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RedditWhile many Americans associate amber with the casing for dinosaur DNA in 1993's Jurassic Park, the stone has enthralled Europeans, and especially Russians, for centuries because of the golden, jewel-encrusted Amber Room, which was made of several tons of the gemstone. A gift to Peter the Great in 1716 celebrating peace between Russia and Prussia, the room's fate became anything but peaceful: Nazis looted it during World War II, and in the final months of the war, the amber panels, which had been packed away in crates, disappeared. A replica was completed in 2003, but the contents of the original, dubbed "the Eighth Wonder of the World," have remained missing for decades.
Golden Gift
Construction of the Amber Room began in 1701. It was originally installed at Charlottenburg Palace, home of Friedrich I, the first King of Prussia. Truly an international collaboration, the room was designed by German baroque sculptor Andreas Schlüter and constructed by the Danish amber craftsman Gottfried Wolfram. Peter the Great admired the room on a visit, and in 1716 the King of Prussia—then Frederick William I—presented it to the Peter as a gift, cementing a Prussian-Russian alliance against Sweden.
The Amber Room was shipped to Russia in 18 large boxes and installed in the Winter House in St. Petersburg as a part of a European art collection. In 1755, Czarina Elizabeth ordered the room to be moved to the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, named Tsarskoye Selo, or "Czar's Village." Italian designer Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli redesigned the room to fit into its new, larger space using additional amber shipped from Berlin.
After other 18th-century renovations, the room covered about 180 square feet and glowed with six tons of amber and other semi-precious stones. The amber panels were backed with gold leaf, and historians estimate that, at the time, the room was worth $142 million in today's dollars. Over time, the Amber Room was used as a private meditation chamber for Czarina Elizabeth, a gathering room for Catherine the Great and a trophy space for amber connoisseur Alexander II.
Nazi Looting
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa, which launched three million German soldiers into the Soviet Union. The invasion led to the looting of tens of thousands of art treasures, including the illustrious Amber Room, which the Nazis believed was made by Germans and, most certainly, made for Germans.
As the forces moved into Pushkin, officials and curators of the Catherine Palace attempted to disassemble and hide the Amber Room. When the dry amber began to crumble, the officials instead tried hiding the room behind thin wallpaper. But the ruse didn't fool the German soldiers, who tore down the Amber Room within 36 hours, packed it up in 27 crates and shipped it to Königsberg, Germany (present-day Kaliningrad). The room was reinstalled in Königsberg's castle museum on the Baltic Coast.
amber is not a stone or a gemstone
Posted by adam on January 22,2008 | 01:50AM
very interesting, but PLEASE don't use the wretched word "Tsarina". Tsar is the masculine - Emperor (Kaiser, Empereur) Tsaritsa is the Russian feminine. German has two forms: Kaiserin, and Tsarin. (-in is the German feminizing suffix). French gives us Imperatrice, or in English Empress. All forms seem to govern both the wife/consort of a male ruler, and a female ruler. happy New Year ben Cosin.
Posted by Ben Cosin on January 22,2008 | 06:33AM
Those panels are in a crate inside that U.S military base at the end of Raiders of The Lost Ark!
Posted by Josh on January 22,2008 | 05:28PM
that is so cool i wonder how big the chunk of amber had to be to make panels of amber also if there is that much amber in Prussia why do they not just re-make the panels? well thats all.
Posted by me me me on January 23,2008 | 03:48PM
that's pretty sweet and i would absolutely love to see it. however i'm not clear if the panels were ever found, or if they just replicated it trying to be as accurate as possible...?
Posted by Jo on January 30,2008 | 03:46PM
The amber was made into figures and other small pieces and then stuck onto the wall to make the scenes. There is a book by Steven Berry that about this room.....called the Amber Room.
Posted by kellie on January 30,2008 | 04:13PM
I think amber is resin from pine trees that has been submerged in water for a long time where it becomes "petrified."
Posted by vivien morris on February 10,2008 | 02:47PM
Is there, somewhere, a photo of the amber room panel that appeared on the blackmarket a few years back??
Posted by George W Robinson on February 26,2008 | 08:23AM
Mayor Hans-Peter Haustein of Deutschneudorf in Germany and Christian Hanisch,son of a Luftwaffe navigator who was instructed by the Nazis to hide stolen artifacts during the last days of the war claim to have found a local cavern containing up to two tonnes of precious metal. They have used electromagnetic tests to reach this conclusion and claim this underground chamber also contains Russias' lost Amber Room. We shall see.
Posted by James L.T. Muskett on March 10,2008 | 03:29PM
amber is also special to people in other countries like poland
Posted by Susie Mary Jane on March 21,2008 | 08:16AM
Does anyone know the history behind why the Amber Room was originally made and why? (Other than a gift for Katherine the Great?) Thanks
Posted by Cindi White on March 24,2008 | 01:40PM
Jus finished Steve Berry's "The Amber Room" and had to look up something about the Aamber Room. His book is fun.
Posted by JOANNE hANNON on May 8,2008 | 12:21PM
Some researchers and scholars, as well as hunters of the amber room, came to the sad conclusion that the room was looted and trashed by the red army in 1941, with many people taking small bits of it for souveniers, and the rest being destroyed by fire. The Soviets wanted to cover up that fact, and so even knowing that it didn't exist anymore, staged "hunts" for it, all the while blaming it on the Germans.
