Notorious homes - think about it! Austria claims right to control Hitler's home

Austria said Saturday it plans to seize the house Adolf Hitler was born in from its private owner to end a legal dispute and to prevent it from becoming a gathering point for Nazi sympathizers, Politico reports.

What does this saga about Hitler's boyhood home have to do with America? After all, it's politically ancient history. Well, just think about what the childhood home of Donald Trump would look like, if he were to somehow be elected by "Trumponians" who want him to be the leader of the free world?

Adolf Hitler's home in Austria continues to be a dismal iconic reminder of Nazism

Our presidential homes have become like quasi national shrines. Mount Vernon and Monticello, in Virginia, for example, are lovely examples of colonial architecture as well as backdrops for understanding how American society developed during the post Revolutionary War period. In my opinion, it would be a cultural tragedy for Americans to have to live with the memory of a Trump home, as a relic of his failed leadership, given the chance he could really be elected to live in the White House.  

Europe has worked for decades to erase the stigma of the Nazi era as a result of the unlikely but brutal leadership of Adolf Hitler prior to World War II.  Here's what Austria is dealing with:

Austria to seize Hitler’s house 

By  IVO OLIVEIRA   4/9/16- Reported in Politico

Austria said Saturday it plans to seize the house Adolf Hitler was born in, from its private owner, to end a legal dispute and to prevent it from becoming a gathering point for Nazi sympathizers.

“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 Grundböck told AFP.

Hitler was born in the house located in the town of Braunau am Inn in April 1889. The building has been empty since 2011, when a dispute broke out between the Austrian government and the house’s owner, Gerlinde Pommer.

The plan to seize the house would involve a compensation to the Pommer family, who has owned the house for more than a century.

In the early 1970s, the government signed a lease with Gerlinde Pommer and turned the house into a center for people with disabilities. The deal ended five years ago when Pommer unexpectedly refused to grant permission for much-needed renovation works.

“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, the interior ministry spokesman said.

The Austrian interior ministry also offered to purchase the house, which Pommer refused. Braun am Inn, a town of around 17,000 residents, has been debating what to do with the house.

According to the BBC, Hitler’s name does not appear in the house but outside there is a stone inscribed with the words: “For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never again Fascism. In memory of millions of dead.”

The story was updated to correct the spelling of the Pommer family in the fourth paragraph.  

(Haha....even Politico makes typographical errors!)

Unfortnately, notorious homes are often as ghoulish attractions as are the homes of enlightened leaders. America certainly doesn't need for one of our political leaders to have a taxpayer funded historic home, preserved for a leader who preaches un-Americanisms and stokes Nazi-era style fear among his delusional followers. #Dump_Trump before he even does more damage to America's freedom.  As for the stupid Trumponian followers, they should find their own island to survive on, someplace where they can keep out immigrants and not pay taxes.