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Wilhelm
Gustloff Shipwreck Expedition May 2003
History
| Team | Gustloff
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| The sinking
Conspiracy of Silence
One of the worlds most intriguing mysteries surrounds
a haul of amber that disappeared at the end of WW2, Leigh
Bishop investigated one of the supposed hidden locations only
to return with more questions than answers.
 |
As history will recall the story of the great
Nazi ocean liner ‘Wilhelm Gustloff’ will always
serve as a powerful reminder of human tragedy. Today lying in
the cold Baltic waters the wreck represents Maritime’s
largest ever loss of life. As many branches as it has the Gustloff
story does however take another interesting historic path again
with another strong Nazi connection and a connection also linked
to one disappearance of a haul of priceless art. In 1945 just
days before the Gustloff took her fateful voyage the famous
‘Amber Room’ was seen for the last time, a beautiful
work of art that once lined the walls of a Kings palace in Prussia.
During WW2 the amber was dismantled after falling into the hands
of the well known Nazi Erich Koch. |
| The panels were last seen packed
into crates; crates that many believe were loaded within the
holds of the Gustloff. To explain the nature of the amber treasure
it is necessary to delve back into history almost three centuries.
Amber a semi precious stone was used as far back as the Bronze
Age and was later prized by the Greeks and Romans whom used
it for decorative work; quite simply the substance originally
took its form as the fossil resin from the now extinct coniferous
trees. Found mainly across the Baltic regions of Latvia, Lithuania
and Germany a chief source is that of a mine at Palmnicken in
Far East Germany. In 1709 not one to believe in tiny pieces
like that of the previously spoken Greeks & Romans, King
Frederick I of Prussia ordered the architect Schlutter &
the jeweler Gottfied~Tusso to decorate a 55sqm palace room completely
in amber. Amber a semi precious stone was used as far back as
the Bronze Age and was later prized by the Greeks and Romans
whom used it for decorative work; |
King Frederick I of Prussia |
| quite simply the substance originally took its form as the
fossil resin from the now extinct coniferous trees. Found mainly
across the Baltic regions of Latvia, Lithuania and Germany a
chief source is that of a mine at Palmnicken in Far East Germany.
In 1709 not one to believe in tiny pieces like that of the previously
spoken Greeks & Romans, King Frederick I of Prussia ordered
the architect Schlutter & the jeweller Gottfied~Tusso to
decorate a 55sqm palace room completely in amber. The beautiful
decoration consisted of panels set in polished mosaic over landscaped
coats of arms, monograms shells & garlands. To finish Tusso
spaced smaller plates of amber between the larger ones with
extra ordinary detail that often required a magnifying glass
to study its detailed beauty. Frederick showed his pride room
to visitors of the palace although it was no secret the financial
set back almost ruined the state of Prussia. |
Map of Prussia showing Königsberg now
Kaliningrad |
During a visit to the palace in 1716 Peter the
great of Russia admired the amber room to the point of wanting
it for himself, knowing King Frederick's interest in tall soldiers
he was in a position to bargain with him. As bizarre as it sounds
King Frederick had a passion for tall soldiers and was the virtual
founder of the strong Prussia army, with that Peter the great
offered the King sixty giants from the Tsar’s imperial
guard in exchange for the amber panels. In late 1716 the room
was then dismantled and transported by sleigh to Peter’s
winter palace at St Petersburg known now as Leningrad. |
| The death of Peter the Great led the panels into
the hands of his fiercely anti-German daughter Tasrina Elizabeth.
The room was then once again dismantled and rebuilt to her liking
in her summer palace at Tsarkoye Selo just outside the city.
Her chosen room was somewhat larger than that of her fathers
so she brought in the amber jeweller Martelli to fill in the
gaps that now appeared in the room. Brilliantly mounting white
and gold tables alongside mirrors Martelli finished his work
off using gilded lighting fixtures to bring out the very detail
of relief work. In stunning beauty Tasrina Elizabeth then had
teams of men to polish the panels and named her new treasure
as the ‘Poem in Amber’. With the end of the revolution
in 1917 the room was opened up to the general public which in
turn allowed its fame to spread to all corners of the world.
