Owner of house where Hitler was born in Austria will get £745,000 in compensation after it was seized by the government to stop it becoming a Nazi shrine
- Gerlinde Pommer was awarded cash after authorities took over the house
- They wanted to ensure the property would not become a Nazi shrine
- The court first suggested £1.380 million but this decision was overturned
- Every year anti-fascist activists organise a protest rally outside the house
- Invitations are now open for architects to decide what to do with the property
Austria has awarded the owner of Adolf Hitler’s birth house 810,000 Euros (£745,000) after the government took control of the building to stop the location attracting Nazi sympathisers.
Austrian authorities have been keen to prevent the dilapidated yellow corner house in the northern town of Braunau from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine.
The government took control of the holding in December 2016 after years of wrangling with the owner, Gerlinde Pommer.
The Pommer family has owned the house where Hitler was born on April 20 1889, for almost a century
A stone outside the house where Adolf Hitler was born says, ‘for peace, freedom and democracy, never again fascism, millions of dead are a warning.’ Though his family only lived there for three years, his link to the three-storey building has left its mark with authorities hoping to ensure it doesn’t become a shrine to the Nazi dictator
Hitler who is pictured here with his mother Klara was born at the Braunau Inn in Austria on the 20 April 1889. His mother was Alois Hitler’s third wife and they married in the same town that Adolf was born
Although Hitler only spent a short time there as a baby, it continues to draw Nazi sympathisers from around the world.
In January, a court ruled that the state should pay Pommer 1.5 million Euros (£1.380 million) in compensation for taking over the property.
But another tribunal overturned this verdict in April, deciding that a more appropriate amount would be 810,000 Euros (£745,000) excluding any rental income.
Austrian authorities will now invite submissions from architects about the future of the site.
‘After the court’s decision on compensation, a use for Hitler’s birth house can now be found within the framework of the law to prevent any sort of Nazi-related activity,’ Interior Minister Wolfgang Peschorn said in a statement.
Hitler was born into the Braunau Inn in 1889 in the small town of Braunau nearby to Salzburg on the German-Austrian border. After awarding the compensation to Gerlinde Pommer, invitations have now been made to architects to come up with an idea of what to do with the residential space
Adolf Hitler went on to become the dictator most commonly referred to as the ‘Führer.’ He began the Second World War in Europe when he initiated the invasion of Poland in 1939. In April 1945 as the Soviet army was closing in on Berlin, Hitler shot himself
Before the ruling, the Austrian government paid her around 4,800 Euros (£4,400) a month and used it as a centre for people with disabilities.
But this arrangement fell apart in 2011 when Pommer refused to carry out essential renovation work and also declined to sell it.
Each year anti-fascist protesters gather outside the location with anti-Nazi flags. The building is listed (not because of Hitler) and cannot be knocked down. The three-storey structure in the central square of the town has stood empty since 2011
Since then, the building has lain empty.
At one point, the interior ministry was pushing to have it torn down but the plans ran into angry resistance from politicians and historians.
Every year on Hitler’s birthday, anti-fascist protesters organise a rally outside the building.