Austria plan to dispossess owner of Hitler’s birth house

The Austrian government has drawn up a draft law that would dispossess the owner of the house where Adolf Hitler was born.

The move follows the refusal by house owner Gerlinde Pommer to sell the empty building in the town of Braunau am Inn on the German border. The government has sought ownership so it can take measures to lessen its attraction as a shrine for admirers of theNazi dictator.

The draft still has to be approved by parliament, where the government is in the majority and can rely on the support of most opposition parties. Government proposals range from tearing down the house to making it into a museum documenting Nazi horrors.