Bernsteinzimmer (Amber Room) Discovered!

[slava1stclass]

To all:

Latest press reporting:

"The latest discovery, as reported in February 2008, is of a 20-metre pit which could yield pure gold - the lost €750 million Amber Room of the Czars. The site on the German-Czech border, matches intelligence from Nazi survivors who helped loot the fabled room. Probes indicate it holds some two tons of gold. Hans-Peter Haustein, mayor of Deutschneudorf, Germany, where the pit was found, said "We're confident it's part of the Amber Room".

On 20th Feb 2008, German treasure hunters claimed to have found the Amber room. The discovery of an estimated two tonnes of gold was made at the weekend when electromagnetic pulse measurements located the man-made cavern 20 meters underground near the village of Deutschneudorf on Germany's border with the Czech Republic.

Opening the cavern to get into the chamber cannot be completed until approximately Easter because it may contain booby traps and has to be secured by explosives experts and engineers."

Regards,

slava1stclass

[Eryk]

Huge news if it turns out to be accurate. The room has been "found" before though, so judgement should be held until proof positive is offered.

Very exciting though! Here's hoping it's true!

[Nota Bene]

They "discover" the Amber Room at least a couple of times a year. I will believe it after I see some evidence.

Alexei

[slava1stclass]

To all:

Digging resumes today.

Regards,

slava1stclass

DEUTSCHNEUDORF, Germany (CNN)

-- Digging will resume Tuesday at a site in the southeastern German town of Deutschneudorf, where treasure hunters believe there are almost 2 tons of Nazi gold and possibly clues to the whereabouts of the legendary Amber Room, a prize taken from a Russian castle during World War II.

"Drilling will begin around noon, and we hope to hit the cave," Heinz Peter Haustein, one of the two treasure hunters and a member of Germany's parliament, said in a news release.

Digging was stopped more than a week ago amid safety concerns, as authorities and the treasure hunters feared that the shaft might collapse and that the cave -- if it is there -- may be rigged with explosives or poisonous booby traps.

At a news conference Friday, Christian Hanisch, the other treasure hunter, said that geological surveying equipment had located a possible cave about 30 feet under the surface containing "precious metals that can only be either gold or silver. The instruments would not have reacted to any other metal like copper."

Hanisch pointed out that his father, who was a navigator in the Luftwaffe, the Nazi air force, was one of the troops said to have been involved in hiding art, gold and silver as the Nazis realized that they would lose the war. He said that when his father died, he left coordinates leading to the spot in Deutschneudorf. "It's not about getting the reward," Hanisch said at the site. "I just want to know if my father was right and if my instincts were right."

Haustein, who is paying for the expedition, said he hopes that finding the gold could lead to the Amber Room, whose interior is made completely of amber and gold. It was looted by the Nazis from a castle in St. Petersburg, Russia, after Adolf Hitler's forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

The room looked so majestic, many called it "the eighth wonder of the world." It disappeared after the war, and today a replica stands in its place in St. Petersburg.

Although parts of the Amber Room have resurfaced, the vast majority remains missing. Haustein has been looking for the room for more than 12 years. I am certain that large parts of the Amber Room are buried somewhere here," he said.
He said he has collected much circumstantial evidence suggesting that the Nazis hid the Amber Room in old copper mines around Deutschneudorf, but he has no proof.

Haustein said the Nazis began bringing valuables including art, gold and silver to the region around Deutschneudorf as early as summer 1944.

Deutschneudorf is in Germany's Ore Mountains, and the mountain where the treasure hunters claim to have found the Nazi gold was a copper mine until the 19th century. Although the mine was shut down in 1882, geologists found evidence that soldiers from Hitler's Wehrmacht -- the German armed forces -- had been there. The machine guns, parts of uniforms and explosives are on display at the town's museum.

Though both treasure hunters say they are certain they will find cultural goods, both admit that they fear disappointment.
"Of course, if you embark on something like this, you ask yourself: 'What if we find nothing again? What if I was fooled?' " Haustein said. "But every man has to go his own way, for better or for worse."

If they do find the treasure, Haustein says, it would legally belong to Germany, although he would recommend that Germany give any Amber Room parts back to Russia.

Treasure hunters have typically received rewards of 10 percent of the value of the goods found, but Hanisch says there are no laws dictating the reward amount.

[Sanzotta]

This could be monumental time in history or yet another visit to Al Capone's Vault albeit with Geraldo Rivera (mercifully!) no where in sight!

I have been down this road before. I lived on Guam when there were numerous expeditions to locate Amelia Earhart on the island of Tinian with people supposedly seeing a "white female and white man" (supposedly her navigator Fred Noonan) being held captive in a jail and buried on the island. It was very exciting at the time to think it could be so close but like many other things, it ended in disappointment. There is nothing more unreliable then memories and many of these "finds" rely on imperfect memories of events. On the other hand, I still do remember the excitement when they found the Titanic back in the mid-1980's, so I guess there is some hope.

I think the story of the Amber room is fascinating but you have to keep a few things in mind. First of all, the amber in the room was crumbling away in the 1940's to such a degree that the Red Army could not dismantle it without destroying it and resorted to attempting to hide it under wall paper. When the Germans came through, they supposedly disassembled in 36 hours and in such haste with already crumbling amber, I am sure there was significant damage done. Add on 60+ years and the state of the panels (if intact) can only be worse. At the mine site where they are drilling, they stated they hit a cavern that was filled with water so even if the panels are in that shaft, the already crumbling panels will have been potentially under water for 60+ years. It doesn't look good for the home team. Look at what 50 years did to that Plymouth Belvedere they dug up in Oklahoma that was in a "sealed" vault.

[jefflgarrison]

Well, the good thing about water with the amber room is that was what it was lacking.

It was crumbling because it was drying out.

[Lapa]

Sanzotta,

Where did you hear that the amber room was crumbling in the early 1940's? Also, amber is fossilized resin, as such, it can withstand quite a variety of environmental conditions, except, of course, extreme heat.

Marc

[Nota Bene]

I have an album with photos of the Amber Room, piblished in the late 1930s. From those photos it would appear that it was very well preserved.

BTW, I believe they stoped digging.

Alexei

[desantnik]

I just have to add my 2 cents - chicks dig amber!

[matteti]

Wikipedia have updated their Amber Room articles and it seems the digging has been abandonned for good after the diggers disagreed.... I would think that if there was really something valuable there, they would not abandon whatever conflict they can have.

Amber Room - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On 20th Feb 2008, German treasure hunters claimed to have found the Amber room.[1] The discovery of an estimated two tons of gold or silver was made at the weekend when electromagnetic pulse measurements located the man-made cavern 20 meters underground near the village of Deutschneudorf on Germany's border with the Czech Republic.[2]

Opening the cavern to get into the chamber can not be completed until approximately Easter because it may contain booby traps and has to be secured by explosives experts and engineers.[3]

According to a recent article by Der Spiegel, Heinz-Peter Haustein - who has been leading the most recent searches into the "Ore Mountains" region of Germany - believes that he has found the Amber Room. Digging resumed February 26, 2008 at a site in the southeastern German town of Deutschneudorf, where treasure hunters believe there are close to two tons of Nazi gold and possibly clues to the whereabouts of the legendary Amber Room.[12]Treasure hunter Christian Hanisch said February 28, 2008 that the hunt for Nazi Gold and possibly the legendary Amber Room will end February 29, 2008 after the two men leading the expedition disagreed.[13]