Hitler’s Birth Home Lawsuit Latest: Ex-Owner Sues Austria For Taking House Where Nazi Leader Was Born

The now ex-owner of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s birth home reportedly started a legal battle Tuesday against the Austrian government for seizing the building in December, Agence-France Presse reported.

Gerlinde Pommer, who was previously renting the 8,600-square-foot home to Austria’s interior ministry in the town of Braunau since the 1970s, is challenging a law passed by members of Austria’s parliament specifically aimed at her former property over fears it could become a tourist destination for neo-Nazis and Nazi sympathizers.

In December, the government passed an expropriation, or removal from the owner, law, following a dispute over whether Pommer would sell the property or perform renovations. Prior to seizing the property, the government had appointed a 12-member committee to make plans for its future use.

Pommer’s lawyer, Gerhard Lebitsch, told an Austrian newspaper that the case could last several months and that he’s prepared to bring the case as high as the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Austria.

"To put it bluntly, the standard legal requirements for an expropriation are missing," Lebitsch told Austrian outlet Kurier.

Pommer and the Austrian government had a falling out in 2011 over the rental agreement, and previously the government used it as a center to help people with disabilities at a rate of $5,000 per month.

It’s unclear what the Austrian government will do with the property since some have questioned the possibility of tearing it down, while others hoped it could be used for a charity.

In October, the government had announced plans to tear the building down but keep its foundation intact so as to build another structure over it.

Hitler was born in the home on April 20, 1889, and his family only lived in it for three years, but it has drawn right-wing extremists and Nazi sympathizers.