House where Hitler was born to be demolished, says Austria

The Austrian house where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was born is scheduled for demolition, Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka announced on Monday.

Deliberations in Austria about what to do with the building, located in Braunau am Inn in the state of Upper Austria, have been long-standing, Xinhua news agency reported.

An expert team including jurists, historians, interior ministry staff, and local officials put together for the specific purpose of reaching a decision, have now concluded that the best course of action would be to bring the building down, which they passed on to Sobotka.

The cabinet is to pass a bill on Tuesday for the dispossession of the house from the current owner as well as for relevant financial compensation. This will pave the way for the demolition to begin, expected to occur in early 2017.

In its place, an entirely new building is to be constructed that will be used for either administrative or charitable purposes.

In response to questions over whether the house would not have served as a historical reminder of the era, Sobotka said other sites for this purpose already existed, such as the Mauthausen concentration camp memorial site, also in the state of Upper Austria.

Moreover, he additionally said he did not want the building to be a "pilgrimage and memorial site" for Neo-Nazis.

--IANS

lok/vt