Hitler's birthplace should be demolished, Austrian interior minister says

BRAUNAU AM INN , Austria, June 13 (UPI) -- The house in Austria in which Adolf Hitler was born should be demolished, the Austrian interior minister suggested.

Hitler was born in the home in the town of Braunau am Inn, near the border with Germany, on April 20, 1889. The current owner, Gerlinde Pommer, has refused to sell or renovate the house, fearing it could become a neo-Nazi shrine. She has received payment from the Austrian government since 2011 to keep it vacant.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka, in an interview with the Austrian public television network ORF, said, "We have tried to clear up all possibilities for using it and buying it from the owner, but with no results. For me, a demolition ... would be the cleanest solution."

A ministry spokesman said Sunday the comment was Sobotka's opinion and not official policy. The house has been a source of controversy for years. From 1972 to 2011, the ministry was the building's official tenant, subletting it to various charitable organizations.

Austria has pursued a legal course to obtain it after Pommer refused to sell the house, which has been in her family for over a century, to the government.

"We are currently examining the creation of a law which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria. We have come to the conclusion over the past few years that expropriation is the only way to avoid the building being used for the purposes of Nazi sympathizers," said Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck,