The house in Austria where Adolf Hitler was born is to be torn down to stop it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine, the government said, after years of bitter legal wrangling with the current owner.
“The Hitler house will be torn down. The foundations can remain but a new building will be erected. It will be used by either a charity or the local authorities” said Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka.
“In any case, there shall be no further connection with Adolf Hitler because otherwise the myth of the birth house will be upheld.”
The government hopes this will bring to an end a difficult chapter regarding the large yellow corner house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889.
Although he only spent the first few weeks of his life at Number 15 Salzburger Vorstadt Street, Braunau am Inn, the address has become a pilgrimage site for Nazi sympathizers from around the world who pose in front of the three-storey building with the Hitler salute. (AFP)