Four Germans have been caught laying white roses in memory of Adolf Hitler at the house where he was born on the dictator’s birthday.
One of the quartet was seen performing a Nazi salute as they posed for photos, according to police.
Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn in the Austrian province of Upper Austria.
Officers said the four Germans – two sisters and their partners, all in their 20s and early 30s – went to the building on Saturday to lay white roses in its window recesses.
They posed in front of the house for photos and one of the women gave a Hitler salute, a gesture which is banned in both Austria and Germany.
Patrolling officers noticed the group and took them to a police station for questioning.
The woman said she had not meant the salute seriously, but officers said they found a chat with the others on her phone in which they shared Nazi-themed messages and pictures.
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Police said they were reporting all those involved to prosecutors on suspicion of violating an Austrian law that bans the symbols of Nazism.
After lengthy wrangling over the future of the former Führer’s family home, work began last year on turning it into a police station.
Authorities thought the move would make the address unattractive as a pilgrimage site for Nazi sympathisers.
