Eagle's Nest destroyed in suspected arson; Bavarian police arrest one suspect

Fire destroyed the Kehlstein House — known internationally as the Eagle's Nest — on the Kehlstein mountain above Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps late Friday, with Bavarian police arresting one suspect on Saturday after investigators determined the blaze was set deliberately.

Up to 200 firefighters were deployed to extinguish the fire and prevent it spreading into surrounding forest. No injuries were reported; the building was empty when the fire started, after 21:00. Police sources told the newspaper Bild that nothing of the structure could be saved.

The Kehlstein House was built in 1938 under the supervision of Martin Bormann, then head of the Party Chancellery and personal secretary to Hitler. It has been protected as a public monument since the 1950s. Historians note it served as a gathering point for Hitler's inner circle and senior military commanders during the Second World War, and is the location of some of the best-known photographs of the dictator.

At the foot of the mountain stands the Obersalzberg Documentation Centre, renovated in 2024 as a memorial and education site on the history of Nazism. Live camera footage from the building showed on Saturday morning that the fire had been extinguished, but the structure continued to smoulder.