Posted by Patty on June 3,2008 | 02:16PM
I think the Soviets have it hidden, just as they have other items they "acquired" during WWII. Probably hidden in that famous underground storage at their national museum.
Posted by Robby on June 8,2008 | 06:47AM
There is also book "Amber Room" by Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy; I', in the middle of it ! very interesting! Makes you go hunting for hidden treasure ! But also you feel tremendous loss of precious arts forever ! War is and always will be the most evil acts, people had ever done.
Posted by grace on July 4,2008 | 11:30AM
Fascinating. I became interested after reading Steve Berry's "The Amber Room" - although fiction it captured my imagination. Tragic if the Room is lost forever - the casualties of war is not limited to lives, property, liberty etc but to civilization.
Posted by Tupousolo on July 15,2008 | 04:36PM
I too have just read The Amber Room by Steve Berry. He is an excellent writer...all his books are great. As to the room, we will probably never know..but one can surmise that the worst done was probally true. Neither of those 2 countries have any do-right in them.
Posted by Sadie on July 25,2008 | 04:13PM
Since Amber is really pitch, it burns very quickly. It could have all been lost in a fire, with no remaining traces.
Posted by Sonni on October 13,2008 | 03:19PM
I also just finished Steve Berry's book. One point he made was that if the Amber Room was burned, there would have been a noticeable and distinct of smell of the burning amber. There are no contemporary accounts of such a smell during the time of the burning. Hey, it's fiction but could that be true? If its pine resin, I would imagine it would have distinct odor. Curious . . .
Posted by Kathy on October 18,2008 | 11:24AM
Just finished the Scott-Clark/Levy rendition of the Amber Room. I thought they had it sewed up but Kathy's comment of Oct 18/08 re the smell of burning amber (mentioned in Berry's book which I haven't read) is not mentioned at all by Scott-Clark/Levy. Maybe it was lost in the other putrid smells of war and of an old city that would not meet our current standards of sanitation. Just grabbin' at straws.
Posted by glenna on January 11,2009 | 02:17AM
i did research on the amber room but to Josh it is not in a us military base
Posted by person on February 17,2009 | 10:15AM
T. Davis Bunn writes a series of novels, The Priceless Collection, about lost and found treasures in Eastern Europe. Florian's Gate focuses on Poland; The Amber Room has a fictionalized account of finding and resurrecting this lost artifact; and The Winter Palace features Russia's art heritage. I heartily recommend these books if you liked others about the Amber Room.
Posted by Pam on February 28,2009 | 07:05AM
Just read Berry's Amber Room. Very Interesting. Had no idea it actually did exist. We managed to stamp out a lot of evil in WWII but does anyone really 'win' in a war. 3/24/09/ 01:30 AM
Posted by nita on March 24,2009 | 12:02AM
I just finished reading the Amber Room by Steve Berry and enjoyed it very much. His writing is similar to that of Dan Brown in DiVinci Code, and I enjoyed both books. As the book was fiction but based on some true facts, it peaked my curiosity as to what ever really did happen to it and found this site of great interest. Happy to give my thoughts on the book.
Posted by Rose on April 4,2009 | 08:44AM
I believe the amber room is still around just hidden some where. The amber room was rebuilt but its still not the same. an original is always worth more then a copy. i wish to find the real amber room.
Posted by ashleigh on April 6,2009 | 12:53PM
Amber room is still hidden in POland, in the Town named "Paslek" It's burried under castle.
Posted by Sławek on April 10,2009 | 11:54PM
Just reading Steve Berry's "The Amber Room" right now. Love his books. Makes me want to go on all these adventures. Has the Amber Room really been found? Or is it in some private collector's castle somewhere in Germany or Russia? I think it will remain a secret for many years to come. It is absolutely magnificent, though, just from viewing the pictures. Wish the public could see it and share in its beauty. Yet another hardship and desecration of war. How sad. Still interesting to learn about, though!
Posted by Leann on May 11,2009 | 06:29PM
The amber had actually crumbled when the Russians tried to dismantle the room. When the Gemans got ahold of the room behind the hastily pasted and camouflaged wallpaper wall they too in their greed and haste allowed the rest of the room to crumble during the dismantlement and put the sometimes tiny pieces into numerous cases and crates. The rest of the treasures were crated and put into numerous boxes and crates too. I believe these items were kept together due to Hitlers instructions. When they were done, to keep the amber from falling into the wrong hands as a complete room and the contents, they separated the shipments into about 10 different vehicles, some trucks, cars and a couple of motorbikes. Some of the vehicles of course never made it to the destination, some of the drivers literally took off, knowing what they had and the worth of the individual shipments. Some were killed outright by allies, the rest was lost, but found again and kept hidden, where I do not know. Some of you amber collectors and admirers may actually be wearing or keeping the actual amber from the very room as I write. I am not sure if it can be dated and if they can tell exactly where it was mined or found, but it might be interesting to check if you can, and desire to know. josef
Posted by josef on May 19,2009 | 10:16PM
Also reading Steve Berry's book The Amber Room, not done yet but decided to check and see if the amber room existed. Very interesting tale. Glad to get to see the pictures, it will bring the book to life for me. Thanks!
Posted by Kathi on June 20,2009 | 11:59AM