Ghosts of the Amber Room
The Amber Room in the first two centuries of its existence was not as famous as in our time. The treasure of the Great Catherine Palace became the eighth wonder of the world only after it disappeared. For more than half a century, the search has been going on, St. Petersburg restorers have already created a new Amber Room, and the masterpiece of the architect Schlüter has not been found. As if an unknown force hides this miracle from man …
A bit of history
For its unusual beauty, amber is called a sun stone. In ancient times, it was believed that the sun's rays were frozen in cold sea water. In fact, amber is the resin of trees that hardened thousands of years ago.
King of Prussia Frederick I was a great connoisseur of amber products. But various boxes, figurines, chess pieces, mouthpieces, walking sticks - not that he was bored, no. He simply got used to them and wanted something more extraordinary, grandiose. Andreas Schlüter responded to the king's wish. He proposed to create a cabinet with amber walls. The monarch liked the idea, and Schlüter, together with the master Gottfried Tussauds, set to work.
For the first time in the history of mankind, this kind of plan was realized. For several years, many craftsmen have been working on a piece of art. 1709 the Amber Cabinet was presented to the monarch.
The king was delighted. Although, not for long. At night, and at times during the day, something unthinkable began to happen in the office: with the windows closed, the curtains fluttered, the candles themselves went out and flashed, a mysterious whisper was heard in the empty room. Finally, amber panels fell from all four walls. Frederick was frightened. He ordered the immediate arrest of Tussaud, on charges of high treason. The master died in captivity. Schlüter was expelled from the country. He found refuge in Russia, where he died in 1714 from typhus. The amber cabinet was dismantled, folded into boxes and taken to the basement of the Royal Castle.
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Again, the panels were taken out into the light of day under the son of Frederick the First - Frederick Wilhelm. The cabinet was quickly assembled before King Peter's visit.
Peter 1 was delighted with what he saw, and Wilhelm noticed this. The stingy monarch suddenly presented a curiosity to the sovereign of all Russia. But Peter soon became disillusioned with the gift of "Brother Wilhelm". Arriving in St. Petersburg, the emperor carefully examined the Amber Office. It turned out to be unfinished and did not make such an impression as in a Prussian castle. Peter lost interest in the treasure.
The Amber Room was brought to mind already during the reign of Peter the Great's daughter, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Collected panels in the Winter Palace. However, it is likely that some strange things also began to happen in it, since the empress unexpectedly summoned 13 monks from the Sestroretsk monastery to Petersburg. For three days the monks were in fasting and prayer. On the fourth night they entered the Amber Room.
12 monks surrounded one who was kneeling in the center and reading a prayer for casting out the demon. After the minute hand made a full revolution, the monks changed. The other stood in the center of the circle - and so 12 times … Nothing more supernatural happened within the Amber Room.
The beginning of the legend
The outbreak of an undeclared war with Germany on June 22, 1941, caught almost all Soviet state structures by surprise. And the museum workers were no exception. The inventory of the storage facilities was far from complete; there was no specific plan for the evacuation of valuables. And yet, at the beginning of July, the first boxes with works of art were sent from the city of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoe Selo) to Leningrad. In total, 20,000 exhibits were removed. They also wanted to evacuate the Amber Room, but during the dismantling process, "sunny stones" began to fall from the wooden walls. With a pain in my heart, it was decided to leave the room in the Catherine Palace. The walls were pasted over with thin paper, gauze, batting and hammered with boards.
1941, September 18 - German troops entered Pushkin. The first to disperse through the halls of the palace, which was almost not damaged during the assault, were ordinary soldiers of the advanced units. They quickly found the treasure and began to chop the stone from the walls with knives. But a special team arrived at speed, and the Amber Room was taken under guard. This is because the headquarters of the armies of the "North" group had a list of valuables that had to be immediately taken to Germany. There was a list of 55 objects with an exact indication of their location.
The Amber Room was listed as "an amazing work of art created by German craftsmen." Adolf Hitler certainly wanted to see this masterpiece in his hometown - Austrian Linz. There Hitler intended to create a grandiose museum of German works of art …
However, in an incredible way, the Amber Room ended up not in Linz or even in Berlin, but in Konigsberg. How the Gauleiter of East Prussia Erich Koch was able to carry out such a daring operation and did not suffer for it is a mystery. But the fact remains: in 36 hours, 7 people from the construction battalion dismantled the Amber Room, and on October 14, 1941, it was sent to Konigsberg.
Seeing the creation of Schlüter and Tussaud, the director of the Konigsberg Museum, Doctor of Art History Alfred Rode was horrified. The soldiers, without ceremony, packed the panels in boxes. But Rode was able to quickly bring the eighth wonder of the world into a more or less normal form. 1941, November 13 - the room was shown in one of the premises of the Royal Castle to the highest ranks of the Third Reich. After that, the restoration was continued.
1944 February - a fire broke out in the castle. The Amber Room was slightly damaged. Alfred Rode immediately packed it in boxes and sent it away from harm to one of the many cellars of the Konigsberg Castle. Since that time, no one has seen the Amber Room.
