Hitler stripped of honorary citizenship of Austrian city

The city government of Amstetten, a small Austrian city of the State of Lower Austria, decided on Tuesday to strip the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler of his honorary citizenship.

Herbert Katzengruber, mayor of Amstetten said that an " absolute majority" in the City Council meeting earlier on the day decided to strip the honorary citizenship of Hitler.

It is reported that the Nazi leader visited Amstetten in 1938. A year later, the city government of Amstetten decided to grant Hitler of honorary citizenship. After the end of World War II, it was forgotten by the people in the city but was under discussion once again after 1996.

Mayor Katzengruber said that the local people has been discussing for many years on whether to remove Hitler's honorary citizenship.

Some people held that the honorary citizenship would lapse automatically after one's death. Therefore, Hitler has no longer been an honorary citizen of the city.

However, others argued that the city government should take some measures on this issue.

The city of Amstetten, about 130 km away from Vienna, capital of Austria, is the central city of Mostviertler area of Lower Austria. It has a resident population of 23,000.

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