A man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a fire swept through the mountaintop retreat built for Adolf Hitler, known as the Eagle’s Nest. Emergency services battled the blaze in snow and wind.
At about 9:15 pm Friday, October 23, emergency services in the Berchtesgaden district, in the Bavarian Alps in Germany’s southeastern corner, were alerted to the fire by an alarm. When police and firefighters arrived at the scene, they spotted the flames. The scene is located at the end of a narrow road that winds up the mountain, in part through a series of tunnels
Authorities arrested a man on a motorcycle driving the other way down the road, according to KKTV.
What we know about the suspect
Prosecutors said that the suspect is a 33-year-old German citizen who has ties to the Berchtesgaden area. However, he does not currently live there. He was questioned in connection to the fire.
Prosecutors said that the man showed signs of mental illness and was being sent to a psychiatric facility. However, they said they would also be looking into the possibility of a political motive in view of the building’s history. Police said that there is no indication at present that anyone else was involved.
Firefighters struggled to battle the blaze as rain that turned into the season’s first significant snow, accompanied by strong wind, complicated the task. Officials said that firefighters had to pull out overnight after several hours. Nobody was injured in the fire.
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The building is known in German as the Kehlsteinhaus. It is located on a cliff 1,834 meters (6,017 feet) above sea level, and can be reached by an elevator built inside the rock from the end of the mountain road. The road is closed to public traffic but used during the day by buses for visitors.
The building has been operated as a cafe and restaurant since 1952. It has an exhibition on its history. Hitler reportedly rarely used the Kehlsteinhaus, unlike the Berghof residence, also in the Berchtesgaden area. Its ruins were blown up in 1952.
The Obersalzberg Documentation Center, further down the mountain, houses the area’s main historical exhibition. It was not affected by the fire.
Officials indicated that the Eagle’s Nest would be restored.
“We’re not going to leave a ruin there,” Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, told reporters in Berchtesgaden.
“I think we will be able to find a sensible solution,” Herrmann added.
The building is owned by Bavaria’s state government.
Herrmann said that “it is important that we continue to do the work of remembrance.”
