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Home|Germany|Travel|Guide|German Culture|The Amber Room
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Baden Baden Berlin Cologne Dortmund Dusseldorf Frankfurt Freiburg Garmisch-Partenkirchen Gelsenkirchen Hamburg Hanover Heidelberg Kaiserslautern Leipzig Munich Nuremburg Regensburg Stuttgart Trier TubingenGerman Culture: The Amber Room
World War II Mystery Surrounding Artistic TreasureRobert EastonWorth in the excess of 100million US$ and often described as "The Eighth Wonder of The World", the Amber Room is a missing treasure which has fascinated art historians and bounty hunters for generations. It is a room decorated entirely with the light precious stone amber, essentially fossilised tree sap. It was first created in Germany in the 1700s, then was given to Russia before returning to Germany in Nazi times. People have searched for it ever since it disappeared at the end of World War II but to no avail. Many believe that it is cursed, and may have been responsible for the grisly deaths of several people involved with it.
In 1998 two separate investigation teams thought they were close to rediscovering the Amber Room. A German investigator named Helmut Gänsel claimed that former SS officers in Brazil had pointed to a silver mine south of Berlin, and the mayor of Neringa in Lithuania who believed it lay beneath a lagoon near to the town. Both have yet to be proven correct. There are a vast number of theories as to what could have happened to the Amber Room, including the theories that: Stalin had a second Amber Room and the Germans took a fake; it was buried in a salt mine by the Gestapo, who then killed the soldiers who moved it and sealed them in; it was taken apart and sold piece by piece to American soldiers; it is in the collection of a shadowy art dealer/Nazi group/ex-Soviet military cabal; it was put in a submarine by the Nazis with just enough fuel to get to a certain point, then no further, and still sits there today waiting to be discovered. In 1997 a group of German art detectives heard talk that someone was trying to sell a piece of the Amber Room. Police raided the offices of a lawyer who was trying to sell the piece on behalf of his client. The client turned out to be the son of a former German officer, who had accompanied the Amber Room on its journey to Koenigsberg during World War II, but the son claimed to have no idea how his father had got hold of the item. The piece was gifted to Russia. Perhaps Germany remembered the visit of President Yeltsin in 1991, when Yeltsin in his typical tactful way said he knew where the Germans had hidden the Amber Room and he jolly well wanted it back. The man in charge of the Amber Room under the Nazis was Alfred Rohde, who, along with his wife, died mysteriously of typhoid the day before he was due for an interview about the Room with the KGB. When the KGB went to investigate the bodies could not be found, and the doctor who signed the death certificate had also vanished. The Room is also held responsible for the death of General Gusev, a Russian intelligence officer who died in a mysterious car crash after talking to a journalist about the Room, and the most famous Amber Room-hunter of all, Georg Stein, who was found naked in the middle of a German forest, his stomach laid open by a scalpel. The Amber Room was a German treasure first created in the 1700s. It was said to possess a mysterious magical energy, glowing from within, and many credit amber with miraculous healing properties. In 1701 the King of Prussia, Friedrich The First, decided to create a room made entirely of amber as a novelty. Amber had never before been used as a material for interior design and it almost bankrupted him. The original designer was Andreas Schülter. The project was near completion in 1713 when Friedrich's successor, Friedrich Wilhelm, ordered construction to be halted immediately. The finished parts were packed away and sent to The Armoury in Berlin. In 1716 Tsar Peter of Russia visited Berlin and Friedrich Wilhelm gave the Amber Room to him as a diplomatic gift. Tsar Peter's diplomatic gift in return was slightly more practical- he gave Prussia 55 of his top grenadiers. The amber was used to decorate a room in the Winter Palace until 1755, when it was moved to the summer residence of the Russian emperors, the Catherine Palace near St. Petersburg (later Leningrad). Here five Prussian master craftsmen were employed to construct the room there, they finished it in the 1770s and it remained almost unchanged for about 200 years. Two art historians wrote "When the work was finished, in 1770, the room was dazzling. It was illuminated by 565 candles whose light was reflected in the warm gold surface of the amber and sparkled in the mirrors, gilt, and mosaics." Though enjoyed by many in Russia, the Amber Room was not hung as originally in a single interior until 1943. When Germany invaded Russia at the beginning of World War II, the Soviets made the decision not to evacuate the Amber Room, but instead thinly disguised it by covering it over with paper, gauze and cotton. The German soldiers of course noticed it and it was shipped to Germany and displayed in Koenigsberg Castle. This is the last time its whereabouts were known for sure and where the mystery truly starts. In 1944 the room was dismantled because of the danger of bombing by the British, but as late as April 1945 it was still in boxes in the castle. The seemingly most likely explanation is that the Amber Room, packed in boxes, was destroyed in a fire in the castle later that year. In spite of all the theories, most serious historians believe it is unlikely the Amber Room will ever be recovered. It seems that if you want to see the Room, the best way is to visit the reconstruction, which cost 11 million US$ and took 25 years to make, and is on display in the Catherine Palace in Russia. Baden Baden Berlin Cologne Dortmund Dusseldorf Frankfurt Freiburg Garmisch-Partenkirchen Gelsenkirchen Hamburg Hanover Heidelberg Kaiserslautern Leipzig Munich Nuremburg Regensburg Stuttgart Trier Tubingen
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