Eagle's Nest fire leaves Hitler's Alpine retreat 'largely destroyed'
The 1938 mountain retreat survived the fall of the Third Reich and became a major tourist destination. Bavaria's interior minister says it will 'under no circumstances remain a ruin'.
A fire tore through the Kehlsteinhaus — the Alpine retreat known as the Eagle's Nest that Adolf Hitler used as a Nazi showcase — leaving the historic site above the Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden "largely destroyed", German police said on Saturday. A 33-year-old German man was arrested near the scene.
Emergency services received the fire alarm at 9:15pm local time (7:15pm GMT) on Friday. The building sits at an elevation of around 1,800 metres (5,900 feet) on the Kehlstein mountain, and fire officials said the difficult high-altitude terrain severely hindered firefighting efforts. Some 200 emergency personnel were deployed, and the fire was still burning early on Saturday morning. No injuries have been reported.
Police said the arrested man, a German national, was apprehended riding a motorcycle near the site. A psychiatric report indicates he may suffer from mental illness with diminished responsibility, investigators said. A possible political motive is being considered, but the investigation is at an early stage and there is currently no evidence of further suspects. The public has been urged to avoid the area.
Completed by the Nazis in 1938, the Eagle's Nest was presented to Hitler for his 50th birthday and served as a retreat for him and senior Nazi officials during the Second World War. Hitler used the nearby Berghof residence — from where he planned the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union — and the Kehlsteinhaus itself appeared in Nazi propaganda films. Unlike most of the Nazi-era complex, it escaped destruction in 1945.
In the post-war decades the site became one of Bavaria's most visited tourist destinations, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors a year to its mountain inn. Its official website describes the building as "a cautionary reminder of the abysses of the inhumane Nazi dictatorship", and guided tours have long focused on remembrance rather than veneration.
Bavaria's interior minister Joachim Herrmann said the site would "under no circumstances remain a ruin", underlining that the state was committed to rebuilding and "continuing our work of remembrance" at the mountain landmark. The extent of structural damage, and the cost and timeline of any restoration, will become clearer once firefighters can safely enter the building.
