This NZZ report focuses on the hotly debated conversion of Hitler’s birthplace in Braunau am Inn into a police station—a project costing around 20 million euros. The underlying idea was to strip the site of any symbolic power or appeal for old-school and neo-Nazis. The accompanying photographs were taken by Roderick Aichinger.
The article in question appeared in the *NZZ am Sonntag* magazine. It examines in depth the decades-long political and social dispute regarding the future use of Adolf Hitler’s birthplace on Salzburger Vorstadt. The Austrian town of Braunau am Inn is known worldwide primarily as the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, who spent the first three years of his life there.
The historic building, with its white façade, had stood empty since 2011. The Austrian Ministry of the Interior’s stated goal was to drain the site of all symbolic significance by dedicating it to purely administrative use. The aim was to prevent the building from continuing to serve as a "Nazi cult site" or a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis. The architectural competition stipulated that the exterior redesign should deliberately and permanently erase reminders of the Nazi era.
Author Sacha Batthyany’s article highlights the deep divisions within this town of 18,000 inhabitants. Critics—such as Stefan Schlögl, who is pictured in the piece—take issue with what they view as an attempt to bureaucratically "erase" history. Many intellectuals and historians advocated instead for a "House of Responsibility" or a museum to actively confront the past, rather than rendering it invisible behind a sterile, official façade.
Renovation and conversion work based on designs by Marte.Marte Architects began in October 2023. The building opened as a new police center on July 22, 2026. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) is a renowned liberal Swiss daily newspaper based in Zurich, valued worldwide for its well-founded international reporting and in-depth analyses.
Roderick Aichinger is represented by the agency KRISTINA KORB, Munich.
GoSee : braunau.at
