In an attempt to cleanse the property of its sordid past, authorities might go ahead with plans to convert the pub where Adolf Hitler was born into apartments.
It is believed that Hitler stayed with his parents in the pub in the Austrian city of Branuau for almost three years.
If the plan is approved by the city council, the property will be converted into self-contained apartments and sold for approximately $650,000 each, the Daily Mail reported.
At present, the property is owned by a local pensioner rents it to the Austrian Interior Ministry for $6068 per month. However, the property is currently empty, which prompted developers to consider converting it into apartments, according to the Austrian Independent.
Meanwhile, though there were plans to convert the property into a museum, Mayor Hannes Waidbacher is all for the developments of flats on the site, for he sees it as a means to destigmatize the town. "What he experienced here was certainly not the most influential phase of his life. Therefore we in the town of Braunau are not prepared to take the responsibility for the atrocities of the Second World War," he told the Austrian Independent.
According to the paper, the property was a local pub when Hitler was born where his parents rented rooms. However, they soon moved out when his father, who was working as a customs official, was transferred.
After World War II, the house was used as a bank, a public library and a school for the disabled.
Though not officially listed, the house had come up for sale in 2009 with a price tag of $3.2 million. But local authorities were against the move saying the house could land in the hands of extremists, who would convert it into a shrine, the Daily Mail reported.
Interestingly, though Hitler was born in the pub, neither his room nor the house contains any Nazi-era relic, except the one on the gate, which has the initials MB for Hitler’s party secretary Martin Bormann. It is reported that after Hitler took over Austria in 1939, Bormann declared the house a national monument and ordered his initials to be placed there.
