The house where Adolf Hitler was born will be turned into a police station to prevent it becoming a neo-Nazi pilgrimage site, the Austrian government has announced.

The apartment block, located in Braunau am Inn, close to the border with Germany, will also be completely redesigned before the local police force moves in.

Announcing the move after more than a year of legal wrangling, Interior Minister Wolfgang Peschorn said the move 'sends an unmistakable signal that this building will never again evoke the memory of National Socialism.'

The house where Hitler was born, located in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn, will be turned into a police station, the government has revealed (file image)

Architects from across the European Union will be invited to submit plans for the building's redesign this month and a jury of experts and public officials will pick the winning design in the first half of next year, the Interior Ministry said.

Hitler was born in the house in 1889, and while he only lived there for the first few months of his life, it has become a significant site for neo-Nazis.

Until 2011 the building was mostly used to host workshops by charity Lebenshilfe, which helps people with learning disabilities integrate into society.

Hitler was born in the apartment block in 1889, and despite the fact that he only lived there for a few months, it has become a gathering place for neo-Nazis and Nazi sympathisers

It was abandoned after that, owning to expensive renovation works that the charity could not afford to carry out.

In 2017 ownership of the house was expropriated by the Austrian government, kicking off a dispute with previous owner Gerlinde Pommer over compensation.

Austria's Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that Pommer was owed some £700,000 by the government.

Austria argued for decades that it was the first victim of National Socialism, having been annexed by Hitler's Germany in 1938.

Recent governments have, however, recognised that Austrians were also perpetrators of Nazi crimes and that there was little resistance to Hitler's rule.