The Amber Room Read online

  The Amber Room

  By the same authors

  The Stone of Heaven

  THE AMBER ROOM

  The Fate of the World's Greatest

  Lost Treasure

  Catherine Scott-Clark

  &

  Adrian Levy

  Copyright © 2004 by Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

  First published in the United States of America in 2004 by

  Walker Publishing Company, Inc.; published simultaneously in Great Britain by Atlantic Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic Ltd.

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from

  this book, write to Permissions, Walker & Company,

  104 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  available upon request

  eISBN: 978-0-802-71809-9

  Visit Walker & Company's Web site at www.walkerbooks.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  In memory of Muriel Claudia Worsdell

  and

  Gerald Anthony Scott-Clark

  'There are different truths... foolish truths and wise truth, and your truth is foolish. There is also justice...'

  Irina Antonova, director of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow1

  'Some of the splendour of the world

  Has melted away through war and time;

  He who protects and conserves

  Has won the most beautiful fortune.'

  J.W.Goethe, 1826

  Contents

  List of Maps and Illustrations

  Acknowledgements

  Note on Transliteration

  Dramatis Personae

  Maps

  Introduction

  The Amber Room

  Notes

  Bibliography

  List of Maps and Illustrations

  MAPS

  Konigsberg Castle, pre-April 1945

  Kaliningrad, c.2004

  East Prussia, c.194 5

  Germany, c.2004

  St Petersburg and environs, c.2004

  USSR, post-194 7

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  The original design for the Amber Room, 1701

  The Catherine Palace (Vera Lemus, Aurora Publishers, St Petersburg, Russian Federation)

  Alexander Kedrinsky with colleagues from Leningrad's palaces after winning the Lenin Prize in 1986 (Vica Plauda archive, St Petersburg, Russian Federation)

  Anatoly Kuchumov with Anna Mikhailovna, his wife, and others shortly before the Second World War (Vica Plauda archive)

  Curators pack up Leningrad's palaces after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941

  Tsar Peter I (State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russian Federation)

  The amber workshop at the Catherine Palace Vladimir Telemakov (Catherine Scott-Clark)

  Vica Plauda, granddaughter of Anatoly Kuchumov, holding the only surviving colour plate of the original Amber Room (Catherine Scott-Clark)

  The Amber Room

  Soviet troops re-entering the Catherine Palace, 1944

  The ruined Catherine Palace after Nazi occupation

  Olaus Magnus's sixteenth-century map of the Samland Peninsula

  Seventeenth-century amber fishermen

  Pre-war photograph of Konigsberg Castle (Konigsberg City Museum, Duisburg, Germany)

  Professor Alexander Brusov of the State Historical Museum, Moscow, and his diary (Avenir Ovsianov archive, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation)

  Soviet tanks on the streets of Konigsberg during the final attack, April 1945 (Gunter Wermusch archive, Berlin, Germany)

  The surrender of General Otto Lasch, 10 April 1945 (Kaliningrad City Museum, Kaliningrad, Russian Federation)

  Amateur painting of the post-war remains of Konigsberg Castle (Avenir Ovsianov archive)

  Alfred Rohde (Avenir Ovsianov archive)

  Anatoly Kuchumov and colleagues from the Leningrad palaces during the 1950s (Albina Vasiliava archive, Pavlovsk, St Petersburg, Russian Federation)

  The St Petersburg Literature Archive reading room (Catherine Scott-Clark)

  Prince Alex Dohna-Schlobitten (MPR Productions, Munich, Germany)

  Entrance to the Knight's Hall of Konigsberg Castle (Konigsberg City Museum)

  Blutgericht, the Nazi restaurant located in the former torture chambers of Konigsberg Castle (Konigsberg City Museum)

  Caricature of Anatoly Kuchumov at his desk researching the fate of missing Leningrad palace treasures (Tsentralny Gosurdarstvenny Archiv Literatury i Iskusstva, St Petersburg, Russian Federation - TGALI)

  Caricature of Anatoly Kuchumov with a wheelbarrow of books (TGALI)

