Owner Sues to Keep House Where Hitler Was Born

The seemingly endless saga of the house in which Adolf Hitler was born has taken a new turn, with the owner challenging an Austrian law that allows the government to seize ownership and, possibly, demolish the property.

The house in the town of Braunau, just across the Inn River from Bavaria, has been in limbo for decades. The Austrian government took over the main lease in 1972 in an effort to ensure that the property would not fall into the hands of someone seeking to glorify its link to a dark history. Hitler was born in the building on April 20, 1889, in an apartment that his parents had rented above a tavern on the ground level.

The Austrian government offered to buy the building in 1984 from Gerlinde Pommer, who is a descendant of the original owners. For decades, she refused to sell.