The Austrian government is grappling with how to prevent Hitler's birthplace from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine

Adolf Hitler's birthplace, as seen in 1970.
(Image credit: Paul Fievez/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The three-story building where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 will be seized by the Austrian government in an attempt to keep it from becoming a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis.

Austria's parliament passed a law allowing the seizure after a long battle between the government and the building's owner, Gerlinde Pommer. For years, the Austrian government gave Pommer money so she wouldn't rent any rooms to outsiders, the BBC reports. She let a charity set up shop in the building, in the town of Braunau am Inn, but when she refused to allow renovations, the charity had to leave. Pommer will receive some form of compensation from the government, which now must decide what to do with the former guesthouse.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.