Odd News

Last resort for Hitler

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-04-04 10:56

BERLIN - Germany's Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm, which will host the G8 summit in June, has revoked the honorary citizenship it awarded to Adolf Hitler in 1932.

The local council voted late Monday to formally strip the Nazi dictator's name from the roll of honorary citizens even though it felt the honor had lapsed when Hitler, a regular summer guest, killed himself.

"We've taken this formal step now before the G8 meeting because it was causing such a stir even though in our view the honorary citizenship lapsed with his death," Gerhard Kukla, head of the town's administration, told Reuters.

Hitler spent several summer holidays in Germany's oldest Baltic resort, 250 km (150 miles) north of Berlin. He was given the honor on August 15, 1932, Kukla said.

Thousands of German towns and cities made Hitler an honorary citizen during the Third Reich and many formally revoked the title when his regime collapsed after his suicide in 1945.

Heiligendamm has a population of 350.