Austrian court rules government seizure of Hitler's birthplace was legal

June 30 (UPI) -- Austria's highest court ruled Friday that the government acted legally in seizing the building in which Adolf Hitler was born.

The three-story house in Branau am Inn, on the border with Germany, was expropriated after a long battle over ownership of the property. Former owner Gerlinde Pommer appealed the Austrian parliament's decision to seize the building in December. On Friday the Constitutional Court ruled that a law passed in 2016 allowing the seizure was "in the public interest, commensurate and not without compensation and therefore was not unconstitutional."

Austrian law prohibits promotion of Nazi ideology and display of its identifying symbols. The government sought to prevent the site, which it attempted to purchase from Pommer, from becoming associated with neo-Nazi activity.

Hitler was born in a rented room in the building on April 20, 1889. He and his family resided there for several months afterward. The building was regarded as a Nazi shrine during World War II, but was abandoned in 1944 as the war neared its end. It was used as a day center and workshop by Lebenshilfe, a charity helping those with learning disabilities, until several years ago. The charity left the site after Pommer chose not to make renovations it requested.

The current owners, the Austrian government, have announced intentions to remodel the façade of the structure and offer it to Lebenshilfe.