  Anatoly Kuchumov and colleagues at Pavlovsk Palace (Albina Vasiliava archive)

  Victorious Soviet troops pose in front of the Berlin Reichstag, 1945 (Kaliningrad City Museum) 146 Gerhard Strauss (Avenir Ovsianov archive)

  Doodle of Anatoly Kuchumov searching for the Amber Room with a magnifying glass, 1949 (TGALI)

  Doodle sent to Anatoly Kuchumov, depicting clues as to the postwar location of the Amber Room, 1949 (TGALI)

  Friedrich Henkensiefken (MPR Productions) 165 Intelligence files of the Stasi, the East German secret police, bundled up ready for shredding, January 1990 (Die Bundesbeauftragte fiir die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdientes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, Berlin, Germany - BStU)

  Surrender of Konigsberg, April 1945 (Giinter Wermusch archive)

  Bernsteinzimmer Report, by Paul Enke, 1986 (British Library, London)

  Paul Enke, c.1960 (BStU)

  The Stasi files (BStU)

  Dr Ernst-Otto Count zu Solms Laubach (Avenir Ovsianov archive)

  Giinter Wermusch (Giinter Wermusch archive)

  News footage of the trial of Erich Koch in Warsaw, 1959 (MPR Productions)

  Art works stolen by the Nazis, hidden in German mines and found by American troops in April 1945 (Kali und Salz GmbH, Erlebnis Bergwerk Merkers, Thuringin, Germany)

  George Stein (Avenir Ovsianov archive)

  Viktor Chebrikov, KGB chairman, with Erich Mielke, East Germany's Stasi chief, at Stasi headquarters, East Berlin, 1987 (BStU)

  Baron Eduard von Falz-Fein reporting at the 1936 Munich Olympics (Falz-Fein archive, Liechtenstein)

  Julian Semyonov (Falz-Fein archive, Liechtenstein)

  Marion Donhoff (Avenir Ovsianov archive)

  Police photograph of the body of George Stein, 20 August 1987 (MPR Productions)

  Pre-war Konigsberg (Konigsberg City Museum)

  The 'Monster' (Catherine Scott-Clark)

  The amber coastline of the Samland Peninsula (Catherine Scott-Clark)

  Avenir Ovsianov, digging for the Amber Room in Kaliningrad Province, 1970s (Avenir Ovsianov archive)

  Kaliningrad Geological Archaeological Expedition team photograph (Avenir Ovsianov archive)

  Anatoly Kuchumov reading in the mauve boudoir of Empress Alexandra, Alexander Palace, Pushkin, 1940 (Vica Plauda archive)

  Dr Ivan Sautov, director of the Catherine Palace, signing the deal with German energy provider Ruhrgas AG executives to sponsor the reconstruction of the Amber Room. From left to right: Dr Ivan Sautov; Vladimir Yegorov, former Minister for Cultural Affairs of the Russian Federation; Mr Friedrich Spaeth, former Chairman of the Ruhrgas AG Executive Board and Dr H. C. Achim Middelschulte, Member of the Ruhrgas AG Executive Board.

  Damaged Monighetti staircase, Catherine Palace, 1945


  Insect in amber

  Last surviving pieces of the Amber Room (Giinter Wermusch archive)

  Acknowledgements

  In the face of recalcitrant institutions, long journeys, sub-zero temperatures and many other excuses, a dedicated group of Russian curators, Red Army veterans, academics, friends and family kept us sane and helped us complete this book.

  Galya and Kolya, Vova and Tanya in St Petersburg made a great contribution to our Russian work. They will not agree, or even like everything we have written, but despite this we hope we can still eat pickled mushrooms together. Vladimir Telemakov was endlessly generous with his writings, which have yet to find a publisher, and has a remarkable memory and passion for Russian culture. A friend in the Hermitage found us somewhere to stay and we apologize for being terrified by her apartment.

