Mankind has a strange relationship with the darker elements of its history. While some argue that we must consign our greatest mistakes to the past in order to move forward, others believe that ignoring, or refusing to acknowledge, our transgressions dishonors those who suffered – and leaves us vulnerable to repeating them. This ongoing debate has found its latest incarnation in western Austria, where the national government has announced its intention to demolish a seemingly unremarkable yellow house in the riverside town of Braunau am Inn – a house which, despite its unassuming façade, has gained infamy as the birthplace of Adolf Hitler.
Braunau’s unfortunate association with the Austro-German dictator began with his birth on April 20th, 1889. The fourth son of Alois and Klara Hitler, he spent only three years in the house of his birth before moving to the town of Passau on the German side of the river Inn. The fact that his residence in Braunau was so brief did little to dissuade fanatics who, longing to see the birthplace of the (who would later be known as) führer, began to elevate his former home in Braunau to that of a 'pilgrimage site' as early as the 1930s. When Braunau was occupied by the United States Army in 1945, it was American intervention that prevented a group of German soldiers from destroying the recently-deceased German dictator’s former home.
Over seven decades later, most residents of Braunau wish that the Americans hadn’t stood in the way of the house’s destruction. Its presence in the heart of their town is a constant reminder of a legacy that they are ashamed of; that the house has regularly been visited by successive generations of Nazi sympathizers, especially on the anniversaries of Hitler’s birth, is no small source of chagrin. Fears about this trend led the Austrian government to take up the building’s lease in 1972, after which it saw many uses as a museum, a school, a library, and the home of an organization dedicated to assisting the disabled.