At first, Rohde said that the masterpiece of art burned down during the massive bombing of the American-British aviation in August 1944. After that he assured that the fire destroyed the room during the assault on the city by Soviet troops. And in that and in another case, he was cunning.
First, the basements of the Royal Castle are deep underground and have thick walls: no fire could penetrate them. Secondly, the flame is not able to completely destroy the panel fastening parts. Thirdly, there are documents that are written by Rode himself. For example, on September 2, 1944, after the Allied bombing, Rode reported: "The Amber Room, with the exception of the basement panels, is safe and sound."
An employee of the department for the protection of monuments Gerhard Strauss testified the same: “In the castle I met my colleague Dr. Rode. I learned from him that the Amber Room in the basement had survived. Now they had taken it to the courtyard, and Dr. Rohde wondered where to hide it. We stopped at the basement in the northern part of the castle. And after the capture of Konigsberg, Alfred Rode gave the following testimony to the Soviet commandant: “Recently, the property of the Amber Room was packed in boxes and placed in the northern wing of the Konigsberg Castle, where it was kept until April 5, 1945”. Rode kept silent about the further fate of the room.
But the main thing is clear: the room was intact. Whether she was taken out of Konigsberg or left in the city is unknown. There are many theories about where she might be.
Marine version
Oddly enough, at the end of the war, the balance of forces in the Baltic Sea was not in favor of the USSR. The Third Reich took advantage of this advantage. The ports of Pillau and Danzig were under heavy load. Free space on ships was filled with bales, boxes, iron and wooden boxes, which contained everything from silverware to unique works of art and secret archives.
After the onset of peace, special detachments carried out ship-lifting operations along the entire Baltic coast. Due to the “fished out” ships, the Soviet fleet almost doubled. But what is curious - there is absolutely no information in the reports about the nature of the goods lifted along with the ships. It should also be noted that the ships that sank at a considerable distance from the coast were practically not examined. 1956 - ship-lifting work was completely stopped … Thus, we do not know what was found raised on ships, and what to this day lies at the bottom of the sea.
When considering the naval version, the thoughts of the seekers of the Amber Room were primarily directed to the giant of the Nazi fleet - the transport "Wilhelm Gustloff", which was torpedoed on January 30, 1945 by the crew of the submarine "S-13" under the command of A. Marinesco. The ship sank 20 miles offshore. On the navigational charts of our time of the Gdansk Shipping Company, it is designated as "navigation obstacle No. 73".
The Wilhelm Gustloff had 9 decks, many cabins, two theaters, a dance floor, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a winter garden - enough space to accommodate the loot. But, as you can see, there was no place on the ship for the Amber Room. In the archives of the Germans, all the documentation on the last voyage of "Wilhelm Gustloff" was found - the list of names, the list of cargoes. There are no indications of the Amber Room anywhere. And according to the testimony of Alfred Rode, the last time she was seen on April 5, 1945, that is, after the death of "Gustloff". However, this statement should not be trusted: it may well be that Rohde sent on the wrong track.
Adherents of the version of taking out the room on "Wilhelm Gustloff" rely on the testimony of the Gauleiter of East Prussia, Erich Koch. In fact, he mentioned the name of the transport during interrogation. But here we should remember an interesting fact found in the archives. 1945, January 30 - at one of the piers of the Königsberg port there was another ship called "Wilhelm Gustloff". The icebreaker towed this ship to Pillau, from where it went to the West, and then its trace is lost. Perhaps this "Gustloff" was referring to the cunning Erich Koch? Perhaps it was this ship that took on board a valuable cargo, which in Nazi Germany was estimated at a million marks? But alas, there is no positive or negative answer to these questions.
There is a version that the Amber Room was transported overseas or to a secluded corner of Europe on a submarine. But loading and placing 18 large boxes in such a limited space is almost impossible!
Underground version
Once in Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg), a sewing factory was built on the site of the German department store Kepa. Somehow a loaded dump truck was hardly turning around in the yard of the enterprise. Suddenly, the dump truck began to settle with its rear wheel, which as a result hung over a huge pit formed after the soil subsided. It was clear that there, underground, there was a significant void. Due to Russian carelessness, they did not attach importance to this circumstance. The pit was closed up and forgotten.
There are a great many similar dungeons in Kaliningrad. Various passages, halls have been preserved in abundance since knightly times at a depth of 10–15 meters … Such kind of "cellars" exist in all districts of the city. In addition, 700 years later, the descendants of the Livonian knights set up approximately the same number of bunkers. To this day, no schemes have been found for either the old city or the underground communications created during the war.
The Amber Room could have been hidden in any of the Kaliningrad dungeons. However, it is almost impossible to penetrate the city. Modern buildings have been built on these very voids, including on the site of the destroyed Royal Castle. True, local historian Sergei Trifonov believes that all the dungeons of the old city have connections with each other. Therefore, you need to go down in one accessible place and walk through the entire labyrinth - a dangerous and expensive undertaking. Everything needs a plan, with the designation of underground roads. And he is not!
There are also many different medieval dungeons, adits, tunnels in Europe. In addition, during the war, special German construction brigades equipped bunkers that were intended to store works of art. This was controlled by Martin Bormann himself.
