Austrian authorities open a police station in the birthplace of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Braunau am Inn on Wednesday, after years of renovation to stop the site near the border with the German state of Bavaria from being exploited as a draw for neo-Nazis.

The renovation cost about 20 million euros, and the complex, which includes ancillary buildings and an inner courtyard, houses the district police command and the local police station.

Adolf Hitler (Reuters)

The house, where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, had been privately owned for many years before the state expropriated it in 2017 after a legal dispute.

A committee of experts recommended not to demolish the building or turn it into a museum, but to redesign it so that it becomes as visually inconspicuous as possible.

Police station at Hitler's birthplace (EPA)

The house repeatedly attracted far-right extremists due to its association with Hitler's birth. The authorities see converting it into a police station as an additional advantage, enabling immediate identity checks on suspicious individuals.

Hitler sparked World War II, which resulted in the deaths of at least 60 million people, and the Nazi Holocaust saw the murder of about six million Jews.

Sign with anti-fascist slogans in front of Hitler's house (EPA)

During Nazi rule, the building became a shrine to the dictator, and after being returned to its original owners as part of restitution in 1952, the government rented it again. Over the years, the building served as a school and a welfare center, according to Bloomberg News.

Stefan Marti, the architect leading the conversion of the house into a police station, said the renovation aims to restore the building to its 17th-century origins.