A fire swept through the mountaintop retreat built for Adolf Hitler and known as the Eagle's Nest on Friday night, largely destroying the historic building as some 200 firefighters battled the blaze through snow and strong wind in the Bavarian Alps. German police arrested a 33-year-old man on suspicion of arson.
Emergency services in the Berchtesgaden district were alerted by a fire alarm at about 9:15 p.m. local time on Friday. Firefighters and police rushed up the narrow mountain road that winds to the Kehlsteinhaus — in part through a series of tunnels — and could see the flames as they approached. When the first crews arrived at about 9:52 p.m., the building was completely engulfed in flames.
On the way up, officers stopped and arrested a man on a motorcycle driving down the road in the opposite direction. Prosecutors in Traunstein said the 33-year-old German citizen, who has ties to the Berchtesgaden area but does not currently live there, was questioned and showed signs of mental illness. He was being placed in a psychiatric facility, but investigators said they would also examine the possibility of a political motive in view of the building's history. Police said there were no current indications that anyone else was involved.
A firefight in snow and wind
Rain that turned into the season's first significant snow, accompanied by strong wind, complicated the already difficult task of tackling the blaze at 1,834 metres (about 6,000 feet) above sea level. Firefighters had to pull out overnight after several hours and were unable to enter the building because of the danger of falling material. No one was inside the building and no one was injured, police said. German media reported that the site had been largely destroyed, and the damage is estimated to run into millions of euros.
The Kehlsteinhaus was built in 1938 and presented to Hitler on his 50th birthday. He rarely visited — he was afraid of heights, and almost never once the Second World War broke out — and the building was instead used by his inner circle, including his companion Eva Braun. Spared from Allied bombing, it survived the war largely intact and has operated since 1952 as a mountain inn and museum, with an exhibition on its Nazi-era history. It is owned by the state of Bavaria and classified as a historical monument recalling the Nazi period.
What happens next
Bavaria's interior minister has said the building should be rebuilt. Historian Roger Moorhouse called the destruction "a great shame," describing the Kehlsteinhaus as a building of "tremendous historical significance." The criminal investigation is being led by the regional criminal investigation department in Traunstein, and police said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Why it matters
The Eagle's Nest is one of the few surviving monuments of the Nazi era, preserved precisely so that visitors could confront that history — its own website describes it as standing for "the insanity of the regime." Whether the fire was an act of arson, a political statement or the act of a troubled individual, the loss of the building raises a difficult question for Germany: how to rebuild a monument whose value lies in being an authentic witness to the past.
Reporting based on CNN, The Times, the Associated Press via CBS News, Upper Bavaria South police and the Traunstein prosecutor's office.