According to Austrian officials the home where Adolf Hitler was born will be turned into a police station, putting an end to a years-long conflict with the property owner.
For years, the Austrian government rented the property from Gerlinde Pommer, whose family had owned the building for generations.
Pommer had refused federal requests to make renovations, sparking Austrian efforts to finally take ownership of the building in 2017.
The decision to convert the building into a police station was made for fear of neo-Nazis turning the yellow, three-story building to a neo-Nazi shrine.
On Hitler's birthday each year, neo-Nazi protesters organize demonstrations outside the building. The interior minister stated that "the future use of the house by the police must be a clear statement that this building will never be a place to commemorate Nazism."
A memorial stone outside Adolf Hitler's birthplace reading 'For peace, freedom and democracy. Never again fascism. Millions dead are a warning.'
"The future use of the house by the police should set an unmistakable sign that this building is permanently removed from memory of Nazism," the Austrian minister said in a statement.
Hitler was born on the building's second floor in 1889. During World War II, it was an art gallery and library. Later, the site was variously used as a bank, a school and a center for people with special needs.
The Austrian government announced that police will begin occupying the building in 2020, following a renovation.