Compared to Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are very rarely called the possible refuge of the Amber Room, although there are enough places to hide any amount of treasures. Perhaps the cache is located in one of the old adits. In particular, under "suspicion" is an old adit going from the town of Horni Plane to Fox Mountain. There is an assumption that the entrance to the mine is located behind the organ of the local church.
The official authorities of socialist Czechoslovakia have always in the most categorical way rejected allegations that hidden values were found on the territory of the country. Once the Czech search engines announced that they had a document in which there is an exact indication of the location of the Amber Room. The authorities refused to release these materials. Apparently, someone was not interested in revealing the secret.
Perhaps this curious episode will explain something. 1939 - the leaders of the Czech Communist Party Vladislav Koprshiva and Gustav Kliment were sent to the Dachau concentration camp by the Nazis. A year later, the camp was visited by the chief SS man Himmler and the leader of the Dutch fascists Missaert. For a long time they talked about something with the above-named prisoners … After the war, Koprshiva headed the Prague Zemsky National Committee, and then became the head of the Ministry of Security. Clement was appointed head of the Ministry of Heavy Industry.
Dachau was called a death camp, and yet the prominent communists Koprshiva and Kliment managed to stay alive in it. In the same camp were the Czechs Gouska and Gerold, who, together with other prisoners, accompanied some boxes from Berlin to Shumava. All participants in this action were shot, except for Gousk and Gerold! And after 1945, they surfaced as heads of state security agencies at the district level.
Once L. I. Brezhnev was informed that the Amber Room was located on the territory of the GDR. Brezhnev asked to check the information. The intelligence services of East Germany have reported that the rarity is in Austria. Then, for some reason, they quickly changed their point of view and named Switzerland …
Overseas version
For more than 30 years, the German researcher Georg Stein has been looking for the Amber Room: he studied the archives, developed versions, met with people who could somehow bring him closer to solving the mystery. 1987, August 20 - Stein was found dead in a Bavarian forest. The police stated that it was a suicide and quickly closed the case. But the facts show something else: numerous wounds were found on the body, scissors, a scalpel, knives were found next to the corpse - apparently, Stein was tortured. The method of suicide is also surprising: a purebred German made himself a Japanese hara-kiri …
After the death of the researcher, a note was found in his belongings: "I found a new trail, I came close to the secret." And shortly before his death, he said to a familiar priest from Lower Bavaria: "It makes no sense to search in Europe anymore, everything has long been in the USA." There were many ways to America for the Amber Room. The boxes with panels could be taken out into the interior of Germany and hidden in the Grassleben salt mine, located near Helmstet. The Americans showed great interest in this object.
Inspector Krueger reported to the General Directorate of Mining Safety: “There was no other mine that interested the Americans more than the Grassleben mine. The above-ground structures were surrounded by tanks, the entrance to the mine was prohibited even for the management of the enterprise”. So the Americans calmly examined the contents of the mine, where, to save them from bombing, they brought art treasures from Berlin museums. The declassified documents revealed that more than half of the 6,800 Grassleben boxes had been opened and emptied. Perhaps this makeshift vault also contained archival documents pointing the way to other caches - one of which could also contain the Amber Room.
The ubiquitous Yankees also visited Thuringia, the Merkes mines, where the funds of Berlin museums were also located. American soldiers transported valuables to the building of the German Imperial Bank. And although the security was strengthened, three cars loaded with boxes mysteriously disappeared along the way. The latter read: "Konigsberg Hydraulic Engineering Service", next to it was a mark in the form of a red dot. According to a number of data, this is how the boxes with amber panels were identified.
A cache was set up between Arnstadt and Ohrdruf by the Nazis. 1945, March - a huge number of works of art looted in the East were brought there. After the occupation of Germany, General Eisenhower inspected the area: he visited a prisoner of war camp and a storage with museum values. A few weeks later, the Americans handed over the area to the Soviet military administration, leaving the dungeons completely empty! There are relevant newsreels …
All these and other facts led another researcher, Paul Encke, to the idea that the Amber Room had been found long ago. If not immediately after the end of the war, then in subsequent years. Then she was simply sold overseas.
It should be noted that Paul Encke also died suddenly. There was talk of poisoning.
Repeatedly lightning flashed in the press against the Soviet state: they say, it was removed from the search for a stolen work of art. This is not true. The search for the Amber Room began in 1945 in Königsberg. Then they created a state commission, which, due to lack of results, officially ceased to exist in 1984. But the competent authorities did not stop searching. In particular, work revived in the 1990s, when again in the press there were reports of treasure dungeons.
The then Minister of Defense Shaposhnikov instructed the first deputy chief of the GRU, Colonel-General Yuri Gusev to deal with the Amber Room. Journalist Sergei Turchenko met with him more than once. The scout always avoided the question of the location of the Amber Room, but at the last meeting he suddenly confessed: “Let's say I know where the Amber Room and other valuables are. But the forces hiding this secret are such that, if I tell you about this, in a week neither you nor I will be alive. A few days later, General Gusev died in a car accident …
N. Nepomniachtchi