The fake news and accompanying video were spread by a fake German news outlet created by propagandists specifically to spread disinformation.
A widely circulated report claims that Volodymyr Zelensky has become the new owner of the Eagle’s Nest – a house in the Alps that the Nazi Party (NSDAP) gave to Hitler as a summer retreat for his birthday. According to the fake news, Zelensky paid more than 14 million euros for the property. The reports cite a German media outlet, Aktuelle Nachrichten in Deutschland, which published a video providing this “information”. The video states that the decision to sell the property was made due to low tourism revenues, and it presents so-called “documents” purporting to confirm the sale. The story has been circulated in Russian, English, German, Polish, and several other languages.
However, this is yet another elaborate propaganda hoax aimed at a Western audience. The website Aktuelle Nachrichten in Deutschland is not a legitimate German media outlet, but a facade created specifically to launch this disinformation campaign. As we explained in our media literacy guide, it is easy to spot such fakes by looking for telltale signs: the site publishes a disproportionate amount of news about Ukraine and Russia (despite claiming to be a German outlet), with a distinctly pro-Russian bias. For example, it frequently reports on alleged “atrocities committed by Ukrainian troops in Kursk” and so-called “opposition to the Kyiv regime”. In addition, many articles include disclaimers such as: “The EU’s blocking of RT is an attempt to silence a critical voice in the coverage of the Ukraine conflict. Access to the website is restricted and many social media accounts have been suspended. Whether journalism can continue to exist outside the dominant narratives in Germany and the EU now depends on everyone.“
This strongly suggests that most of the site’s content consists of translated articles from the Kremlin-controlled RT, which is banned in Ukraine and the EU due to sanctions. Additionally, using the whois tool, we verified that the domain was created on December 14, 2024. This means that at the time the “news” about Zelensky was published, the site had existed for less than two months – yet it had already published over 1,800 articles, a highly suspicious amount of content.
The claim that Zelensky bought the Eagle’s Nest is also highly dubious. The official website of the historical landmark makes no mention of it being closed to tourists. On the contrary, it states that the new season will begin in May 2025 (as winter visits are impossible due to weather conditions). The property is currently managed by a charitable foundation that uses tourism revenues for community development and educational projects. Selling the building for commercial purposes is highly unlikely given its historical significance as a memorial to Nazi crimes. There is also a risk that the Eagle’s Nest could be hijacked by neo-Nazi groups – which is precisely why private tours of the Eagle’s Nest are prohibited, to prevent it from becoming a pilgrimage site for Nazi sympathizers. In conclusion, there is no credible information that the property has been sold, let alone that Volodymyr Zelensky is its new owner.
We have previously debunked similar fakes about Zelensky’s alleged purchases of expensive real estate in Fake: Zelensky Buys €18 Million Mansion, Builds Underground Bunker and Fake: Zelensky Bought Goebbels’ Villa for 8 Million Euros. We also analyzed the spread of this Russian propaganda narrative from Europe to Latin America in collaboration with our Spanish partners at Maldita.es.
