A fire has badly damaged the Eagle's Nest, the Nazi-era mountain retreat high above Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. It broke out late on Friday, October 23. Nobody was injured, and no one was found inside.
Police detained a 33-year old German man who came to their attention near the scene.
The building is the Kehlsteinhaus, known as the Eagle's Nest. It is not Hitler's Berghof, his main residence at Obersalzberg. That was a separate building and was demolished in 1952, so the two shouldn't be confused.
What happened
The fire alarm went off at around 9:15 to 9:50 p.m. local time. Crews arrived to find the building in flames. About 200 firefighters and emergency staff took part.
The site stands at about 1,834 metres above sea level. The remote location and bad weather made the work harder. By October 24, the building was said to be completely destroyed or so badly damaged it might not be saved in its present form. A full structural assessment has yet to be done.
The investigation
German authorities identified the detained man as a 33 year old citizen with ties to the Berchtesgaden area. Prosecutors are looking at whether the fire was set on purpose, and at a possible political motive.
The cost and the plan
The head of the local tourism association said the loss could run into millions of euros. Experts are expected to assess it more closely. Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said the site would not be left as a ruin and that officials would look for a way to rebuild it.
Officials also said the site’s role in documenting Nazi history should be considered when deciding its future.
Why the building matters
The Kehlsteinhaus was built in 1937 and 1938 as a guest house and reception venue for Nazi officials and their visitors. Hitler visited, but did not live there. The building survived the Second World War and later became a mountain restaurant and a visitor site. An exhibition there documented its link to the Nazi period.
That makes it more than a tourist attraction. It is a place where visitors learn about the dictatorship that led Germany into the Second World War and carried out the Holocaust and other mass atrocities. Rebuilding it raises a separate question about how it should be shown to future visitors.
