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Amber Room

Coordinates: 59°42′57″N 30°23′44″E / 59.71583°N 30.39556°E / 59.71583; 30.39556
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"The Amber Room" redirects here. For other uses, see The Amber Room (disambiguation).
The original Amber Room, 1931

The Amber Room (Template:Lang-ru, Template:Lang-de, Template:Lang-pl) is a world-famous chamber decorated in amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors, located in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg. Originally constructed in the 18th century in Prussia, the Amber Room disappeared during World War II and was recreated in 2003. Before the room was lost, it was considered an "Eighth Wonder of the World".

Construction of the Amber Room first took place around 1701 in Prussia. The room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram. Schlüter and Wolfram worked on the room until 1707, when work was continued by amber masters Gottfried Turau and Ernst Schacht from Danzig. The amber cabinet remained in the Berlin City Palace until 1716 when it was given by the Prussian King Frederick William I to his then ally, Tsar Peter the Great of the Russian Empire. In Russia, the room was expanded and after several renovations, it covered more than 55 square metres (590 sq ft) and contained over 6 tonnes (13,000 lb) of amber.

The Amber Room was looted during World War II by Army Group North of Nazi Germany and brought to Königsberg for reconstruction and display. Its current whereabouts remain a mystery. In 1979, efforts were undertaken to rebuild the Amber Room at Tsarskoye Selo. In 2003, after decades of work by Russian craftsmen and donations from Germany, the reconstructed Amber Room was inaugurated at the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg.

Reconstruction

Immense sums were spent on both the original and reconstructed Amber Room.

In 1979, the Soviet government decided to construct a replica of the Amber Room at Tsarskoye Selo, a process that was to last 24 years and require 40 Russian and German experts in amber craftsmanship.[1][2] Using original drawings and old black-and-white photographs, every attempt was made to duplicate the original Amber Room. This included the 350 shades of amber in the original panels and fixtures that adorned the room.[3][4] Another major problem was the lack of skilled workers, since amber carving was considered a nearly lost art form.[4]

The financial difficulties that plagued the reconstruction project from the start were solved with the donation of $3.5 million from the German company E.ON.[5] By 2003, the work of the Russian craftsmen was mostly completed.[4] The new room was dedicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the 300th anniversary of the city of Saint Petersburg.[6]

In Kleinmachnow, near Berlin, there is a miniature Amber Room, fabricated after the original.[7] The Berlin miniature collector Ulla Klingbeil had this copy made of original East Prussian amber.[7]

Architecture

The Amber Room is a priceless piece of art, with extraordinary architectural features such as gilding, carvings, 450 kg (990 lb) amber panels, gold leaf, gemstones, and mirrors, all highlighted with candle light.[1][2][8] Additional architectural and design features include statues of angels and children.[2][8] Because of its unique features and singular beauty, the original Amber Room was sometimes dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World".[2]

Disappearance and mysteries

After the war, the Amber Room was never seen in public again, though reports have occasionally surfaced stating that pieces of the Amber Room survived the war.[9] Several eyewitnesses claimed to have spotted the famous room being loaded on board the Wilhelm Gustloff, which left Gdynia on 30 January 1945, and was then promptly torpedoed and sunk by a Soviet submarine .[9]

In 1997, an Italian stone mosaic that was part of a set of four stones which had decorated the Amber Room was found in Germany, in the possession of the family of a soldier who claimed to have helped pack up the amber chamber.[1][10] The mosaic came into the hands of the Russian authorities and was used in the reconstruction effort.[1][10]

Königsberg Castle, 1925
File:AfterwarKaliningrad.jpg
Ruins of the castle, 1950s

In 1998, two separate teams, one German and one Lithuanian, announced they had located the Amber Room.[11] The German team pointed to a silver mine while the Lithuanian team believed the amber treasure was buried in a lagoon; neither of the two suggestions turned out to hold the Amber Room.[11]

In 2004, a lengthy investigation by British investigative journalists Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy concluded that Amber Room was most likely destroyed when Königsberg Castle was heavily damaged,[12] first during the bombing of Königsberg by the Royal Air Force in 1944, when the castle completely burned down, and later by the Soviet shelling of the remaining walls.[12][13] Documents from the Russian National Archives revealed this as the assessment of a Soviet report, written by Alexander Brusov, head of the Soviet team charged with locating the Amber Room following the war. The report stated:

