previously privately owned, it had also housed a charity for people with disabilities. Austria compulsorily purchased the property in 2017 and announced two years later that it would be remodelled into a police station.
Even before the conversion, the building carried little visible reference to its historical significance. A memorial stone on the pavement, brought from the Mauthausen concentration camp, bears the inscription, “Never again fascism,” without mentioning Hitler by name.
The memorial stone remains in place, while the only new addition to the building’s white façade is a sign reading “Police.”
Image: Chatgpt
