At the beginning of 1945, it was already quite clear that the war was drawing to a close. The majority of the leaders of the Third Reich also became extremely clear what this end would be for them. Hitler alone continued to stubbornly believe in his lucky star and a miracle that could save Germany and decisively turn the tide of hostilities in favor of the Wehrmacht. Oddly enough, for a long time he managed to instill this faith in many people from his inner circle. However, most of them simply had nowhere to go, while others secretly and very carefully prepared to disappear as soon as the last moment came. The main thing here is not to make a mistake in the calculations, not to hurry so as not to lose your head at the will of your own people, and not to be late so that your opponents do not blow your head off.
At that time, the agonizing Reich was still a very formidable enemy, with over a million soldiers under arms, many tanks, aircraft, ships, submarines, well-functioning military production, experienced military leaders, strong special services, secret bases and treasures looted almost all over the world. One of the strongest centers of defense on the territory of Germany, the Germans considered in fact the second capital of the country, the center of East Prussia, the city of Konigsberg.
Koenigsberg was founded in 1255 by the knights of the German order, who sought to expand their influence in the Baltic States, inhabited mainly by Slavic tribes, which the Germans sought to enslave or destroy. Initially, the city-fortress served as an ordinary border outpost for the knights, but then, as the influence of the order strengthened, the position of the city gradually changed. In 1457-1525, Königsberg became the main residence of the order's chamberlain, and a little later turned into the residence of the Prussian dukes.
In 1544, one of the oldest universities in Europe was opened in the city on the Pregel River. Later, an observatory, an academy of arts, a conservatory were built in Königsberg, and one of the first zoos in Europe was opened. Koenigsberg became the capital of the Prussian kings, who built a monumental castle-fortress for themselves, keeping many secrets and secrets - the warlike, but prone to mysticism, the Prussians adored such things and spared no effort in setting up all sorts of hiding places and bastions.
Hitler decided to turn Königsberg into a single impregnable fortress city, and the Gauleiter of East Prussia Erich Koch was instructed:
- Do not surrender Koenigsberg!
“It will become a grave for our enemies,” Koch replied pompously, secretly from the Fuhrer who was already preparing the valuables for evacuation.
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Around Koenigsberg and inside the city itself, in the shortest possible time, three very powerful defensive belts were built, consisting of many very complex military-engineering structures. The first was considered the outer zone of the city's defense, which ran approximately six to eight kilometers from the Royal Castle. This belt included continuous lines of trenches, dug in full profile, with fortified parapets, rifle cells and machine-gun points.
In addition, the first line, or defense belt, included an anti-tank ditch encircling the entire city, considered insurmountable for armored vehicles of any type, especially those in service with units of the Red Army - the Germans did not even think about the possibilities of approaching Konigsberg by Anglo-American formations. The anti-tank ditch was significantly strengthened by the line of gaps, which also blocked the way for tanks and other enemy equipment, many kilometers of rows of barbed wire that formed serious anti-personnel obstacles, and minefields. Both anti-tank and anti-personnel. The engineers and sappers of the Wehrmacht hoped that all this, if not stop, then make the enemy get bogged down in overcoming obstacles for a long time.
But the most important thing is that in the first zone of defense, covering each other, there were a dozen very powerful forts, which had serious firepower and were practically not penetrated by shells and bombs, walls and roofs. Everything was calculated in such a way that even with a direct hit from the heaviest bombs and shells, the masonry of the forts did not even give small cracks! The garrison of each fort had artillery, flamethrowers, machine guns and other weapons. Each fort went several floors underground, where there were developed underground communications. According to a number of foreign sources and the results of the work of independent experts, these communications were communicated among themselves and have survived to this day.
The second line of defense ran along the outskirts of Königsberg and was also designed for prolonged resistance. It included solid stone buildings with very thick walls, in which windows were laid with bricks, turning them into the most natural loopholes, and most of the doors were closed. Barricades were erected between the houses and long-term firing points were set up, which were reinforced concrete caps deeply dug into the ground, often communicating with underground communications. It was assumed that the enemy, even if he was able to break through the first, strongest line of defense of the city, would approach the second line already significantly weakened.
The third line of defense, or, as the Germans also called it, the "inner belt", covered the central part of Königsberg and included various bastions, ravelins, towers and an old citadel. Quite naturally, all these fortifications also had multi-storey, branched underground communications.
In March 1945, Erich Koch reported to Hitler that the garrison of the fortified city was over one hundred and thirty thousand soldiers loyal to the Fuhrer, and the enemy would not enter Königsberg.
“I believe in you,” Hitler answered him.
Despite all the good assurances, boxes with art and other valuables were brought to the castle on the Kaiser-Wilhelmstrasse, which were often meticulously sorted by Gauleiter Erich Koch himself. According to some Western researchers, SS men from among Koch's inner circle contacted Berlin, personally with SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler, and asked him a direct question:
- It is unlikely that everything will be able to take out. What if the situation becomes critical? - the knights of the "black order" have always been distinguished by pure pragmatism. Moreover, not so long ago there was a tragedy with the superliner "Wilhelm Gustloff", sunk by a Soviet submarine.
“Use the dungeons,” Himmler supposedly answered them.
Medieval legends and legends told about the mysterious undergrounds of the Königsberg Castle and the whole network of underground passages and halls under the city itself. But practically no one was able to check them - if the Germans knew about their mysterious underground caches, they did not spread much about them. Especially with outsiders, which they considered everyone else. In the 19th century, a certain F. Laars carried out work in the old dungeons of the Royal Castle and under the city itself. He made a definite report on this. Perhaps not even one, but several is an open version and, as they say, for official use by the authorities, which was immediately classified by them.
