Hitler's birthplace to be turned into police station after years of legal wrangling

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The birthplace of Adolf Hitler will be turned into a police station, Austrian officials said Tuesday, after a years-long legal battle intended to keep the building from becoming a shrine to the Nazi leader.

The yellow home in the Austrian town of Braunau near the German border was taken over by the government in 2016, The Guardian reported.

“The house’s future usage by the police should set a clear signal that this building will never be a place to commemorate Nazism,” Austria's Interior Ministry said.

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The house in which Adolf Hitler was born is seen in Braunau am Inn, Austria, in 2016. The building will be turned into a police station after a legal battle between the government and its owner. (Reuters/Leonhard Foeger)

The building will be remodeled following a ruling by Austria's highest court that its owner, Gerlinde Pommer, was entitled to $900,000 in compensation after she let it fall into disrepair. Pommer had been renting the 8,600-square-foot property to the government since the 1970s.

The building was used as a center for people with disabilities.

The arrangement fell apart in 2011 when she refused to renovate the building and declined to sell it, sparking a legal battle with the government. The interior ministry wanted to tear it down at one point, but received pushback from politicians and historians.

The amount awarded to Pommer was less than she asked for but more than what she had been previously offered, the paper said.

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Hitler was born in the home on April 20, 1889 but spent only a short time at the property. He became the leader of Germany's Nazi Party whose Third Reich murdered 6 million Jewish people during World War II.

The building continues to lure Nazi sympathizers from around the world. Anti-fascist protesters rally outside the building each year on his birthday.