Austrian Ministry Desperately Seeking to Sublet Hitler House

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Austria's interior ministry is appealing to other ministries to take over Hitler's birthplace in Braunau, amid a years-long debate over what should become of the building.

The interior ministry has rented the large pale yellow house where the future Nazi leader was born since 1972 and variously sublet it to a technical institute and an aid organization.

But it has stood empty since 2011 and the 4,600-euro ($5,820) monthly rent has been burning a whole in the ministry's pocket.

The ministry is now contacting other Austrian ministries to see if they can use the 800-square-meter (8,610-square-foot) space and is hoping for a reply "by the end of the year", an official said Tuesday.

The fate of the house has been a matter of debate for years amid fears that it could be used as a meeting point for Hitler sympathizers or fascist and neo-Nazi groups.

To prevent this, the rental contract stipulates that it must be used for a social or educational purpose and not as a museum.

The owner however continues to have a say in who occupies the building and recently quashed a proposal to install an adult learning center or another aid organization on the premises, for reasons unknown.

Adolf Hitler was born at the address Vorstadt 15 in Braunau, near the German border, on April 20, 1889 but only lived there for a short while before he and his family moved away.

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