He called it his ersatz university and the years he spent there as the ‘harshest and saddest’ of his life.
Now the homeless men’s hostel that may have helped to turn a failed artist called Adolf Hitler into one of the most notorious tyrants of all time, is about to close.
Hitler tried to destroy evidence of his early life as a down-and-out in the Austrian capital, even allegedly murdering one of his fellow Jewish inmates on coming to power. But police records prove he lived in Haus in Meldemannstrasse, northern Vienna, from 9 February 1910 to May 1913.
What he saw as a humiliating chapter in his life was compounded by the large number of ‘inmates’ and friends who were Jews. Ironically, the home itself, hailed as a revolutionary social project in its heyday, was financed by rich Jewish benefactors, the Rothschild and Gutmann families.
Dubbed the Hitler Villa by its present 360 inhabitants, the hostel was controversial when it opened in 1905. It provided individual sleeping spaces rather than dormitories, electric and gas lighting, plus an early form of central heating.
The home’s current manager, Monika Wintersberger, says tourists wanting to find Hitler’s bed have been turned away disappointed. ‘We no longer know exactly where he slept, though it was probably on the third or fourth floor where the younger and more agile inhabitants were placed.’
By modern standards, little of the original elegance is visible today. The men live in cubicles and the corridors reek of urine. Inhabitants clad in worn underwear stand side by side at wash basins; others knock back cans of beer while playing cards in the dining hall.
Most residents will be sorry to see Vienna’s oldest surviving homeless asylum close its doors in the autumn, as part of another revolutionary project by the city’s socialist authorities to reintegrate the homeless into the housing market. The listed building is to be turned into a kindergarten and student halls of residence.
‘Having my own four walls has allowed me to get back some of my pride,’ says Franz Kurzbauer, Austrian table tennis champion 1950-53 and a basket-maker, resident here for 11 years.
A 42 year old former stockbroker turned drug addict hopes a plaque will mark the site. ‘Apart from being an important part of the history of the homeless of Vienna, it’s the place where Hitler lived - it’s historically important when you consider what happened to him once he left.’
As a ‘thank you’ to the city the residents are joining with leading actors to stage a play based on Hitler’s experiences here. Mein Kampf, by German playwright George Tabori, is a Beckett-style farce that relates three days in the life of Hitler and two of his Jewish companions.
‘Some people don’t give a damn about the Hitler connection, but I think this play is a way of making people think,’ a resident says. ‘After all, it was here that he gathered many of his ideas.’