A man has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a fire swept through the mountaintop retreat built for Adolf Hitler , known as the Eagle’s Nest. Emergency services battled the blaze in snow and wind.
However, he does not currently live there. He was questioned in connection to the fire. Prosecutors said that the suspect is a 33-year-old German citizen who has ties to the Berchtesgaden area.
Authorities arrested a man on a motorcycle driving the other way down the road, according to KKTV.
Firefighters struggled to battle the blaze as rain that turned into the season’s first significant snow, accompanied by strong wind, complicated the task. Nobody was injured in the fire. The building is owned by Bavaria’s state government.
Prosecutors said that the man showed signs of mental illness and was being sent to a psychiatric facility. However, they said they would also be looking into the possibility of a political motive in view of the building’s history. Police said that there is no indication at present that anyone else was involved. Officials said that firefighters had to pull out overnight after several hours. “We’re not going to leave a ruin there,” Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, told reporters in Berchtesgaden. Herrmann said that “it is important that we continue to do the work of remembrance.”
