Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bethany Bell visits the house where Adolf Hitler was born 
 
 What do you do with the house Hitler was born in? For years the building in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn has been rented by the Austrian interior ministry to prevent misuse by neo-Nazis. 
 
 It was once a day-care centre for the disabled. Now it is empty, as the owner has not agreed to any plans for its future use. 
 
 Braunau am Inn is a pretty little town in northern Austria, right on the border with Germany. But it has a heavy legacy. 
 
 Just off the main square is Salzburger Vorstadt 15: a solid, 17th-Century former inn, where Adolf Hitler was born in 1889. 
 
 Hitler's family, who rented rooms upstairs, was not originally from Braunau. His father Alois, had been posted there for his job as a customs official. 
 
 Adolf Hitler only lived in Salzburger Vorstadt 15 for a few weeks, before his family moved to another address in Braunau. 
 
 They left the town for good when Hitler was three years old. He returned briefly to Braunau in 1938, on his way to Vienna, after he annexed Austria to Nazi Germany. 
 
 Image copyright Lehnert / Braunau History Image caption Hitler visited Braunau after Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938 
 
 Locals say the house still attracts some neo-Nazi sympathisers. 
 
 "I've even witnessed people from Italy or from France coming here… for adoration purposes," Josef Kogler, a teacher in Braunau, said. 
 
 "One Frenchman, a history teacher I think it was, came and asked me for Hitler's birthplace… It's hard to understand." 
 
 These days, the house is locked up and empty. 
 
 The Austrian interior ministry was so concerned about the possibility of neo-Nazis using the building as a site of pilgrimage that, since 1972, it has rented it from the owner, Gerlinde Pommer, to prevent any misuse. 
 
 Mrs Pommer currently receives almost €5,000 (£3,925; $6,140) a month, according to town officials. 
 
 For many years, the house was used as a day-care centre for people with special needs. But in 2011, they had to move out. 
 
 Image copyright Braunau History Image caption A cutting from a local newspaper in April 1889 records the birth of 'Adolf Hittler' 
 
 Florian Kotanko, a local historian, says Mrs Pommer will not agree to renovations. 
 
 "She does not accept any proposal of using the house for offices or other purposes," he said. 
 
 "She does not allow any changing of the house, so you can't rebuild any rooms, you can't build modern bathrooms or put in a lift. It is difficult." 
 
 Over the past three years, various proposals have been put forward about how to use the house. 
 
 These include turning it into flats, a centre for adult education, a museum or a centre of responsibility, for confronting the Nazi past. 
 
 One Russian MP even offered to buy the house and blow it up. 
 
 Image copyright BBC / Bethany Bell Image caption Historian Florian Kotanko says Austrians have learned to speak frankly of their past 
 
 With no agreement in sight, the interior ministry recently appealed to all the other federal and regional government ministries to help decide what to do with the house. 
 
 Braunau's deputy mayor, Guenter Pointner of the Social Democrats, says the ministry is now considering terminating the rental contract with Mrs Pommer. She was not available for comment. 
 
 The row over the house has stirred up uncomfortable memories for the prosperous little town. 
 
 Some, including Braunau's second deputy mayor Christian Schilcher of the far-right Freedom Party, think it is time to move on. 
 
 "The people are fed up," he said. "This theme is a problem for the image of Braunau. We want to be a beautiful little town, with tourism and visitors. We are not the children of Hitler." 
 
 Image copyright BBC / Bethany Bell Image caption A stone plaque outside Hitler's birthplace honours the victims of fascism 
 
 But others, including Florian Kotanko, say ignoring history makes things worse. 
 
 "You have the connection with Braunau and Hitler even without the house," he said. "Everyone can read that Hitler was born here." 
 
 Braunau now has plans to put up an exhibit about the house and the links with Hitler in the local museum. 
 
 For many years, Austrians and the people of Braunau were reluctant to discuss the Nazi past, but Florian Kotanko says that is changing. 
 
 "Once people refused to talk about the facts... but now they speak about it," he says. "It's a matter of how to deal with the heritage." ||||| VIENNA (AFP) - 
 
 Austria said Saturday it wants to seize Adolf Hitler's birthplace from its private owner in a bid to end a bitter legal battle and stop the house from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine. 
 
