Free Republic

Adolf Hitler's Alpine mountain retreat, known as the Eagle's Nest, was engulfed in flames on Friday night while police arrested a 33-year-old male suspect. The residence, called the Kehlsteinhaus, is above the town of Berchtesgaden. It was one of several buildings in the area used by the Nazi dictator and his entourage during World War Two. Hitler also used the area as a backdrop for propaganda films portraying him as a lover of animals and nature. Local media reported that site had been "largely destroyed", with the public urged to avoid the area.

An Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician got himself in hot water over photos of his “pilgrimage” to Hitler-related sites. The politician was reportedly pictured with a candle in front of Hitler’s birthplace in the Austrian town of Brannau am Inn. He was also pictured near the Berchtesgaden Alpine retreat of the Fuhrer, as well as posing near swastikas and SS rune-bearing banners. While the scandalous pictures have not been released, the AfD acknowledged their existence. “The person concerned was clearly reminded by the state board that such incidents are unacceptable and incompatible with AfD membership,” Torben Braga, a party spokesman,...

As far as his closest aides were aware, he kept to a strict healthy diet and drank only lukewarm water. But Adolf Hitler would regularly stave off attacks of midnight munchies by tucking into specially made ‘Fuhrer Cake’ and other gooey treats. He would raid the kitchen after staying up late talking to guests and rarely get up before 2pm, according to a maid who worked at his mountain retreat in Bavaria. Austrian Mrs Kalhammer – then Elisabeth Marchtrenkerin – went to work at the Fuhrer’s retreat near Berchtesgaden in 1943 after answering an advert in her local paper: ‘Maid...