Hitler's birthplace still stands.

sandwichery

Active member
The Austrian city of Braunau am Inn is facing a problem. The inhabitants are trying to figure out what to do with the building that Adolf Hitler was born in. It's kind of hard to believe that 70 years after his death the place is still standing. Below is an article from the New York Times describing the situation for this town that would probably like to put it's past behind it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/w...trying-to-overcome-a-legacy-of-evil.html?_r=1
 
I am not sure I understand the significance of a place the guy was born in, it isn't like he planned his campaigns there or he carried out mass murder there its just a house with a link to Hitler and it is a link he had no control over.

After all it isn't the houses fault Hitler went off on a murderous rampage 50 years later.
 
If you pull down it wont change the fact he was born there and all the records will show that. So do we now destroy all the records of it and then remove his father and mother and all his relations. If you go down this path it can go on for ever and then it will still be whispered about it.
 
If you pull down it wont change the fact he was born there and all the records will show that. So do we now destroy all the records of it and then remove his father and mother and all his relations. If you go down this path it can go on for ever and then it will still be whispered about it.

Exactly, hiding these things gives them a life of their own and that can be far more dangerous than being open about them.
 
The building has remained standing for whatever reason , what that reason could be might be a mystery or maybe people just view it as a old building .
 
One thing that bugs me is you don’t see large groups following Mao, Stalin or Adi Amin, but Hitler (who was responsible for more death and hardship than any of them) is still popular today (at least with some groups in the USA). All the more reason to be vigilant. I don't think the thing about his birthplace matters much one way or the other. It was pretty insignificance as far as the Hitler and the Nazi's were concerned.
 
Just as in this Country any COUNTRY Government can only survive with power granted to it by the people , the German people thought they had a winner with Hitler and the NAZI's reality came too late
 
When I was in Germany in the 80's Naziísm was alive and well.

Really?
My experience of Germany in recent years has been one of shame (may not be the right wording), the overly subservient attitude towards that period of their history worries me that when things go wrong it may become a rallying point again.

The closest thing I have seen to Naziism is a few skinheads.
 
Really?
My experience of Germany in recent years has been one of shame (may not be the right wording), the overly subservient attitude towards that period of their history worries me that when things go wrong it may become a rallying point again.

The closest thing I have seen to Naziism is a few skinheads.

We saw what tourists never saw. My buddies I and on duty walked into a bar for a quick beer, the atmosphere could have been cut with a knife. This was not the only instance. I didn't find any shame whatsoever. As I said this was in the 1980's and in living memory for many Germans, many of whom served in WW2.

Highwayman was in the same area as me when he was a Red Cap but much later then me. I don't know if he found the same.
 
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While we were stationed there in the mid-70's we never encountered anyone who openly stood for Nazism and what it represented. I'm sure that they were around, but you had to look for them in the right places. Since the reunification however it's obviously a different country. When we went back 20 years later on vacation we barely recognized it.
 
Really?
My experience of Germany in recent years has been one of shame (may not be the right wording), the overly subservient attitude towards that period of their history worries me that when things go wrong it may become a rallying point again.

The closest thing I have seen to Naziism is a few skinheads.


Same here, the only time I witnessed it was at gigs by skinhead bands. I never saw it out in the streets or in the cities.
There were a couple of idiots I'm my company that certainly had nazi leanings, but that was more to do with the cultural things happening in the uk.
I have walked into bars in Germany and had the stare given to me by the locals, I don't think this was down to hatred of foreigners or such, I believe it was because that Brits tended to get drunk on the excellent beer and end up causing fights and wrecking bars and night clubs.
The Germans certainly didn't like the british for there normal Saturday night of a pint and a fight. Followed by some frikkadella and chips.
I remember going on a school exchange trip to emdem in 79, the family I stayed with were very anti nazi and told me that if anyone even mentioned hitler in a good way, they would be carted of by the police. I already knew that the nazi salute was an offence.
That there were nazi supporters in Germany in the 80's is without a doubt, there were certainly a number of people in there 60's and up that survived the war who would of been supporters of hitler.
 
We the people tend to look at the Wehrmacht as good soldiers worthy opponents and its true they were tough at one point they were fighting everyone and doing a pretty good job of it with that in mind we tend to forget the atrocities committed by the Germans .
 
My experience of Germany is how they rather react to the guilt and shame, they begin to come to terms with it and refuse to feel ashamed and guilty for something that occurred decades before they were born.

I have noticed Germans asking the older generations about what they did during the war and German historians are investigating the past in a rational way.
 
I worked for Bosch and worked with many Germans as well as visited Germany for some odd weeks. I was under the impression the younger Germans were quite taken back by the deeds of the older (now mostly dead) generation and in general felt quite bad about the whole thing.
 
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