Austrian city to use its Hitler connection to generate millions of pounds

London, Jan 3 (ANI): The Austrian city of Linz is ready to project itself as one of Europe's culture capitals and plans to promote its links to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Hitler spent nine years of his childhood in the city, which he loved so much that he intended to make it the location for a magnificent five star Adolf Hitler Hotel, The Telegraph reports.

He had also proposed building a 162-metre high bell tower in Linz to house the remains of his parents.

Hitler also planned to make Linz one of the five model "Fuehrer Cities" of the Third Reich. The "Fuehrer Museum" alone would have taken up a building 1,100 metres long. Around 16 million works of art were to be housed there, the vast majority taken from private Jewish collections.

The municipal leaders of the Linz, buoyed by securing the city of culture accolade, which can generate millions of pounds in tourism revenue, have decided to exploit rather than ignore their most infamous son's associations with the City.

Locals and tourists are now being invited to explore Nazi remnants throughout town. Armed with an audio guide, they can listen to footage of survivors being led through a residential area and a former underground aircraft factory that were part of the Mauthausen/Gusen concentration camp complex.

One exhibition is entitled "The cultural capital of the Fuehrer," and documents his plans to turn Linz into an artistic centre to rival Paris, Vienna and Berlin, The Telegraph reported.

There will also be trips to a factory, built during the war after it was dismantled ion the occupied Czechoslovakia, which was named after Hermann-Göring-Werke after the Luftwaffe chief. It exists today as the Voestalpine steel company.

They will also be shown the Hauptplatz, or Main Square: once known as Adolf-Hitler-Platz. (ANI)