Hitler's Birthplace Transformed into Police Station! Austria Spends €20 Million on Renovation, Criticized for 'Missing a Historic Opportunity'

The Austrian government has invested approximately €20 million to renovate Adolf Hitler's former birthplace in Braunau into a police station. This decision has sparked controversy. Interestingly, Hitler's final residence in Germany has also become a police station.

On July 22, 2026, the Braunau police station in Austria will have a new address: Salzburger Vorstadt 15. This building is where Hitler was born in April 1889. The Second World War, which he instigated, claimed tens of millions of lives, and the Holocaust resulted in the murder of approximately six million Jews.

Hitler's parents rented this house at the time and moved away months later. After the so-called 'Anschluss' of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938, the Nazi 'National Socialist German Workers' Party' (NSDAP) acquired the house where the 'Führer' was born. After the war, the property was returned to its original owners. The Austrian government leased the building for use as a library, school, and later as a workshop for people with disabilities. The building stood vacant from 2011. In 2016, the Austrian government nationalized the property to prevent neo-Nazis from using the site to strengthen their ideology.

The Ministry of the Interior established an expert committee to advise on the future use of the building. The panel recommended using it as a 'social welfare, charitable, or government administrative facility.'

Oliver Rathkolb, a historian and member of the expert committee, stated that establishing a police station could deter Hitler admirers from taking selfies at the site.

The Austrian government invested around €20 million in the renovation. Local residents in Braunau are divided on the issue.

Eveline Doll, spokesperson for the local civic group 'Diskurs Hitlerhaus' (Hitler House Discourse), told DW she believes it was 'a missed opportunity to sustainably and responsibly use the birthplace of history's greatest mass murderer.'

According to a 2023 survey, only 6% of respondents supported administrative use of the building.

Controversy over the Police Station Conversion

Doll also noted that over the past 25 years, there had been many creative proposals to use the building with themes of peace, freedom, democracy, and inclusion. However, the decision to turn it into a police station has drawn criticism.

After all, during the Nazi era, Hitler appointed Himmler as Chief of Police in 1936, intertwining the police with the SS. In particular, the secret police, the 'Gestapo,' became a core instrument of Nazi terror.

However, Florian Kotanko, chairman of the Braunau Historical Society, pointed out that in today's democratic rule-of-law state, police are accountable for their actions and subject to legal prosecution. He argued that there should not be fundamental distrust toward police operating under democratic mechanisms.

For decades, Austria has struggled with how to confront its Nazi past. The 1938 'Anschluss' was welcomed by many Austrians. During Nazi rule, about 65,000 Austrian Jews were murdered and 130,000 fled. Austria has been criticized for failing to fully acknowledge its shared responsibility for the Holocaust. The right-wing populist 'Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ)' was founded in 1956 by former Nazi officials. The party won the most votes in the 2024 Austrian parliamentary election but failed to form a government.

Hitler's final residence in Germany is also now a police station. The building at Prinzregentenplatz 16 in Munich's Bogenhausen district has been used by various government agencies. Since 1998, it has served as a police station. Recently, public events have been held there to showcase the transition from historical legacy to contemporary democratic values.

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