A fire has broken out at Adolf Hitler’s former Eagle’s Nest mountain retreat in Bavaria, prompting German police to detain a person suspected of starting the blaze.
About 200 firefighters were sent to the remote Kehlsteinhaus site in southern Germany, where the steep, hard-to-reach location complicated efforts to contain the fire.
Police said crews saw flames shooting into the sky as they approached and found the historic building “completely ablaze” on Saturday.
“A suspicious person was taken into temporary custody,” police said in a subsequent statement. No injuries were reported.
Police spokeswoman Lisa Maier said the emergency response was made more difficult by the building’s position at an altitude of 1,834 metres (6,000 feet).
Firefighters could reach the site only while using “heavy breathing apparatus,” Maier said.
Authorities were alerted late Friday, at about 9:50 pm (1950 GMT), after a smoke detector activated the retreat’s fire alarm, police said.
Officials have not disclosed a possible motive or cause. However, German media reports said investigators were examining the possibility that the fire was deliberately started.
A webcam image shows smoke and flames at the Kehlsteinhaus mountain guesthouse, known as the Eagle’s Nest and formerly Adolf Hitler’s mountain retreat, in the early hours of October 24, 2026
The smouldering Kehlsteinhaus on the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden after being severely damaged by fire on Saturday, October 24
Adolf Hitler, the Austrian-born German Nazi dictator, in Berchtesgaden in 1935
Hitler stands on the terrace of his Obersalzberg home near Berchtesgaden, believed to have been photographed in 1934
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Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano (1903–1944, left) meets German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler (1889–1945, right) at the Kehlsteinhaus, or Eagle’s Nest, above Berchtesgaden on August 13, 1939. Hitler’s interpreter Paul Schmidt (1899–1970) is second from left
The Berghof on the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden
The retreat remained surrounded by flames into the early hours of Saturday as snow fell across the Alpine summit, according to footage from a weather camera.
Police closed the road leading to the site, an AFP photographer reported from the area.
Fire crews searched the building but found no one inside.
Maier said the investigation remained under way, with police expected to provide further details at a news conference later on Saturday.
German tabloid Bild reported that officers detained a motorcyclist encountered while travelling to the fire.
Constructed between 1937 and 1938, the Eagle’s Nest remains tied to the dark legacy of Hitler’s Third Reich, whose persecution and mass murder led to the deaths of millions of Jews, as well as Roma, LGBTQ people and Communists during the Holocaust.
It was designed to serve as a monument to Hitler’s rule, though the dictator himself rarely visited the complex.
Built of stone and granite, the residence offers an exceptional view of the picturesque Bavarian Alpine landscape and was designed to impress foreign diplomats.
It survived the Second World War undamaged.
Since 1952, it has hosted both an exhibition recounting the house’s Nazi history and a restaurant.