Adolf Hitler’s birthplace may not be demolished

The building where Adolf Hitler was born may be spared demolition but will be heavily disguised, Austria's interior minister has said.

On Monday, Wolfgang Sobotka had told the daily Die Presse paper that "the Hitler house will be torn down".

However, on Tuesday, he told reporters that the term “torn down” is debatable but the building, in the western town of Braunau, will be so thoroughly redesigned that it “will not be recognisable”.

The house, a large three-storey Renaissance-era structure, contains the apartment where Hitler was born.

Several members of a government-appointed commission on the future of the house said destroying it in order to end its attraction for admirers of the Nazi dictator would give an impression of trying to erase part of Austria’s history.

AP