Fire ravages Adolf Hitler's mountaintop Eagle's Nest retreat leaving it so damaged it 'likely cannot be saved'

Fire ravages Adolf Hitler's mountaintop Eagle's Nest retreat leaving it so damaged it 'likely cannot be saved' Police in Bavaria, Germany, have made an arrest following a fire at Adolf Hitler's Alpine mountain retreat the Kehlsteinhaus - also known as the Eagle's Nest A fire swept through the mountaintop retreat built for Adolf Hitler and known as the Eagle's Nest as emergency services struggled to tackle the blaze in snow and wind. The fire at the building, located in the Berchtesgaden district in south east Germany, started just before 10pm on Friday night, police said in a statement. More than 200 Firefighters battled the flames at the difficult-to-access site on a cliff 1,834 meters above sea level. The structure, preserved after World War Two as a historical site from the Nazi era, had been so badly damaged that it “could probably not be saved,” the force said. Efforts continued to put out the flames at the Eagle's Nest on Saturday afternoon. Police said a person was arrested, but officers have yet to be determined whether they had anything to do with the fire. Rain that turned into the year's first snow, accompanied by strong wind, complicated the already difficult task of tackling the blaze and firefighters had to pull out overnight after several hours, officials said. No one was injured in the fire, and firefighters hoped to finish their work on Saturday though they weren't able to enter the building because of a danger of falling material. The building, known in German as the Kehlsteinhaus, is located on a cliff 1,834 meters (6,017 feet) above sea level. It is reachable by an elevator built inside the rock from the end of the mountain road, which is closed to public traffic but used during the day by buses for visitors. It has been operated as a cafe and restaurant since 1952 and contains an exhibition on its history. The Nazi dictator himself rarely used the Kehlsteinhaus - unlike the Berghof residence, also in the Berchtesgaden area, the ruins of which were blown up in 1952. The Obersalzberg Documentation Center, further down the mountain, is home to the area's main historical exhibition and was unaffected by the fire. Officials indicated that the Eagle's Nest would be restored, though they were vague so soon after the blaze about how exactly that would be done. "We're not going to leave a ruin there," Bavaria's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, told reporters in Berchtesgaden. But what the site will look like in the future will be a matter for discussions with local officials, historians, preservationists and others. "I think we will be able to find a sensible solution," Herrmann added. Bavaria's state government owns the building. The minister stressed that "it is important that we continue to do the work of remembrance." The fire comes months after controversial plan to redevelop the house where the dictator was born has been slammed by concentration camp survivors. The £17 million conversion of the 17th-century house where Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 into a police station is nearing completion, with officers even expected to move in the coming months - during the second quarter of 2026. Ministers insist the bold project in Braunau am Inn, Austria will finally “neutralise” one of Europe’s most toxic and notorious addresses. But critics warn the symbolism is both twisted and sinister. For Ludwig Laher, writer and member of the Mauthausen Committee Austria, which represents survivors of Nazi concentration camps, the decision carries serious weight for society.