The town is on the lower riverInn below its confluence with theSalzach, where it forms the border with theGerman state ofBavaria, halfway on the road between the state capitalLinz and the Bavarian capitalMunich, about 60 km (37 mi) north ofSalzburg. Braunau is connected by bridges over the Inn with its Bavarian counterpartSimbach am Inn. A traditionalport of entry, all border controls have been abolished since the implementation of theSchengen Agreement by Austria in 1997.[citation needed] The town gave its name to the administrativedistrict (Bezirk). As of 2025, Braunau am Inn has a population of 17,604.[3]
The municipality of Braunau am Inn consists of the followingcadastral communities: Braunau am Inn, Osternberg, and Ranshofen; while further subdivided into populated places (with population in brackets as of 1 January 2022).
While the abbey of Ranshofen was already mentioned in the course of the deposition ofTassilo III, Duke of Bavaria, in 788, Braunau itself first appeared asProunaw in an 1120 deed. TheInnviertel region then was part of theDuchy of Bavaria.
St Stephen's Church
Braunau receivedtown rights in 1260, one of the first in present-day Austria. It became a fortress town and important trading route junction, dealing with thesalt trade and with ship traffic on the Inn. As a major Bavarian settlement, the town played an outstanding role in theBavarian uprising against the Austrian occupation during theWar of the Spanish Succession, when it hosted theBraunau Parliament, a provisional Bavarian Parliament in 1705 headed byGeorg Sebastian Plinganser (born 16 April 1680 inPfarrkirchen; died 7 May 1738 inAugsburg).
TheLate Gothic Braunau parish church dedicated toSaint Stephen was built from 1439 to 1466, replacing an older chapel. Its 87 m (285 ft) high spire is one of the tallest in Austria and the town's landmark. The remains of the fortress today house a museum and parts of the former town walls can still be seen. Another museum is housed in refurbished 18th-century public baths.
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn where his fatherAlois Hitler had served as a customs official since 1875. He and his family left Braunau and moved toPassau in 1892.[5] Hitler was born in an apartment building recorded at Salzburger Vorstadt 15 in an 1890 register, which housed acraft brewery and several rental flats, one of them occupied by Alois Hitler, his third wifeKlara, their son Adolf, and his elder half-siblingsAlois Jr. andAngela. In April 1934, the PassauDonauzeitung published a commemorative article, marking the room where Hitler was born.[6] In April 1938, Braunau renamedSalzburger Vorstadt toAdolf-Hitler-Straße, and its town plaza toAdolf-Hitler-Platz,[7] but the building itself remained aGasthaus, with a sign advertising beer on tap.[8]
That same year, Hitler's personal secretaryMartin Bormann purchased the house on behalf of theNazi Party,[9] it then became a cult centre containing an art gallery and a public library. At the end ofWorld War II in 1945, American soldiersoccupied the house and prevented Nazi supporters from exploding it.[10] It was then used to temporarily house a documentary exhibition onNazi concentration camps. In 1952, it was repurchased by its former owners, the Pommer family,[9] and there after was used as a city library, a technical college and lastly a day-care centre for disabled people (Lebenhilfe). Since World War II, the house had been controversial for both the local village and the Austrian government.[9] In 1972, the AustrianMinistry of the Interior took over the main lease on the building to further discourage any notion of making it a pilgrimage site, and thereafter paid its owner approximately 4,800 euros in monthly rental.[11]
In the process of coming to terms with the history ofAustria in the time of National Socialism, the mayor of Braunau,Gerhard Skiba, presided over the installation of theHitler birthplace memorial stone in front of the building. The installation took place in April 1989, two weeks before Hitler's centenary. The stone, commemorating the victims of World War II, is made of granite from the quarry at theMauthausen concentration camp. It states,Für Frieden, Freiheit und Demokratie. Nie wieder Faschismus. Millionen Tote mahnen ("For peace, freedom and democracy; never again fascism: millions of dead remind us"). The memorial also serves as a disincentive to "Hitler tourism". In 2011, theLebenhilfe moved out and the Ministry requested permission to renovate the property. But Gerlinde Pommer, the then current owner, refused and she also refused the offer by the Ministry to purchase the house.[9] The house has remained vacant since then.
Also in 2011, the Braunau town council voted to revoke any honorary citizenship that may have been conferred on Hitler in 1933. The action was described as "precautionary", as no archival evidence could be found to confirm that he had received it in the first place.[12][13][14][15] In 2016, the Ministry pressed for the expropriation of the house by the government. This required a special law in the Austrian parliament.[9] At the same time, an Austrian governmental commission was considering a number of options for the future of the house, turning it into apartments again, using it for a center or a museum that would confront Austria's Nazi past, and even its demolition, replacing the original building with an entirely new structure.[16][17][18]
On 18 October 2016, Austrianinterior ministerWolfgang Sobotka said the building would instead be changed to the extent that it "will not be recognizable."[19] The contract was awarded to the architectural firm Marte Marte Architekten.[20] The house was to be restored to its 1790 configuration with a double-gable roof, the removal of all of the 1938 Nazi additions, and a whitewash of the front.[20] In June 2020, it was announced that, after the restoration, the house would serve as apolice station.[21] Restoring the house was delayed by theCOVID-19 pandemic, and costs considerably increased.[22] In 2023 it was announced that, in addition to the police station, the house would be used as a training center.[22] The restoration is expected to be completed in 2025, with the police station and district police headquarters able to move in in 2026.[22]
TheBHAK Braunau is the oldest educational establishment in theInnviertel. The HTL Braunau has been awarded "Most Innovative School inUpper Austria" 7 times, in the years 2012-2014 and 2017–2020.[citation needed]
^Vincent O’Hara, Richard Worth,To Crown the Waves: The Great Navies of the First World War (2013),p. 20: "During the war the Naval Academy was moved from Fiume to Schloss Hof, near Vienna, and later to Braunau at Inn, in Austria, remaining there until 1918"
^Anna Rosmus:Hitlers Nibelungen, Samples Grafenau 2015, pp. 20f
^Anna RosmusHitlers Nibelungen, Samples Grafenau 2015, pp. 97f
^Anna RosmusHitlers Nibelungen, Samples Grafenau 2015, pp. 151f
^Gunther, John (1940).Inside Europe. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 20.Archived from the original on 1 February 2019. Retrieved7 January 2018.
