Austria wants to seize Hitler's birth house so Nazis can't
VIENNA -- Austria's Interior Ministry says the government has drawn up a draft law that would allow it to take ownership of the house where Adolf Hitler was born.
Tuesday's move follows steadfast refusal by owner Gerlinde Pommer to sell the empty building in the town of Braunau am Inn on the German border. The government has sought possession so it can take measures to lessen its draw as a shrine for admirers of the Nazi dictator.
This spring, interior ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundböck told an Austrian newspaper the government had determined that "expropriation is the only way to prevent the house being used for the purposes of Nazi revivalism."
The draft still must be approved by parliament, where the government is in the majority and can rely on the support of most opposition parties.
Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck says he expects a parliamentary vote sometime this year. Government considerations range from tearing down the house to making it into a museum documenting Nazi horrors.
According to an April article in The Telegraph, Pommer has owned the building since 1977. It has been vacant since 2011, but the federal government has paid her thousands of dollars in rent each month to prevent Nazi sympathizers moving in.
But that has apparently not stopped them showing up to pay homage to the late Nazi leader.