Police have arrested a 33-year-old German citizen after a fire ripped through Adolf Hitler’s former mountain retreat in Bavaria, leaving the historic Nazi meeting place – known as the Eagle’s Nest – largely destroyed.
About 200 firefighters were deployed on Friday night to tackle the blaze at the Nazi dictator’s remote, purpose-built Kehlsteinhaus residence, a protected building on the peak of Obersalzberg in southern Germany.
Flames rose high into the air as firefighters approached the scene to find the building “completely ablaze”, police said, adding that nobody was injured in the fire.
Lisa Maier, a police spokesperson, said firefighters struggled to tackle the blaze due to its location at an altitude of 1,834 metres (6,000ft).
The building, which was one of the few undamaged monuments of the Hitler era, was only accessible with “heavy breathing apparatus”, she said.
Built by the Nazis and formally inaugurated by Hitler on his birthday in 1939, the Eagle’s Nest has been preserved as a monument to “the insanity of the regime”, according to its website.
The building is only accessible via a road cut into the mountain through previously impassable terrain. Nazis would enter a tunnel and take a 124-metre brass lift buried in the mountain to get inside the building.
Authorities were alerted to the fire when a smoke detector triggered a fire alarm at about 9.15pm, police said. When firefighters arrived on the scene at about 9.50pm, the entire building was engulfed in flames.
Fire departments from six municipalities sent emergency personnel to tackle the blaze and the Bavarian Red Cross, the local mountain rescue service and the police also attended.
No reason for the fire was given, but German media reported that investigators suspected it was the result of arson. Firefighters found no one inside the building.
Efforts to fight the fire were hampered by a strong wind and rain, which turned into the year’s first snow, and firefighters had to pull out overnight after several hours.
The blaze was reportedly still burning at 7am on Saturday but appeared to be out later in the morning, although smoke continued to rise from the building.
A police spokesperson told the German tabloid Bild: “It is damaged to a large extent. The house is unlikely to be saved.” Officers blocked access to the road leading to the retreat, according to an Agence France-Presse photographer.
Maier said police were still investigating and would hold a news conference later on Saturday.
The 33-year-old suspect arrested by the police was a German citizen who had ties to the area but did not live there. Prosecutors said he showed signs of mental illness and after being questioned he was being sent to a psychiatric facility.
The possibility of a political motive for the blaze would be investigated, but police said there was nothing to indicate anyone else was involved.
The Eagle’s Nest was constructed between 1937 and 1938 and forms part of the toxic legacy of Hitler’s Third Reich, which was responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews as well as Roma, LGBTQ people and communists in the Holocaust.
It became legendary in the postwar period and was often depicted as an essential meeting place in US war films, although in reality Hitler rarely visited the complex.
Since 1952 the building has housed an exhibition by the Institute for Contemporary History recounting its Nazi history, and a restaurant.
Officials indicated that the building, which is owned by Bavaria’s state government, would be restored after discussions with local officials, historians and conservators.
“We’re not going to leave a ruin there,” Joachim Herrmann, Bavaria’s interior minister, told reporters, adding that it was important to continue to do “the work of remembrance”.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
