VIENNA: The expropriation of Adolf Hitler’s birthplace by Austria’s government is unconstitutional and is not the only way to stop it being an attraction for neo-Nazis, a lawyer for its former owner told a court on Thursday.

Gerlinde Pommer-Angloher filed a legal challenge to the constitutional court in January, seeking annulment of a law which allowed the state to seize the three-storey house in Braunau am Inn on Austria’s border with Germany.

The state took possession of the house under a compulsory purchase order after a parliament vote, saying it wanted to stop it becoming a shrine for neo-Nazis to visit.

The fact that the house is still a meeting point for neo-Nazis more than 70 years after World War Two had nothing to do with its former owner, Pommer-Angloher’s lawyer Gerhard Lebitsch said at court hearing on Thursday.

“Mrs. Pommer-Angloher has always had an interest in a neutral use of the house,” Lebitsch said. “She thinks that nothing is achieved with the expropriation.” Instead, police, security services and the judiciary could do a better job to prevent it becoming a site for neo-Nazi tourism, he said.

Austria’s government says expropriation was the only way to end a long-running dispute with Pommer-Angloher. Retired without children, she has turned down previous offers by the state to convert or buy the house.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2017