Austria to Dispossess Owner of House Where Hitler Was Born

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Jul 12, 2016, 03:24 PM - Edit history (2)

The only reason I'm posting this is that I wonder whether something like this could happen here. In the wake of Kelo, can governments pretty much take, via eminent domain, anything they feel like taking, as long as they can conjure up some rationale?

Austria to Dispossess Owner of House Where Hitler Was Born

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JULY 12, 2016, 9:30 A.M. E.D.T.

VIENNA — Austria's Interior Ministry says the government has drawn up a draft law that would dispossess the owner of the house where Adolf Hitler was born.

Tuesday's move follows steadfast refusal by house owner Gerlinde Pommer to sell the empty building in the town of Braunau am Inn on the German border. The government has sought ownership so it can take measures to lessen its attraction as a shrine for admirers of the Nazi dictator.

The draft still has to be approved by parliament, where the government is in the majority and can rely on the support of most opposition parties.

Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck says he expects a parliament vote sometime this year. Government considerations range from tearing down the house to making it into a museum documenting Nazi horrors.

ETA: to clarify, "here" means the United States.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. It's not like this is just 'conjuring up some rationale'

The owner used to rent it to the government, but refused permission for renovations: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027748123

Neo-Nazi obsessions with Hitler are real, and they would love to be able to buy it.

[lindysalsagal]

2. Cue the bulldozers, pay her the going rate, scholarships for her grandchildren,

just effing do it.

His birthplace adds nothing to our understanding of political history. Totally irrelevant where his mother pushed him out like any other newborn.

It's what he did later that matters and we've already got all that.

Tear it down, and build a government homeless/abuse shelter/school/hospital where it used to be. The woman's not living there, anyway.