  A close circle of curators in St Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo, including Valeria Bilanina, Albina Vasiliava and Albina Alya, spent hours recounting anecdotes as well as searching out journals, books and addresses. Nadezda Voronova shared her family photos with us and told stories about her father, M. G. Voronov, and his close colleague Anatoly Kuchumov. Vica Plauda had wonderful memories of growing up with Kuchumov, her grandfather. Alexander Kedrinsky kept us rapt for several days, and although he will find it hard to agree with our conclusions, he may recognize the truth in them. Alex Guzanov tried hard to help us at Pavlovsk.

  Valera Katsuba explained the subtext to our ongoing correspondence with the St Petersburg authorities, while Yura danced and baked fish. Catherine Phillips, a great Russian scholar, was always at the end of a phone with suggestions (and could sing all the male roles in Eugene Onegin). Dr Ivan Sautov, director of the Catherine Palace, prevented us using his archive but his refusal led to our finding a wealth of new material elsewhere. Stuart M. Gibson was endlessly optimistic and lent us his name on several occasions.

  Avenir Ovsianov in Kaliningrad has spent three decades looking for lost treasure and has found many things, although not the Amber Room. He shared many of his files and memories with us. We have not met, but Konstantin Akinsha and Gregory Koslov are informative on the history of the trophy brigades, having opened up the subject. Susanne Massie, likewise, was a pioneer, as one of the first American writers to work inside the Soviet Union. She produced a poignant account of the life of the Leningrad palaces.

  In Germany, Professor Wolfgang Eichwede invited us for coffee that became a dinner and eventually ended in breakfast. A great diplomat with a profound love for his field, Eichwede was a sound guide to Russian-German negotiations. Giinter Wermusch was always good company and even though we will never agree with each other it will always be a pleasure to listen to his well-argued theories. A friend in the German Foreign Office probably shouldn't be named but was an adviser and sporadic translator. Gerhard Ehlert works harder than anyone we know and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Stasi.

  Rainer Schubert tells his story with passion and provided us with a vivid insight into prison life in the GDR. Friends on the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung provided background on the Stasi and party archives. Klaus Goldmann explained the backdrop to the 'Trojan Gold' debacle. Maurice Philip Remy in Munich was great company and has broken much new ground on many projects (including the Amber Room) that remain sensitive areas for most Germans. George Laue in Munich has written some interesting catalogues about amber. Helmut Seling in Munich was the first German to be allowed into the Kremlin's secret stores after the war. Tete Bottger tried very hard to offend but his heart was just not in it. Robert Stein agreed to meet us and then wished he hadn't, but we wish him luck. Baron Eduard von Falz-Fein was wonderful company and exactly what he appears to be, which is a rarity in any age. Stephan Strauss was extremely generous in agreeing to meet, although we may never agree about the role played by his father, Gerhard Strauss.

  In Britain we owe thanks to Freddy and Kitty Liebreich. Freddy translated hundreds of pages of Stasi-talk and then translated hundreds more and came out of it no madder than when he began. Kitty tracked down maps and donated them to our research. Pamela Scott-Clark steered us through the history of amber. Dorothy Levy was always prepared to listen. In particular we owe thanks to our publisher, Toby Mundy at Atlantic Books, who believed in the project from the start. His skilful, blunt and energetic readings of all of the drafts of our manuscript have shaped it beyond recognition. Clara Farmer at Atlantic has also helped greatly. In the US, George Gibson, publisher at Walker & Company, has been a calming influence on the project and provided a depth of ideas that has added greatly to the finished manuscript.

  Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy,

  Chiang Mai, Thailand,

  January 2004

  Note on Transliteration.

  Russian names are spelled in this book according to the standard Library of Congess system of transliteration, but common English spellings of well-known Russian names and placenames (for example, Tolstoy, Tsarskoye Selo) have been retained. To aid pronunciation, some Russian names (Grigorii and Vasilii, for example) have been changed (to Gregory and Vasily).

  Dramatis Personae

  Larissa Bardovskaya Head curator at the Catherine Palace in the St Petersburg suburb of Tsarskoye Selo, Bardovskaya was responsible for writing the official account of the mystery of the Amber Room for a summary catalogue published by the Russian Ministry of Culture in 1999.

  Professor Alexander Brusov Professor of archaeology at the State Historical Museum in Moscow and brother of Valery, a famous Soviet modernist writer. Brusov led the first search for the Amber Room in May 1945 and reported that it had been destroyed.

