Out, Damn'd Spot

Braunau-am-Inn is very prettily situated on the river Inn across from Bavaria, Germany. Though the town has much to offer including a spectacular 15th century church adorned with an onion dome and rows of pastel colored, baroque merchant houses, it is also known as Hitler's birthplace.  

Since the town lay en route to Vienna, I asked J to stop as I was curious to know whether or not the town, which in the past boasted of being a one time home to Hitler, would acknowledge its native son in any way.  

Though the numbering of the houses on the street had changed, the house in which Hitler was born to his parents, Alois and Klara, stands.  In front of the house sits a large, engraved stone which was brought to the site from a quarry in Mauthausen, a one time concentration camp.  

The street facing side of the stone reads:

FÜR FRIEDEN, FREIHEIT
UND DEMOKRATIE
NIE WIEDER FASCHISMUS
MILLIONEN TOTE MAHNEN

which literally translates as:  "For peace, freedom and democracy  Never again Fascism Millions of Dead warn"  The last line does not easily translate into English in a literal sense, but in German denotes 'be mindful of the dead millions' as a reminder to deter oneself from fascism.  

The stone was dedicated, if you will, on public ground in 1989 just weeks shy of the centenary of Hitler's birth.  I found it interesting that Hitler's name does not appear on the stone; it is also impossible to photograph the house without the stone featuring in the frame.  If one was not aware that Hitler was born in Braunau, happing upon such a stone might be somewhat surprising and spark wonderment as there are seldom public acknowledgements of this kind to be found in this area (based on my experiences and outside of the indisputable camp sites).  I suppose that the stone memorial, which is annotated on city maps, serves to acknowledge (in its indeterminate way) the city's past.  But much like Shakespeare's Lady MacBeth, Braunau despite its best efforts and time will likely never completely wipe clean its past and conscience which is not entirely unfortunate.

House with stone in front

Front of stone

Back of stone