The Birth House of Adolf Hitler: Conflict Heritage by Association

Abstract

Situated in a beautiful medieval town center in rural Austria, amid an organic supermarket, small bakeries, and cozy coffee shops, lies the birth house of Adolf Hitler. Although Hitler lived in the house for only a short time, the house has for decades been the subject of an emotional discussion on how to deal with this taboo site. Eventually, in 2019 the Austrian government announced the top-down decision to model the house back to its 19th century structure-“long before Hitler was born there”-and to use it as a police station. This paper offers an initial academic approach on this complex site by embedding it in critical heritage theory to discuss some of the uncertainties that dominated the discourse and the decision-making on the house. These include the importance or pettiness of birth houses, material agency and it’s implications, and whether this house as ‚conflict heritage by association‘ can be of relevance in shaping a critical understanding of Austrian contemporary history.