Fearing for the safety of the treasured amber room the Russians
made preparations to ship the panels into hiding away from the
hands of the looting Nazi army that now advanced on Leningrad
during 1941. The underground vaults in Sverdlovsk seemed a likely
place to hide the trove however the Russians were too late and
as they managed to secure two trains of treasure the amber was
not dismantled in time falling instead into the greedy hands
of Erich Koch and the Nazi regime. |
Erich Koch |
A magnifiingglass was often required to view
detail on the original panels. |
Fearing for the safety of the treasured amber
room the Russians made preparations to ship the panels into
hiding away from the hands of the looting Nazi army that now
advanced on Leningrad during 1941. The underground vaults in
Sverdlovsk seemed a likely place to hide the trove however the
Russians were too late and as they managed to secure two trains
of treasure the amber was not dismantled in time falling instead
into the greedy hands of Erich Koch and the Nazi regime.Once
again fearing for the safety of the amber Rohde ordered the
panels to be dismantled, it was now 1943 and bomber command
was paying particular attention to Konigsberg with this the
panels were stored in the castles cellar as a temporary measure.
In a footnote from January 12th 1945 just eighteen days before
the Wilhelm Gustloff sailed Rohde wrote:- |
”I am packing the Amber study in boxes and other
containers on the orders of the provincial custodian. As soon
as it is done I shall evacuate the panels to Wechselburg near
Rochlitz in Saxon”.
Packed into twenty-four strongboxes suitable for “long
transportation” and completed by the 15th January 1945
they were stacked upon one-another in the castle courtyard,
from then on they have never been seen nor has any trace as
to their whereabouts been close. The amber room estimated
at a value of $250 million, one of the worlds finest treasures
simply vanished. The amber never did arrive in Wechselburg,
Rohde and his wife later that year died mysteriously leaving
no indication as to its final whereabouts. Many historians
suggest the amber was put in a mine whilst others believe
it was buried in the cellars of Konigsberg castle or in a
bunker which now has been built over.
|
Peter The Great |
The mine suggestion is perhaps a more realistic
suggestion as to its whereabouts, none of the 2003 team divers
from Mike Borings expedition to the wreck saw any evidence to
suggest the amber lies still to this day in on the wreck itself.
Certainly the area where it may have been stored has collapsed
somewhat maybe due to salvage? The salt mine in question close
to the West German university town of Gottingen is over 2,145ft
deep and flooded, if it was there it’s a close possibility
it will still be for a long time to come. |
Dr, Georg Stein who devotes himself to the
recovery of treasures looted by the Nazis during WW2, Stein
himself a great believer in the said salt mine theory. Stein
provides evidence in a coded telex message sent to Berlin
in Jan 1945 and signed ‘Ringel, ss group north east
Konigsberg, Prussia’. Stein’s telex goes onto
state ‘Amber room, operation completed, object stored
in B.Sch.W.V.’ Stein claims the reference to ‘B’
refers to B shaft at the salt mine 12 miles from Gottingen
known as Wittekind Vollpriehausen hence the W.V of the code.
The mine talked of is totally flooded caused by an explosion
in late Sept 1945 and thus nobody has been able to contest
steins theory. The explosion was caused by the British army
after they had used the mine for an ammunition dumping ground.
However there is yet another explanation of the uncovered
coded telex message. ‘Sch’ is not only short for
shaft i.e. to add support to the mine theory but also short
for Schiffsraum or hold! Accepting that there could have been
a substitution of one letter V for G in the coding could refer
to the message as object stored in B hold on the Wilhelm Gustloff.
|
 |
In 1945 as the Eastern front broke down Koch was
desperate to keep the amber out of Russian hands and had despatched
a field Marshal to escort the panels in transportation. Coincidently
nobody either has seen any trace of the amber since the Gustloff
went down and the ship sailed from a point close to the castle.
