Since the end of World War II, the Eagle’s Nest, a mountaintop retreat in the Bavarian Alps built for high-ranking Nazi officials, was preserved as a reminder of the “the insanity of the regime.” On Friday night, the building was almost entirely consumed by an inferno that authorities believe was an arson attack. The police have arrested a 33-year-old suspect who is currently in custody at a psychiatric hospital, according to a statement. The first alarm sounded around 9:15 p.m. local time.
By around 9:50 p.m., when emergency crews made it up the peak’s narrow, winding roads and tunnels, the building was already completely engulfed in flames. Roughly 200 emergency personnel from six municipalities fought through the night to put out the fire. Containing the blaze proved nearly impossible.
Firefighters struggled against fierce wind and rain that soon turned into the season’s first snowfall. Police spokesperson Lisa Maier said that the site’s high altitude of about 6,000 feet meant that crews had to wear “heavy breathing apparatus,” reports the Guardian’s Donna Ferguson. Though smoke continued to rise from the charred remains of the building the following morning, officials confirmed that no one was inside during the fire, and no injuries were reported.
The building—which hosts a restaurant, beer garden and exhibit on the site’s history—had already closed for the evening. Authorities are offering a grim assessment for the future of the site, which, until recently, was one of few undamaged structures from the Nazi era. A police spokesperson told the German newspaper Bild that the site had suffered extensive damage and that the “house is unlikely to be saved,” per the Guardian.
Completed in 1938 and formally inaugurated on Adolf Hitler’s 50th birthday in 1939, the Eagle’s Nest, or the Kehlsteinhaus in German, was part of the Obersalzberg mountain retreat, an idyllic Nazi power center that also hosted the Berghof, Hitler’s alpine residence. Reaching the Eagle’s Nest was an engineering feat. Visitors both past and present traveled along a road carved into the mountainside, entered an underground tunnel and rode a 407-foot-tall elevator to the guesthouse.
While other buildings at Obersalzberg were bombed by the Allies in 1945 and Hitler’s Berghof was demolished in 1952, the Eagle’s Nest survived and became a site of both remembrance and tourism. The Eagle’s Nest was captured in 1945 by American troops, some of whom carved their names into the red marble fireplace, a gift from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini to Hitler. Investigators are examining whether the suspected arson attack was motivated by site’s infamous past.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