Summarizing all the facts, we can say that the Amber Room was destroyed between 9 and 11 April 1945.[14]

These dates correspond with the end of the Battle of Konigsberg, which finished on 9 April with the surrender of the German garrison. A few years later, Brusov publicly voiced a contrary opinion;[15] this is believed to have been done due to pressure from Soviet authorities, who did not want to be seen as responsible for the loss of the Amber Room.[15]

Among other information retrieved from the archives was the revelation that the remaining Italian stone mosaics were found in the burned debris of the castle.[16] Scott-Clark and Levy concluded in their report that the reason the Soviets conducted extensive searches for the Amber Room, even though their own experts had concluded that it was destroyed, was because they wanted to know if any of their own soldiers had been responsible for the destruction.[17] Scott-Clark and Levy also assessed that others in the Soviet government found the theft of the Amber Room a useful Cold War propaganda tool.[18] Russian government officials have since denied these conclusions. Adelaida Yolkina, senior researcher at the Pavlovsk Palace, reportedly stated: "It is impossible to see the Red Army being so careless that they let the Amber Room be destroyed".[19]

After the report was made public, Leonid Arinshtein, who was a Lieutenant in the Red Army in charge of a rifle platoon during the Battle of Konigsberg, said: "I probably was one of the last people who saw the Amber Room".[20] At the same time, he explained that the whole city was burning due to artillery bombardments, but also denied allegations that the Red Army burned the city on purpose by saying: "What soldiers would burn the city where they will have to stay?"[20]

A variation of this theory by some present-day residents of Kaliningrad (formerly Königsberg), is that at least parts of the room were found in the Königsberg Castle cellars after World War II by the Red Army. The Amber Room was allegedly still in good condition; this was not admitted at the time so the blame could fall upon the Nazis[citation needed]. To preserve this story, access to the ruins of the castle, which was allowed after World War II, was suddenly restricted to all, including historical and archaeological surveys.[20]

Then in 1968, despite academic protests worldwide, Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev ordered the destruction of Königsberg Castle, thus making any onsite research of the last known resting place of the Amber Room all but impossible.[20] In more recent years, the search for the Amber Room has continued in different locations including near Wuppertal, Germany.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d RIA Novosti 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d About 2014.
  3. ^ Daily Mail 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Russia Beyond the Headlines 2013.
  5. ^ Pravda 2003.
  6. ^ Telegraph 2004.
  7. ^ a b AskMen 2004.
  8. ^ a b St. Petersburg 2001.
  9. ^ a b Lucas 2000, pp. 25–28.
  10. ^ a b Seattle Times 1997.
  11. ^ a b Scotland on Sunday 2006.
  12. ^ a b Guardian 2004.
  13. ^ Denny 2007, p. 163.
  14. ^ Khatri 2012, pp. 90–95.
  15. ^ a b Scott-Clark & Levy 2004, pp. 309–330.
  16. ^ Scott-Clark & Levy 2004, pp. 322–323, 328.
  17. ^ Scott-Clark & Levy 2004, pp. 108–109, 325.
  18. ^ Scott-Clark & Levy 2004, p. 108-109, 325.
  19. ^ Scott-Clark & Levy 2004, pp. 301–313.
  20. ^ a b c d ABC News 2004.
  21. ^ "Amber Room: Go Inside The Missing 8th Wonder of the World"

Sources

Printed

  • Denny, Isabel (2007). The Fall of Hitler's Fortress City: the Battle for Königsberg, 1945. MBI Publishing. ISBN 978-1935149200. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Khatri, Vikas (2012). World Famous Treasures Lost and Found. Pustak Mahal Publishing. ISBN 978-8122312744. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Lucas, James (2000). Last Days of the Reich: The Collapse of Nazi Germany, May 1945. Cassell Publishing. ISBN 978-0304354481. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Scott-Clark, Catherine; Levy, Adrian (2004). The Amber Room: The Untold Story of the Greatest Hoax of the Twentieth Century. Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-84354-340-0.
  • Torney, Austin (2009). The Guide to the All-Embracing Realm of the Ultimate. Torney Publishing. ISBN 978-1448617272. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Wermusch, Günter (1991). Die Bernsteinzimmer Saga: Spuren, Irrwege, Rätsel (in German). Yale University. ISBN 978-3861530190. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Online

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