A mountaintop building that once hosted the leaders of Nazi Germany spent Friday night in flames. The fire alarm at the Kehlsteinhaus, better known in English as the Eagle’s Nest, reached dispatchers in Traunstein at about 9:15 pm, and crews heading up the mountain could already see fire from the road. By the time the first units arrived, the inn was fully alight, and it was still burning on Saturday morning with around 200 firefighters and rescue workers on site.
Geography was the main enemy. The building sits at roughly 1,834 metres above Berchtesgaden, near the Austrian border, and heavy engines struggled on the narrow approach. Responders could only go near it wearing breathing equipment. Police said they knew of no injuries, and nobody is believed to have been inside. The inn had been due to stay open to visitors until 8 November.
Investigators suspect arson. A person found close to the scene was taken into custody, and Traunstein’s criminal police are working out whether that individual had anything to do with the blaze. No motive has been given.
Completed in 1938 as a guest house for Hitler and senior Nazis, the Eagle’s Nest survived the end of the war, unlike the nearby Berghof residence. Today it belongs to the state of Bavaria, draws crowds of tourists to its restaurant and is officially presented as a warning about the crimes of the dictatorship. Germany and Austria have long argued over what to do with Hitler-era buildings, from preserving them as memorials to converting or demolishing them so they cannot become shrines for extremists. How much of the Kehlsteinhaus can be saved was unclear on Saturday.
