Among the many suggestions about the location of the relic is a Polish village and a German town near Dusseldorf.
On Tuesday, June 11, Polish radio RMF24 reported that after years of searching in the settlement of Mamerki (Poland), where the headquarters of the German Land Forces was located during the war years, museum staff discovered a tunnel that could lead to the legendary Amber Room. According to the researchers, it has not been used since the Second World War, and the entrance was specially masked with a thick layer of earth.
In the 40s of the last century, Wehrmacht soldiers built 250 objects in the Mamersky forests, including 30 reinforced concrete shelters. The troops left the headquarters in January 1945. Since then, new versions of what the Germans left in their shelters have not ceased to be born.
A hatch discovered in the Mamers.
An employee of the Museum of the Second World War in Mamerki, Bartolomey Plebanchik, spoke about the find: “We announce a breakthrough in our search. With the help of a special georadar, we managed to determine where the underground tunnel is. After excavating at the location indicated by the radar, we found a hatch. Most likely, no one has opened it since the war."
According to the expert, the depth of the tunnel has not yet been calculated, and just getting inside is a difficult task, since a tree has grown over the years on a 100-kilogram slab covering the entrance.
He also recalled that a couple of years ago, near the place where the tunnel is located, historians searched for the Amber Room: then the researchers were left with nothing, but "now the chances have increased." In any case, even if there is no famous Amber Cabinet inside, there may be other artifacts, the specialist emphasized.
Presumptive appearance of the underground tunnel.
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In turn, German chemist and amateur search engine Karl-Heinz Kleine, in an interview with RIA Novosti, commented on the version of Polish experts about the location of the Amber Room. So, Kleine did not agree that the masterpiece of 18th century art could have been hidden in Poland. In his opinion, he is in one of the underground shelters in Wuppertal (Germany) - it is there that the trail of the Amber Room dissipates. Kleine said that Erich Koch, the chief president of East Prussia and the Ukrainian Reich commissioner, lived in Wuppertal.
The researcher emphasized that Koch had no reason to bring the Amber Room to Poland, and not to his homeland, because he dreamed of owning the stolen valuables personally, but did not know that the Third Reich would lose the war and Wuppertal would partially destroy the troops of the Anti-Hitler coalition.
In addition, during the Second World War, it was in the hometown of Koch that there were about 200 fortified bunkers and mines of the German army. Kleine, together with his team of experts, investigated and opened about 50 such Wehrmacht structures. The scientist spoke about the discovery of a large bunker, lying at a depth of 30 meters, into which the researchers have not yet been able to penetrate.
“The concrete pad is 50 centimeters thick, with barbed wire embedded in the concrete. And behind the concrete is the earth compacted with glass. All these structures were erected by the forces of forced laborers. We proceed from the assumption that these bunkers may contain part of Koch's reserves,”concluded Kleine.
The story of the disappearance of the Amber Room
The famous Amber Cabinet was created in the early 1700s by the German master Andreas Schlüter for King Frederick I of Prussia, whose son, Frederick Wilhelm I, later donated the treasury to Peter I. The cabinet was kept at the residence of the Russian emperors in Tsarskoe Selo. By the 1770s, the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli, on behalf of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, remodeled and expanded the premises, adding mosaic paintings, gilded wood carvings and mirrors. Since then, the office has been called the Amber Room.
During the Great Patriotic War, almost all the values from the Tsarskoye Selo Catherine Palace, where the Amber Room was located, were taken to Siberia, but they were afraid to touch the room itself because of its fragility and uniqueness. When German troops occupied the palace, they removed the amber room to Germany.
The key to the search for the lost Amber Room / Site of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve.
Some amber panels were later found in the Royal Castle in Königsberg (Kaliningrad). After the storming of the city by Soviet troops, the exact location of the Amber Room remains unknown. The last clue is a letter from the director of the Königsberg Museum of Art Alfred Rode to Berlin on September 2, 1944: "The Amber Room, with the exception of six basement elements, is safe and sound."
Since then, various parts of it were stored in Germany, until in 2000 the Minister of Culture of the Federal Republic of Germany Michael Naumann handed them over to Vladimir Putin.
The restored Amber Room in Tsarskoye Selo / Website of the Tsarskoye Selo Museum-Reserve.
For over 70 years, historians have been arguing about what happened to the Amber Room and where it might be today. There are many versions: for example, that the cabinet was sold to the American government in the 1950s or is still hidden in a hideout in Dresden.
In 2003, in honor of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the restored Amber Room was opened for visitors in the Tsarskoye Selo Museum. And while archaeologists, art historians and hunters for historical values continue their searches, anyone can visit the Catherine Palace and see with their own eyes the recreated masterpiece of the 18th century masters.
Maria Azarova