Hitler’s birthplace to be turned into police station to prevent neo-Nazi shrine

Austria’s government will turn Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s birthplace into a local police station after a legal battle with the site’s former owner.

The Guardian reported Tuesday that the building in the town of Braunau will be remodeled after the country’s highest court settled on compensation for Gertrude Pommer, the building’s former owner, who reportedly let it fall into disrepair in 2011 after it was previously used as a home for handicapped citizens.

{mosads}Pommer had previously declined to sell the property, according to The Guardian, sparking a legal battle. Some government officials originally pushed for the structure to be torn down, a plan met with resistance from historians.

“The house’s future usage by the police should set a clear signal that this building will never be a place to commemorate Nazism,” said an official with Austria’s interior ministry, which led the efforts to repurpose the house.

Hitler, who died in 1945 as Allied forces bore down on Germany’s capital, spent only a brief time at the residence, though it reportedly still draws neo-Nazi adherents yearly. It is also reportedly the site of an annual anti-fascist rally.