Austrian government to demolish house of Hitler's birth

By GEORGE JAHN

 

VIENNA (AP) — The house where Adolf Hitler was born will be torn down and replaced with a new building that has no association with the Nazi dictator, Austria's government announced Monday as it moved to eliminate the property's pull as a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis.

 

The plan still has to be formalized in legislation and voted on in Parliament. But the Interior Ministry said demolition was recommended by a government-appointed commission.

 

With the Social Democratic and centrist People's Party in the majority, and most opposition parties expected to support the plan, passage was likely no more than a formality.

 

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said that "a thorough architectural remodeling is necessary to permanently prevent the recognition and the symbolism of the building."

 

Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said that means that except for its foundations, nothing will be left of the house in the western town of Braunau and that a new structure will be erected in its place.

 

A ministry statement emailed to The Associated Press quoted Sobotka saying he wants to ensure that any association with Hitler is eliminated at the site, adding that he could conceive of it being repurposed to house either government or social agency offices.

 

The statement said the commission had recommended against leaving the site empty, which could be interpreted as an attempted "denial of Austrian history."

 

The government this year launched formal legal procedures to dispossess the home's owner after she had repeatedly refused to sell the building or to allow renovations that would reduce its symbolic impact as Hitler's birthplace — and its draw for admirers of the Fuhrer.

 

The statement said the Interior Ministry planned to finalize a draft law making the house state property before putting it to a vote in Parliament by the end of the year.

 

Vienna's Jewish community and a government-supported anti-Nazi research center support tearing down the imposing three-story yellow house, where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889.

 

But some historians argue that the house and the apartment inside where the Hitler family lived briefly should be preserved specifically because they are among the few surviving structures linked to the Nazi leader.

 

A house in nearby Leonding, where Hitler lived as a teenager, is now used to store coffins for the town cemetery. There, the tombstone marking the grave of Hitler's parents, another pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis, was removed last year at the request of a descendant.

 

A school that Hitler attended in Fischlham, also near Braunau, displays a plaque condemning his crimes against humanity.

 

The underground bunker in Berlin where Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, was demolished and the site left vacant until the East German government built an apartment complex around it in the late 1980s.

 

The apartments overlook the German capital's monument to victims of the Holocaust.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-10-18

Good riddance...

Put some C-4 in there...

Nobody is thinking of demolishing the good stuff I hope?

 

After all "There's no business like Shoah business".

Trump might like to buy it as a clubhouse for his golf course

 

Shortsightedness.

3 hours ago, AYJAYDEE said:

Trump might like to buy it as a clubhouse for his golf course

 

Yes and it would be cosy in winter with its many fireplaces

17 minutes ago, sixlegs said:

Shortsightedness.

I agree. I saw a picture of the place and its a large perfectly good building dumb to tear it down. I am sure Angela could fill it up with refugees. 

I don't think it's a big deal either way but the plus side of tearing it down is that such a building attracts modern Nazis. So if it's gone that's one more place they don't have to make their pilgrimages.

 

Either way, it's not as if the world is ever going to forget the memory of Hitler. 

Edited October 18, 20169 yr by Jingthing

9 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

I agree. I saw a picture of the place and its a large perfectly good building dumb to tear it down. I am sure Angela could fill it up with refugees. 

Except that it is in Austria.

Edited October 18, 20169 yr by halloween

Should convert it into a synagogue. 

Its a site of historical significance - but let's just demolish it and pretend it didn't happen.

22 minutes ago, 4737 Carlin said:

Its a site of historical significance - but let's just demolish it and pretend it didn't happen.

I agree, it's the same as deleting stuff from school history books. I'm firmly against destroying sights of historical significance of either a saint or a sinner.

Just for the record, I think Hitler was an evil madman.

 

I can appreciate that it's embarrassing for Austria that he's from there but I don't that house was all that significant.

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

I can appreciate that it's embarrassing for Austria that he's from there but I don't that house was all that significant.

 

... and even that motion is fairly stupid, i mean he was born there - not much to prevent such things from happening, is there?

