Suspect arrested after fire ‘completely engulfed’ Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest mountain refuge in Germany

A suspect has been arrested in Germany following a fire at Adolf Hitler’s retreat, known as Eagle’s Nest, German police said.

Authorities were alerted around 9:15 p.m. local time on Friday of a fire in the Nazi leader’s mountain residence at the top of Obersalzberg, South Upper Bavaria police said in a statement.

The building, also known as Kehlsteinhaus, was “completely engulfed in flames” when firefighters arrived, police said, but no one was found inside and no injuries were reported.

Fire trucks had some difficulty accessing the site “due to local conditions”, authorities added.

“Shortly after the fire started, a suspect was detained by investigators,” the statement said, adding that the cause of the fire is now the subject of a criminal investigation and one person has been taken into custody.

At an elevation of 6,017 feet, Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest was completed in 1938 and used occasionally by the Nazi leader as a temporary seat of government. The site was spared from Allied bombing during World War II, largely preserving its original state.

Since then, it has become a popular tourist attraction, which also serves as a restaurant and beer garden. According to its website, the Eagle’s Nest is “one of the few intact monuments from the Hilter era” and it “represents the madness of the regime.”