Owners of Hitler's birthplace challenge order for compulsory purchase of the building

Record ID: 896626

  • Title: Owners of Hitler's birthplace challenge order for compulsory purchase of the building
  • Date: 22nd June 2017
  • Summary: VIENNA, AUSTRIA (JUNE 22, 2017) (REUTERS) WIDE OF COURTHOUSE BUILDING WINDOW ON COURTHOUSE BUILDING PEOPLE WALKING INTO COURTROOM WIDE OF COURTROOM DETAIL OF LAW BOOK ON DESK LAWYERS GREETING EACH OTHER CLOSE OF LAWYER REPRESENTING FORMER OWNER OF HITLER'S HOUSE, GERHARD LEBITSCH, TALKING PEOPLE IN COURTROOM FOLDER CAMERAMEN FILMING LAWYERS INSCRIPTION ON WALL, READING IN GERMAN "AUSTRIA IS A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC" JUDGES TAKING THEIR SEATS/MEDIA FILMING VARIOUS OF JUDGES SEATED LEBITSCH SPEAKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (German) LAWYER GERHARD LEBITSCH, REPRESENTING GERLINDE POMMER-ANGLOHER, FORMER OWNER OF THE HOUSE, ANSWERING REPORTERS QUESTION "WHY DIDN'T SHE APPEAR IN COURT?" SAYING: "She is physically not in the condition to do so. She is also a little frightened by previous media campaigns." CLOSE OF LEBITSCH'S EYES (SOUNDBITE) (German) LAWYER GERHARD LEBITSCH, REPRESENTING GERLINDE POMMER-ANGLOHER, FORMER OWNER OF THE HOUSE, ANSWERING REPORTER'S QUESTION "WHY THE LEGAL CHALLENGE?" SAYING: "She (former owner) thinks that nothing is achieved with the expropriation, and besides, that too much has been expropriated." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (German) LAWYER GERHARD LEBITSCH, REPRESENTING GERLINDE POMMER-ANGLOHER, FORMER OWNER OF THE HOUSE, ANSWERING REPORTERS QUESTION "WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS AFTER THE HEARING?" SAYING: "It remains exciting. I reckon that the Constitutional Court will repeal the law." LEBITSCH WALKING AWAY
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2017 12:18
  • Keywords: Austria Hitler irth house Constitutional Court
  • Location: VIENNA, BRAUNAU AM INN; AUSTRIA
  • City: VIENNA, BRAUNAU AM INN; AUSTRIA
  • Country: Austria
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016MD0OCN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The former owner of Adolf Hitler's birthplace considers her expropriation by the Austrian government as unconstitutional, claiming there were other ways to free the house of its Nazi image, her lawyer told a court hearing on Thursday (June 22).
    Gerlinde Pommer-Angloher filed a legal challenge to Austria's Constitutional Court in January, seeking the annulment of a law which allowed the state to compulsory acquire the three-storey house in the small Austrian town of Braunau am Inn.
    The fact that the house, more than 70 years after World War II, is still a meeting point for neo-Nazis has got nothing to do with her, said Gerhard Lebitsch, Pommer-Angloher's lawyer.
    "She thinks that nothing is achieved with the expropriation," Lebitsch said.
    Instead, Lebitsch argued that police, security services and the judiciary had to do a better job.
    To ensure the state was able to enforce its interests, a stricter rental contract could be discussed, Lebitsch said.
    Austria's government saw the law as the only way to end a longlasting dispute with the former owner.
    Previous offers by the state to convert or buy the house had been turned down by the retired woman, who has no children.
    Hermann Feiner, one of the interior ministry's representatives, told the court that Austria had to act upon its historic responsibility, and one part of it was Hitler's birthplace.
    The former owner, who did not appear herself in court for health reasons and to avoid the media, also claimed that too much property was taken away from her.
    The property now owned by the government comprises 1,500 square metres whereas the building itself had a building area of around 500 square metres, her lawyer said.
    Pommer-Angloher's grandparents bought the house in 1913 but were forced to sell it in 1938. After the war, her mother bought it back.
    Adolf Hitler, who provoked a global war that cost more than 50 million lives, was born in the house in 1889.
    The Interior Ministry had been renting the building near the border with Germany since 1972.
    But due to the disputes it has remained empty in recent years.
    Austria plans to sustainably overhaul the house and convert it into a place for people with learning difficulties to break its historic connection to the Hitler ideology.
    The interior ministry plans to launch an architecture competition early next month, around the same time when the Constitutional Court's verdict is expected.
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