  Empress Catherine II of Russia German-born princess who seized control of the Russian throne in 1762. Catherine the Great restyled the Catherine Palace and vastly augmented the Amber Room. Visitors would describe it as the 'Eighth Wonder of the World'.

  Professor Wolfgang Eichwede Director of the Research Centre for Eastern Europe at Bremen University. Wolfgang Eichwede mediates between Germany and Russia over the return of war artefacts stolen during the Second World War.

  Empress Elizabeth Daughter of Peter I. Elizabeth became Empress of Russia in 1741 and within two years began supervising the construction of her father's Amber Room. In 1755 it was moved from St Petersburg to the Catherine Palace.

  Paul Enke Stasi agent who used the code-name of Paul Kohler. Enke was a researcher at the GDR's State Archives Administration in Potsdam and began the Stasi's inquiry into the fate of the Amber Room. In 1986 he published Bernsteinzimmer Report, the most popular and influential book on the search.

  Baron Eduard von Falz-Fein White Russian exile living in Liechtenstein. Von Falz-Fein bankrolled the search for the Amber Room in West Germany and returned looted art to Russia and the Ukraine, from where his family originated. Von Falz-Fein's 'Amber Room club' included Julian Semyonov, George Stein and Georges Simenon, the creator of Inspector Maigret, among its members.

  Frederick I Crowned 'King in Prussia' in Konigsberg in 1701. Frederick realized the Hohenzollerns' aspirations of transforming Prussia into a monarchy and funded the creation of the Amber Room.

  Frederick William I The Soldier King. Frederick William I was the son of Frederick I and ascended the throne in 1713. Uninterested in the Amber Room, which he considered too costly, he gave it to Tsar Peter I as part of a diplomatic treaty in 1716.

  Uwe Geissler Stasi informer working inside the 'Kripo', the East German criminal police. Geissler was used by the Stasi to cross-examine potential eyewitnesses during the GDR's Amber Room inquiry. He investigated the top-secret source 'Rudi Ringel'.

  Otto Grotewohl President of East Germany from 1949 to 1964. Grotewohl cemented ties with the Soviet Union at a time of great unrest in the Eastern bloc. He received from the Soviet Union millions of German cultural treasures looted by the Red Army during the Second World War.

  Alexander Kedrinsky One of the Soviet Union's most famous architects and restorers, Kedrinsky led the project to rebuild the Amber Room in
the Catherine Palace, which was unveiled on 31 May 2003.

  Erich Koch The Reich's Commissar of the Ukraine and Gauleiter of East Prussia. Koch evacuated his private collection of looted art to Weimar in 1945. Later (while being held in prison in Poland) he hinted at having played a part in saving and concealing the Amber Room.

  Anatoly Kuchumov One of the Soviet Union's most famous curators. Kuchumov headed the investigation in 1946 that established that the Amber Room had survived the war, having been concealed in an unknown hiding place by the Nazis. His 1989 book The Amber Room would become the second most famous publication on the subject.

  Erich Mielke Minister for State Security. The head of the Stasi from 1957 to 1990, Mielke became obsessed with finding the Amber Room. He pumped millions in hard currency into 'Operation Puschkin', a special task force that excavated in the GDR throughout the 1980s.

  Martin Mutschmann Gauleiter of Saxony, to where the Amber Room was apparently evacuated in the last months of the war. Mutschmann vanished in May 1945. It was claimed that he was abducted by the Red Army and taken back to the Soviet Union.

  Our Friend the Professor Pseudonym of a Soviet academic who still lives and works in St Petersburg, without whose contacts we would never have found the Kuchumov archive or met many of the curator's contemporaries.

  Avenir Ovsianov Former Red Army colonel who worked for the secret Soviet Kaliningrad Geological-Archaeological Expedition (KGA), which searched for the Amber Room during the 1970s. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union so many treasure hunters applied for permission to dig in Kaliningrad that the province formed the Kaliningrad Centre for Coordinating the Search for Cultural Relics. Ovsianov became its director.