RUSSIAN AMBER ROOM 313
T
he fate of the Amber Room is one
of the great mysteries of modern
times. This spectacular chamber
was originally commissioned by
King Friedrich I of Prussia in 1701. It
consisted of a series of richly carved amber
panels adorned with semi-precious stones
and Florentine mosaics, depicting the five
senses. A German sculptor, Andreas
Schlüter, and a Danish amber
specialist, Gottfried Wolfram,
collaborated on the work.
In 1716, the panels were
presented to the Russian
Tsar, Peter the Great, after he
admired them during a state
visit. He installed them in St Petersburg
where they remained until 1755, when
the Tsarina Elizabeth had the room
enlarged and redesigned so that it
would fit into her palace.
The Amber Room remained a prized
possession of the Russian state until
World War II, when looting German forces
dismantled it. The stolen panels were
packed into 27 crates and carried off to
Königsberg Castle on the Baltic coast. The
trail ends there. The panels may have been
destroyed by Allied bombing, or by a fire
in the castle – in either case, they had
disappeared by the end of the war. A
replica of the room was completed in
2003, in St Petersburg, Russia.
Treasure hunters have never given
up the search for the original
panels, and fanciful theories
abound. Some believe the
Nazis buried the loot in an
underground bunker; others claim
the remains of Hitler were interred
with the panels. Periodically, there
have been claims of its rediscovery. In
2015, Polish treasure hunters located
an armoured train believed to be packed
with Nazi booty, buried in tunnels near
Ksiaz Castle in Poland. The same year, a
German search team explored old copper
mines at Deutschneudorf, near the Czech
border. Neither find came to anything,
and the hunt goes on.
Russian Amber Room
△ Prussian coat of arms on the south wall
Crown-shaped detail
carved in amber
Rococo clock with a highly decorative
base mounted on an amber-inlaid
table, in the rebuilt Amber Room
The Amber Room has
enormous emotional
significance for both
Germany and Russia
Friedrich Spath, chairman of Ruhrgas,
corporate donors to the reconstruction project
Key dates
1701–2003
1700
1750
1800
1850
1950
2000
2015
1900
Friedrich I of Prussia
1701 King Friedrich I
of Prussia commissions
the Amber Room
1709 The completed
panels are installed
in Charlottenburg
Palace, Berlin
1716 The King of Prussia
presents the room to Peter
the Great of Russia to
cement their alliance
1979 German police
discover a mosaic that
may have come from
the Amber Room
1979 Work starts at the
Catherine Palace on a
faithful replica of the room
2003 The German
Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder and President
Putin of Russia jointly open
the new Amber Room
1944 Allied bombing
inflicts heavy damage on the
castle, perhaps destroying
the Amber Room
1755 Tsarina Elizabeth
enlarges the room and
has it transferred to the
Catherine Palace near
St Petersburg
1941 Nazi troops
invade Russia and
steal the panels,
spiriting them away
to Königsberg Castle
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