A suggestion to turn the Austrian house where Adolf Hitler was born into normal residential space has triggered a debate about how best to use empty property still packed with historic baggage decades after World War II ended. The boy who grew up to be the Nazi dictator was born in a house in Braunau am Inn, a town near Salzburg on the German border, in April 1889. His family lived there for only three years, but his definitive link to the three-story building has left an indelible mark. A retired local woman now owns the property, which Austria's federal Interior Ministry has been renting since 1972 and has sublet to Braunau. According to media accounts, the building an inn when Hitler's family rented space there has housed a library, a bank, classrooms and, most recently, a charitable organization's workshop for handicapped people, which moved out a year ago. The question of what to do with it now is exposing splits between those who want to highlight its past and those who want to turn the page on an inglorious chapter of local history. Braunau Mayor Johannes Waidbacher caused a stir with a recent newspaper interview in which he proposed making the house into a standard residence. "You have to ask in general whether another Holocaust memorial makes sense when there are already many around here," Waidbacher, born 21 years after the war's end, told Der Standard. "We are stigmatized anyway. Hitler spent the first three years of his life in the city, and it was certainly not the most formative phase of his life. We as the city of Braunau are thus not prepared to take responsibility for the outbreak of World War II," he was quoted last week as saying. In a statement on Monday, Waidbacher rowed back a bit, saying "this house can never be allowed to become a shrine for die-hards" but also pointing out the city had a limited say. "In the end the decision is up to the Interior Ministry and the owner," he added. An Interior Ministry spokesman said no decisions had been made yet, adding the most important thing was preventing neo-Nazi "mischief" from going on there. He said there were no plans to allow the property to be used as a residence. The owner's identity has not been publicized. Andreas Maislinger, a local historian and political scientist, has lobbied for years to turn the property into a state-owned "house of responsibility" that would serve as an international meeting place for young people. The center could offer reflections on Austrians' history, coordinate social projects and host workshops, he said. "Thus the small city of Braunau would become a place of international understanding," he suggested. "Braunau is a symbol because Adolf Hitler was born there, and the fact that this house has a certain symbolic significance means you have to handle it properly," he said. Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, and a debate still smolders as to whether Austrians were Hitler's first victims or willing accomplices in Nazi crimes.
