GERMANY/FILE: German treasure hunters in search of the legendary Amber Room say they might have found a stash of Nazi gold instead

Record ID: 1529713

  • Title: GERMANY/FILE: German treasure hunters in search of the legendary Amber Room say they might have found a stash of Nazi gold instead
  • Date: 29th February 2008
  • Summary: (BN13) DEUTSCHNEUDORF, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 28, 2008) (REUTERS) WIDE OF FIELDS WITH DISUSED MINE IN BACKGROUND DRILLING IN PROGRESS TREASURE HUNTER CHRISTIAN HANISCH WALKING ALONG DIRT, TALKING TO MAN TREE (SOUNDBITE) (German) CHRISTIAN HANISCH, TREASURE HUNTER SAYING: "We will find this hollow space, enter it and then we'll see what we find. We might come out crying -- or with a big smile on our faces. Something will happen." WORKER DRILLING DRILL DRILLING WORKER OPERATING DRILL (SOUNDBITE) (German) HANS-PETER HAUSTEIN, MAYOR OF DEUTSCHNEUDORF SAYING: "We have indications pointing to the Amber Room, an entire train car full of paintings by the new masters from Dresden, diamonds, gold and above all, to secret documents. We also suspect parts of the Amber Room, parts, not the entire Amber Room. Where we are standing, trains used to arrive with cultural assets or treasures. They were then lowered into the ground , into these tunnels where they were spread across the mountain." WORKER DRILLING DRILL ONLOOKERS WATCHING DRILLING IN PROGRESS PAN ACROSS DIRT AND MACHINES AT WORK
  • Embargoed: 15th March 2008 09:21
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: History,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA4BY204DDIHTJHTCQFTM40X1WI
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: A group of treasure hunters searching for the legendary Amber Room in a small eastern German town on the border with the Czech Republic now believe they may have found Nazi gold instead.
    Excavations began several days ago in Deutschneudorf where a hobby archaeologist suspected at least parts of the Amber Room which German Wehrmacht soldiers dismantled near St. Petersburg in 1941.
    The Bernsteinzimmer, as Germans call the Amber Room, was a gift of Prussian king Frederik William I to Russian Tsar Peter the Great.
    Treasure hunters and archaeologists have searched for the Amber Room in over 100 places over the past decades.
    The so called experts now believe they may have found not the Amber Room but up to two tonnes of looted Nazi gold or silver hidden in an underground hollow space.
    Hobby archaeologist Christian Hanisch was full of optimism, telling Reuters Television on Thursday (February 28) "we will find this hollow space, enter it and then we'll see what we find."
    "We might come out crying -- or with a big smile on our faces.
    Something will happen," Hanisch said.
    Hanisch's father was a radio operator for the German air force during World War Two and Christian Hanisch is now using coordinates based on his father's documents to determine the location where the Nazis are said to have hidden looted gold and diamonds at the end of the war.
    The town's mayor, Hans-Peter Haustein, said they had "indications pointing to the Amber Room, an entire train car full of paintings by the new masters from Dresden, diamonds, gold and above all, to secret documents."
    According to the mayor, they "suspect parts of the Amber Room, parts, not the entire Amber Room" in the grounds of Deutschneudorf.
    "Where we are standing, trains used to arrive with cultural assets or treasures," the mayor said.
    "They were then lowered into the ground, into these tunnels where they were spread across the mountain," mayor Haustein said, who is taking part in the excavation and financed it with a specially founded company.
    Haustein hopes to be reimbursed by the German government if he succeeds in finding any treasures.
    In 2003, a reconstruction of the Amber Room was officially opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin and then German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
    The Soviet Union decided to recreate the missing treasure in 1979 and some 50 experts worked on the project which was partly financed by a German gas suppliers.
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