As some researchers note, Laars in his papers allegedly wrote about deep and very extensive underground rooms - "many halls and galleries" - located under the former House of the Convention, the castle church and the restaurant "Blutgericht" - "The Last Judgment". All these premises turned out to be dry - a unique drainage system existed in Königsberg, which was located not only in the city, but also worked in the countryside.
In the very palace-fortress of the former Prussian kings, not far from the old wine cellar, there was an ancient inclined shaft, the entrance to which was in one of the castle dungeons. Without a doubt, this is only a small part of the underground structures of the old Koenigsberg, and, as it were, their "first floor", and they went into the depths of the earth for several "floors". But Laars said nothing about the rest of the "floors". Or do we just know nothing about it?
Why? No work was carried out, as some researchers suggest? No, most likely the results of the dungeon surveys conducted by Laars were really classified. And then a hundred years later they fell into the hands of the SS men who were extremely eager for such things - they always needed various hiding places for their affairs, and the dungeons of Koenigsberg were perfect for such purposes. Many indirect facts and some foreign sources indicate that these dungeons were actively used by the Nazis and their special services, but what exactly they did there remained unknown.
However, there are absolutely accurate data that near Königsberg, and even the place is absolutely reliably known, there was an underground aircraft plant and a huge oil storage. All this turned out to be flooded, and the entrances were littered with stones to a decent depth.
On April 6, 1945, the troops of the Soviet 3rd Belorussian Front began an assault on the Königsberg fortifications, and, despite the desperate resistance of the Germans, on April 9 they were forced to surrender.
It is characteristic that, according to the recollections of many participants in those long-standing events, the "underground war" did not happen in the city and forts: surrendering, the Germans jumped out of the forts and shelters with their hands up and only in very rare cases had to be smoked out of the ground. Why did the Germans jump out of the vast and well-equipped underground communications so easily and quickly, like gophers from their holes?
Most likely because they knew the dungeons would be flooded! None of them wanted a terrible death in the dark, underground, in the cold spring water of Pregel, mixed with the sea. As it turned out later, in an unknown way the dungeons were connected to the river and the sea. Therefore, pumping water out of them is the same as pumping out the Baltic Sea! You need to know where the locks, dampers and other mechanisms are located that block access to the underground galleries, and only by activating them, you can try to drain the multi-storey "underground Koenigsberg". However, so far no one has done this.
Under Soviet rule, the German population from East Prussia - I mean those few who did not have time to escape when the Red Army units approached - went to camps or graves, a smaller part to Germany. The city and the newly formed region were settled by visitors from Belarus, Ukraine, even from Moscow, Siberia, Leningrad and other cities. Much of what remained after the Germans was destroyed out of thoughtlessness or out of fierce hatred. Although in 1945 a special commission was created to search for cultural property, headed by General Bryusov. She managed to find more than a thousand exhibits of crystal, bronze, porcelain, art canvases and bronze stolen from museums in Peterhof and other cities of the Soviet Union. But for some reason they did not conduct surveys of the dungeons. Were afraidthat behind the stone rubble are mines lurking and waiting? Or was it sorely lacking in people and funds?
And then the party authorities with a purely Bolshevik pressure took and blew up a unique historical monument - the palace-fortress of the Prussian kings! They wanted to build a new party and Soviet palace in its place, but they never built it. Well, the ancient cathedral with Kant's grave has not been destroyed yet. They forgot about the dungeons.
But not all! Since its revival with the help of the Americans, German intelligence, which was then led by former Wehrmacht general Gehlen, constantly showed an increased interest in Koenigsberg and stubbornly tried to send its agents there. What did the Nazis leave there, if even fifty years after the end of the war, they still have not lost interest in the flooded underground galleries? What is stored in them?
And are all the underground communications of the former Koenigsberg, which at the behest of the Soviet government became known as Kaliningrad, really flooded? A number of Western sources and some domestic documents of a closed nature indicate that under the city there is an extensive network of various underground structures located on different tiers at a depth of sixteen to seventy meters!
According to some researchers, these structures began to be created around the 13th century and work continued until the defeat of the Third Reich in World War II. The center of the huge underground labyrinth was the basement structures and the mine under the royal palace. From there, the galleries diverged in various directions under the entire city, and even went far beyond its limits.
Each direction was a main corridor or underground gallery with various rooms. Secondary galleries-corridors departed from the main gallery-direction, which, in turn, formed their own underground labyrinth of the type of a kind of town with halls connected by passages. According to sources, in one of the premises of each such "underground town" there is certainly a plan-diagram of this section of the dungeon, using which you can freely move underground, without fear of getting lost and staying there forever. Quite naturally, the researchers assume that somewhere there must be a plan of all the underground structures of Koenigsberg.
The main entrance to these underground structures, according to archival documents preserved in the West, was previously located on the territory of the royal palace-castle. Perhaps they just served as a tilted shaft. But now everything has been blown up and covered with stones to a depth of twenty meters.
At the same time, the system of underground galleries is so complex and has many levels that not all of the premises were flooded. At certain levels, everything is in a perfectly normal state. Was it not there that the agents of the German intelligence were striving and are striving? "Treasure hunters" from among the local residents often disappear completely without a trace, and, as you know, the "black order" has been vigilantly guarding its secrets and treasures for many years. Now in Koenigsberg they propose to make an "open zone", and the Germans are very active in supporting this.
What's left in the Königsberg dungeons? They say there are tons of gold, jewelry, cars, machine tools, airplanes or …
The mystery remains unsolved.
V. V. VEDENEEV