We do know however that the Russians searched for the amber
extensively after the war and we also know from the results
of the Boring 2003 Anglo American expedition that the Gustloff
has definitely been visited by salvage divers. Evidence of missing
anchors and props on the wreck suggests only heavy duty work
has been carried out here and local Polish talk of a Russian
visit to the wreck that is still within their memory. |
One question remains now to be answered, does one of the
worlds most extraordinary works of art still actually remain
a mystery?
As coincidental as it may sound at the time (May 2003) of
Borings
expedition the amber room once again opened up for public
viewing on the 14th.Russia announced that work to recreate
ones of its greatest art treasures the great amber room had
been completed just weeks before the city of Petersburg (named
after Peter the great) celebrated its 300th anniversary. The
reconstruction to rebuild the amber room was begun by the
Soviet Government in 1979 and work was boosted in the late
1990’s by a large donation from a German company, Ruhrgas.
The Soviet culture minister Mikhail Shvydkoi claimed the rebuild
of the amber room finished in May 2003 was the end of decades
of work by Russian craftsmen and was pushed to coincide with
the city’s celebrations. Russian president Valdimir
Putin and the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder inaugurated
the rebuilt room during the celebrations in May while Borings
team investigated the Gustloff site at the same time. Russian
experts where said to work from old black and white photographs
to incredibly rebuild the art panels harvested from the sea
around Koenigsberg now the Russian city of Kaliningrad.
|
 |
Some Russian reports refer to the new amber room
as the ‘restoration of the amber room’ as apposed
to the rebuild of the amber room? Work on the restoration or
rebuild did not begin until 1979 perhaps due to financial aspects
from the cold war that is until Ruhrgas donated the said $3.5
million to aid work
Another exaggerated theory is that the amber room is no longer
missing and is infact the so called newly rebuilt room in some
form of conspiracy of silence. Questions could be asked to the
point of had the amber actually been recovered from the wreck
some 25 years or so ago by a Russian salvage company an operation
that almost certainly happened and just so happens to be clear
in the minds of local Polish people. |
| The restoration as several reports suggest could well mean
just that, had the amber been on the Gustloff after all and
had it been recovered and simply restored. The restoration could
well have taken a number of years and had finances been low
during a time of Russian collapse could well explain the delay
in bringing the amber back into the public eye. One could argue
the case why? Why should the new amber room be that of a rebuild
of its original counterpart and not that of the original itself?
Politics could lie as a barrier to an announcement of one of
Russia’s greatest mysteries, after all had the amber been
on the Gustloff what right the Russians themselves would have
to quite literally cut into the world’s most significant
war grave inside other countries territorial waters. |
| Especially a mass war grave they created themselves.
Had they done so and glamorously announced to the world they
at last had recovered their long lost treasure many may have
pointed the finger in anger to the 7700+ that perished when
the ship sank. Had the Germans themselves endorsed such an action
provided some form of financial backing and covered the actions
up similar to salvage jobs on other war wrecks by other nationalities
such as the British. |
Amber carefully is restored to its original
counterpart or could this be the original itself? |
Treasures looted by the Nazis are still being
searched for today. |
What ever the answers to the amber room mystery
one thing is for certain unlike a flooded mine the Wilhelm
Gustloff has no doubt been visited with heavy hands especially
amidships where an extraordinary amount of collapse and damage
has occurred. The public also now have a replica of the great
room to see themselves or could they be viewing the same amber
as that of Frederick I, Peter the great his daughter Tasrina
Elizabeth or even the Nazi thief Koch.
To find out more about the 2003 expedition to the wreck click
here.
Bibliography
Words and research by Leigh Bishop complied from
US News Online,
The Cruelest Night
German Culture
News BBC.co.uk
Washington Times.
Polish Resources |
Visit the pages dedicated
to the 2003 Wilhelm Gustloff diving expedition
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CDNN
news site EXPOSED as thieves
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