OMM Newsroom
Police in the southern German state of Bavaria have detained a suspect after a fire broke out at Adolf Hitler’s former Alpine retreat, the Kehlsteinhaus, also known as the Eagle’s Nest, BBC World reports.
Fire dispatchers in Traunstein received an alarm from the building at 21:15 on Friday (19:15 GMT). Firefighters arrived to find it engulfed in flames.
Difficult terrain was hampering efforts to extinguish the fire, which was still burning early on Saturday, police said. About 200 emergency personnel had been deployed. No injuries were reported.
A criminal investigation is under way to establish whether the suspect was connected to the fire.
The retreat, above the town of Berchtesgaden, was used by Hitler as a part-time seat of government. He also met commanders there to plan the 1941 invasion of the USSR.
Hitler used the area as a backdrop for propaganda films portraying him as a lover of animals and nature.
Completed by the Nazis in 1938, the Eagle’s Nest escaped destruction after their defeat in 1945. It has since become a popular tourist destination and houses a mountain inn.
The retreat’s official website describes it as “also a cautionary reminder of the abysses of the inhumane Nazi dictatorship”.
During World War Two, Hitler and his followers were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, including the mass murder of European Jews.
