Austria will open a police station in the building where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889, aiming to end decades of public debate on how to prevent it from becoming a pilgrimage destination for far-right extremists.
The €20 million ($22.9 million) transformation follows nationalization of the building in Braunau am Inn, north of Salzburg on Austria’s border with Germany. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner is set to officially open the new station on Wednesday.
A government-mandated commission of experts rejected proposals for a museum on the site due to the risk that a place of memory could be misrepresented by visitors. Plans to demolish were also blocked as the 17th century building is part of the town’s historical center and under heritage protection — and the commission feared it would symbolize denial of the site’s history.