 "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," interior ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck told AFP. 
 
 "We have come to the conclusion over the past few years that expropriation is the ony way to avoid the building being used for the purposes of Nazi" sympathisers, he said. 
 
 The plan would involve the state making an offer of compensation to the current owner, he added. 
 
 The building in the quaint northern town of Braunau am Inn has been empty since 2011 when the government became embroiled in a dispute with owner Gerlinde Pommer, a local resident. 
 
 Her family has owned the large corner house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, for more than a century. 
 
 In the early 1970s, the Austrian government signed a lease with Pommer and turned the premises into a centre for people with disabilities. 
 
 But the arrangement came to an abrupt end five years ago when Pommer unexpectedly refused to grant permission for much-needed renovation works. 
 
 She also rejected a purchase offer made by the increasingly exasperated interior ministry. 
 
 The issue has sparked heated debated among Braunau's 17,000 residents. Some want it to become a refugee centre, others a museum dedicated to Austria's liberation. 
 
 There have been even been calls for its demolition -- but the house is part of the city's historic centre and therefore under heritage protection. 
 
 Every year on Hitler's birthday, anti-fascist protesters organise a rally outside the building at number 15 Salzburger Vorstadt Street, next to a memorial stone reading: "For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism, Millions of Dead Warn." 
 
 © 2016 AFP ||||| Austrian Government Will Try To Seize The House Where Hitler Was Born 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Kerstin Joensson/AP Kerstin Joensson/AP 
 
 Austrian officials say the government will attempt to seize the house where Adolf Hitler was born. The Austrian government, which rents it now, has tried for years to purchase the property from its current owner. 
 
 "The aim is to prevent the property from falling into the hands of neo-Nazis," Kerry Skyring in Vienna tells NPR's Newscast unit. "Now, the interior ministry says the only way to ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands is to requisition it." 
 
 Skyring says that in front of the house, a memorial stone carries these inscriptions: "For Peace, Freedom and Democracy," and "Never Again Fascism." 
 
 Hitler's name does not appear on the plaque. 
 
 Interior ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck tells Agence France-Presse that the government is "currently examining the creation of a law, which would force a change of ownership and pass the property to the Republic of Austria." 
 
 He adds the state will offer to compensate the current owner. 
 
 Local resident Gerlinde Pommer's family has owned the home since 1889, the wire service says. The Austrian government has rented the property since the 1970s, using it as a center for people with special needs. 
 
 However, according to AFP, "the arrangement came to an abrupt end five years ago when Pommer unexpectedly refused to grant permission for much-needed renovation works." 
 
 Florian Kotanko, a local historian, told the BBC in 2014 that Pommer "does not allow any changing of the house, so you can't rebuild any rooms, you can't build modern bathrooms or put in a lift. It is difficult." 
 
 The Austrian government has paid Pommer some $5,600 every month in rent, the New York Times reported last year. 
 
 Newsweek says Pommer is "thought to be in her mid-60s" and "reclusive." The magazine adds that her reasons for blocking renovations to the property are "unclear." 
 
 Braunau am Inn, a town near Austria's border with Germany, is grappling with how to handle its weighty legacy as Hitler's birthplace. 
 
 "Various proposals have been put forward about how to use the house, including turning it into flats, a centre for adult education, a museum or a centre designed to confront the Nazi past," the BBC reports. "There have also been calls for its demolition, with one Russian MP offering to buy the house and blow it up." 
 
 There's no word yet on what the Austrian government plans to do with the property if it successfully seizes it. ||||| An elderly woman is stopping the Austrian government from buying the building in which the dictator Adolf Hitler was born, as they try to prevent it from falling into disuse or into the wrong hands. 
 
 The vacant building in the town of Braunau am Inn is privately owned but has been rented by the Austrian government since 1972, to prevent the pale yellow building from being transformed into a shrine for neo-Nazis. Since then, it has been sub-leased, and served as both a school and a library. But the last occupants, an organisation for disabled people, moved out in 2011 and since then the building has been empty. 
 
