After a fire left the historic Nazi gathering spot dubbed the Eagle's Nest, Adolf Hitler's one-time hideaway in Bavaria, largely in ruins, authorities detained a 33-year-old German national, The Guardian reported.
Late on Friday, some 200 firefighters were dispatched to battle flames at the Kehlsteinhaus, the remote, purpose-built home of the Nazi dictator, a protected building crowning the Obersalzberg peak in southern Germany.
Upon reaching the site, firefighters found the structure "completely ablaze," police said, with flames soaring skyward; nobody was hurt, authorities added.
At an elevation of 1,834 meters (about 6,000 feet), the site posed serious difficulties for crews battling the flames, police spokesperson Lisa Maier said.
Among the few untouched landmarks surviving from Hitler's time, the building could be reached only with "heavy breathing apparatus," she said.
The Nazis erected the complex, and Hitler officially opened it on his own birthday in 1939; today, its website says, it is maintained as a memorial to "the insanity of the regime."
The site can only be reached by way of a road carved into the mountainside across once-impassable terrain. The Nazis who came here entered a tunnel before riding a 124-meter (407-foot) brass elevator housed inside the peak itself to reach the interior.
Around 9:15 p.m., a smoke detector sounded an alarm that alerted authorities to the fire, police said, and by about 9:50 p.m., when crews arrived, flames had swallowed the whole building.
Responding to the call were crews from six municipal fire departments, alongside police, Bavarian Red Cross teams and area mountain rescuers.
Though no cause was stated, German outlets reported that investigators suspect arson, and crews found nobody within the structure.
Over several hours, powerful gusts and rain that later became the first snowfall of the year hindered the effort, and crews were ultimately forced to withdraw overnight.
Still burning at 7 a.m. Saturday, according to reports, the fire seemed to be extinguished by late morning, though smoke kept rising from the structure.
At the road leading up to the retreat, officers barred entry, a photographer for Agence France-Presse reported, while police, through a spokesperson, told Germany's Bild tabloid: "It is damaged to a large extent. The house is unlikely to be saved."
Later on Saturday, police planned to brief the press, Maier said, while the investigation remained ongoing.
Following questioning, the arrested man, a 33-year-old German national linked to the locality but living elsewhere, was to be transferred to a psychiatric institution, prosecutors said, citing indications of mental illness.
While nothing pointed to anyone else's involvement, police said, a possible political motive would still be examined.
Erected during 1937 and 1938, the Eagle's Nest is a piece of the poisonous heritage left by the Third Reich under Hitler, a regime that killed millions of Jews, along with Roma, communists and LGBTQ people, in the Holocaust.
Although Hitler seldom actually set foot in the complex, US war movies frequently portrayed it as a crucial gathering place, and since 1952 it has housed a restaurant and an exhibition by the Institute for Contemporary History on its Nazi history.
After consulting conservators, historians and local officials, authorities plan to restore the structure, which belongs to Bavaria's state government, The Guardian reported.
Speaking to reporters, Bavaria's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said, "We're not going to leave a ruin there," and added that continuing "the work of remembrance" was important.