When he came up with his 'political' ideas he was quickly told where the <deleted> to go and where to exactly shove up his theories - which he did and the Germaniacs fell for it.

 

The later 'occupation' of AT is a different story, i was told that in bigger cities the nazis had up to 50% support - after all they brought 'full employment' after an economically rather harsh decade or longer ..

Whole different thing in the countryside again, some fanatics, sure, but generally nobody wanted to do anything with them voluntarily and enough upright men and women went down in resistance over the years.

Therefore big cleaning during and after the end of the war the other way round when the brown maggots where literally protected by especially the Yanks and English in hope to gain classified info etc. 

Was a lot easier in the eastern part/Russki zone, they didn't care as much, so lots of shallow graves in the Alpine foothills ...

 

About this crib, yes, if they can't find any 'Jewish refugees' to quarter there next best thing would be the synagogue as mentioned above, would have the brown scum turning cartwheels for sure, hehe ... 

I really hate the idea of a synagogue there.

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I really hate the idea of a synagogue there.

 

... yeah, well, whatever pis*es off the brownies veritably ...

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

I can appreciate that it's embarrassing for Austria that he's from there but I don't that house was all that significant.

With many neo Nazis visiting it, I'd say it still has significance. And with that in mind I think it should be destroyed.

With many neo Nazis visiting it, I'd say it still has significance. And with that in mind I think it should be destroyed.

Like I said that's the plus side of the decision.

 

... yeah, well, whatever pis*es off the brownies veritably ...

I'm not religious but it seems gross to me for a Jewish temple to have any association with Hitler. The refugee idea was better. Or even better irony a research center for tays-sachs disease. To life!

4 hours ago, jesimps said:

I agree, it's the same as deleting stuff from school history books. I'm firmly against destroying sights of historical significance of either a saint or a sinner.

Just for the record, I think Hitler was an evil madman.

 

Delete history and speed its repeat.

7 hours ago, sixlegs said:

Shortsightedness.

question is do we destroy history or do we selectively preserve it?

What has the house done wrong?

14 hours ago, webfact said:

The government this year launched formal legal procedures to dispossess the home's owner after she had repeatedly refused to sell the building or to allow renovations that would reduce its symbolic impact as Hitler's birthplace

 

 

It seems that the Austrian government still has some dictators.

Nobody is denying that Hitler, evil as he was, was an incredibly significant historical figure. But the building of his birth ... I'm just not convinced that is all that significant to remembering that history. If he was born in hospital, would it be a big deal to tear that down too? 

5 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I can appreciate that it's embarrassing for Austria that he's from there but I don't that house was all that significant.

 

I agree

I think what should be far more embarrassing for Austria than 'a house', was their prime role in starting WWI resulting in the deaths of countless millions of men, which of course was the precursor to Hitlers subsequent actions. If we are going to hold an Austrian responsible then there are a few more much grander buildings need tearing down first.

Edited October 18, 20169 yr by Andaman Al

9 hours ago, halloween said:

Except that it is in Austria.

That's okay, she can pack them on trains and "relocate" them. Surely she picked up a few pointers over the years?

 

Quite apart from the fact that the house belongs to a woman, who refuses to sell, so its being taken from her, why not let neo-Nazis, any type of Nazis, hell, anyone, come to see it & charge them an entry fee?

lts only a damn house & l wonder how many other people were born in it?

Has Stalin's(a far bigger mass murderer than Hitler)house, or Tojo's house been demolished? What about ldi Amin's or Mugabe's houses?

More PC Bulldust.

Quite apart from the fact that the house belongs to a woman, who refuses to sell, so its being taken from her, why not let neo-Nazis, any type of Nazis, hell, anyone, come to see it & charge them an entry fee?
lts only a damn house & l wonder how many other people were born in it?
Has Stalin's(a far bigger mass murderer than Hitler)house, or Tojo's house been demolished? What about ldi Amin's or Mugabe's houses?
More PC Bulldust.

Reading that crap yeah tear it down.

16 hours ago, Jingthing said:

 

Reading that crap yeah tear it down.

Only your opinion & who are you anyway?