 Now the government desperately wants to attract new tenants to the notorious site, but the owner’s reluctance to make crucial renovations to the old building is making a difficult sell an almost impossible one. The owner is Gerlinde Pommer, a woman thought to be in her mid-60s who reportedly receives almost €5,000 (£3,925) a month in rent from the government. This money ultimately comes out of Austrian taxpayers’ wallets. 
 
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 A spokesperson for the minister of the interior says Pommer is expected to make a decision about whether she will sell the building in the next few weeks. She has so far expressed her opposition to this prospect and also to any renovations being carried out on the property, although her reasons are unclear. 
 
 The government is now also exploring legal options with the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance and the federal chancellor to dispossess the owner, and take full control of the building. 
 
 “It’s a problem,” said the spokesman. “We can’t find an agreement with a new organisation to use the building so it is necessary to make some adjustments so it can have more modern standards, because it’s an old building. But we need the agreement of the private owner.” 
 
 Local historian and founder of the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service, Andreas Maislinger, said “Of course the government is worried, because they are spending taxpayers’ money for nothing. And if the house is empty, it is dangerous. It doesn’t look good, it doesn’t make a good impression.” 
 
 Locals have expressed frustration at the unwillingness of Pommer to allow the government to take over the building and make better use of it, as they are keen to challenge the negative reputation of their hometown. Maislinger said he has heard accounts of the town’s residents being greeted with a ‘Heil Hitler’ Nazi salute after they’ve handed over their passports at airports. 
 
 However, he doesn’t think the house should be pulled down: “The house is not guilty, it’s just a house”, he explained, saying that he’d prefer the building to be turning into a ‘House of Responsibility’ where young people could come to learn about history. 
 
 Another local historian, Florian Kotanko, went to kindergarten with Pommer and has lived in the town since 1949. While he believes that taking her property by legal force would probably be an unpopular move in the town, he criticised Pommer for her seeming lack of social awareness, and says he “can’t imagine any just cause” for why she won’t allow renovations of the building to attract new tenants. 
 
 “She has a social responsibility as a citizen of Austria.” he says. “It’s a problem for Braunau and annoying for the whole country to be paying this money to a woman for nothing, for no good, social purpose.” 
 
 Kotanko explains that Pommer is a private figure and doesn’t believe she has a husband or children. He says his letters to her have gone unanswered, and that friends have warned him not to bring up the topic of the building with her. The building was passed down to her by her mother in 1977 and been in the family since 1912. 
 
 However, Kotanko believes the matter could be resolved this year, with Pommer still collecting rent but forced to accept certain government conditions. 
 
 In 1989, a memorial stone was erected in front of the house which read: “For peace, freedom and democracy. Never again fascism. Millions of dead remind us,” and every year a memorial service organised by the town, is held in front of the house to commemorate the victims of the Nazis. 
 
 In a press statement, the mayor of Braunau Johannes Waidbacher of Braunau said he is “ensuring that private individuals do not misuse it in a way which would be contrary to the interests of the republic...This building should never become a place of pilgrimage for those stuck in the past.”
– In an effort to prevent the "increasingly decrepit" building from falling into further disrepair, Austrian officials say they plan to draft a law that would allow them to seize Adolf Hitler's birth home in Braunau, a quaint town of 17,000 on the German border, reports the New York Times. "The aim is to prevent the property from falling into the hands of neo-Nazis" who sometimes make pilgrimages to it, a journalist in Vienna tells NPR. "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]," interior ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck tells AFP. The building is owned by an aging and "reclusive" Gerlinde Pommer, reports Newsweek, who is a descendant of the family that has owned it for more than a century. (Hitler was born in the house on April 20, 1889.) But as a local historian told the BBC in 2014, Pommer "does not allow any changing of the house, so you can't rebuild any rooms, you can't build modern bathrooms or put in a lift." Though it has been empty since the last tenant moved out in 2011, the Austrian government still pays nearly $6,000 a month in rent. The building has recently been proposed as the site for a center for adult education, a museum, or even flats, reports the BBC, which notes that one Russian MP has offered to buy the house and blow it up. (Hitler largely ignored his birth home, visiting it just once during his reign.)