Fire destroys Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest retreat in Germany

A fire on Friday night nearly destroyed the Kehlsteinhaus, the mountaintop retreat in southern Germany built for Adolf Hitler and widely known as the Eagle’s Nest, and police have detained a 33-year-old man, officials said.

Upper Bavaria South police said a fire alarm at the building went off shortly before 9:15 p.m. local time on Friday, Oct. 23. Firefighters found the structure “completely engulfed in flames” when they arrived, police said. No one was found inside and no injuries were reported.

The building stands near the peak of the Obersalzberg above Berchtesgaden, in the Upper Bavaria region, at about 1,830 metres. Police said fire trucks had difficulty reaching the site because of local conditions, and firefighting was still under way on Saturday morning, according to reports from CBS News and ABC News.

Prosecutors said the suspect is a German citizen with ties to the Berchtesgaden area who does not currently live there. He was questioned and showed signs of mental illness, and he was being sent to a psychiatric facility, prosecutors said. They said they will also examine whether there was a political motive, given the history of the building. Police said there were currently no indications that anyone else was involved. The cause of the fire is under criminal investigation.

Joachim Herrmann, Bavaria’s interior minister, said the Eagle’s Nest will be restored. “We’re not going to leave a ruin there,” he said, according to CBS News. He said the future appearance of the building will be discussed with local officials, historians and preservationists.

The Kehlsteinhaus was completed in 1938 and was used by Hitler on occasion as a temporary seat of government, CBS News reported. Because it was spared from Allied bombing during the Second World War, it largely kept its original state. After the war it became a popular tourist destination and now operates as a restaurant and beer garden. Reports say the building is owned by the state of Bavaria and is classified as a historical monument that recalls the Nazi period. The site’s own website describes it as one of the few undamaged monuments of the Hitler era.

The fire drew wide attention in Canada, where searches for “Eagles Nest” and “Kehlsteinhaus” rose sharply in Google Trends on Saturday morning. The reports reviewed by Canada News Media did not describe any Canadian connection to the fire.

Police have not said when the fire will be fully out or what the building’s condition is inside. Bavarian authorities have not yet given a cost estimate for the damage or a timeline for any rebuilding. Further details are expected from police and prosecutors as the investigation continues.

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Sources: CBS News, ABC News (Associated Press), CNN, CNBC.