A Brief History of the Amber Room

Dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the room that once symbolized peace was stolen by Nazis then disappeared for good

  • By Jess Blumberg
  • Smithsonian.com, August 01, 2007, Subscribe
 
a replica of the amber room A replica of the Amber Room was completed in 2003, but the contents of the original have remained missing for decades.

Roland Weihrauch / dpa / Corbis

 

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    While 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.


    While 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.

    The museum's director, Alfred Rohde, was an amber aficionado and studied the room's panel history while it was on display for the next two years. In late 1943, with the end of the war in sight, Rohde was advised to dismantle the Amber Room and crate it away. In August of the following year, allied bombing raids destroyed the city and turned the castle museum into ruins. And with that, the trail of the Amber Room was lost.

    Conspiracies, Curses and Construction

    It seems hard to believe that crates of several tons of amber could go missing, and many historians have tried to solve the mystery. The most basic theory is that the crates were destroyed by the bombings of 1944. Others believe that the amber is still in Kaliningrad, while some say it was loaded onto a ship and can be found somewhere at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. In 1997, a group of German art detectives got a tip that someone was trying to hawk a piece of the Amber Room. They raided the office of the seller's lawyer and found one of the room's mosaic panels in Bremen, but the seller was the son of a deceased soldier and had no idea as to the panel's origin. One of the more extreme theories is that Stalin actually had a second Amber Room and the Germans stole a fake.

    Another bizarre aspect of this story is the "Amber Room Curse." Many people connected to the room have met untimely ends. Take Rohde and his wife, for example, who died of typhus while the KGB was investigating the room. Or General Gusev, a Russian intelligence officer who died in a car crash after he talked to a journalist about the Amber Room. Or, most disturbing of all, Amber Room hunter and former German soldier Georg Stein, who in 1987 was murdered in a Bavarian forest.

    The history of the new Amber Room, at least, is known for sure. The reconstruction began in 1979 at Tsarskoye Selo and was completed 25 years—and $11 million—later. Dedicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, the new room marked the 300-year anniversary of St. Petersburg in a unifying ceremony that echoed the peaceful sentiment behind the original. The room remains on display to the public at the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve outside of St. Petersburg.


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    Comments (39)

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    @mike stanley, amber is fossilized tree sap. Fossilization is the process of turning organic materials into minerals.

    Posted by Kevin on January 31,2012 | 10:53 AM

    What is amber? It appears the color of gold but is it a mineral, metal, other material?

    Posted by Mike Stanley on October 29,2011 | 01:21 PM

    Thanks Alex,
    I went to the site you said to go to. If you meant the postings by ANONPD, yes they are very interesting more than some of the books about it. You can go straight to the page if you use
    www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/183
    Hope he/she is right, sounds like could be.
    Carol

    Posted by Carol on August 22,2011 | 04:03 AM

    I, too am reading the book The Amber Room by Berry. I became so fasinated with the whole mystery I had to stop and Google The Amber Room. I sincerely hope we are able to step up or efforts to locate this treasure before all secrets die forever.

    Posted by diane on June 27,2011 | 07:47 AM

    I always thought of amber as a color not a mineral and was surprised to learn how valuable it is. I too read Steve Berry's book and found it fascinating and I had to google the Amber Room to see how authentic the story was. He follows it pretty closely but takes some "artistic license" as a good story teller will. The fabrication of that room sounds like an enormous undertaking.

    Posted by Jude Phillips on June 17,2011 | 10:23 PM

    I am interesetd about this room too..googeling amber room ,i found on thehistoryblog.com,amber...telling more about the amber.. you can read more details,from a man who knows exactly where it can be found....really interesting...so if you want read more just pop in...and click {amber room for reals?}
    alex

    Posted by Alex on June 8,2011 | 02:01 PM

    I also watched the Solving History episode about the Amber Room, and was quite intrigued. Especially because so many people assumed that the entire 6 tons of amber was burned during the bombing, but now experts say that there would be remnants in the ground, that amount of amber would have left small traces behind, so it very well could still be hidden away somewhere. The mayor of the town Kaliningrad (i think that's the name) still searched for the amber room and other items hidden around the town, and he's even received many anonymous death threats telling him to stop searching, makes you think there could be something even more to find than the Amber Room???? very interesting

    Posted by jenny on October 8,2010 | 04:18 PM

    Ive just watched discovery channels program 'mystery investigator olly steed'-fascinating stuff.It was about the amber room.I recommend anyone interested in this topic to see it.He was in present day East Germany/Czech Republic looking for the room.I googled the amber room immediately.There are people out there who know what happened but are keeping quiet.Im Irish with a Russian girlfriend.Ive been to the Hermitage museum twice.A must for lovers of amber....

    Posted by Denis Brady on June 27,2010 | 08:32 AM

    I remember seeing some sort of replica of the Amber Room on display some time ago in the World Trade Center in NYC.

    Posted by Jo Margaret Gore on June 12,2010 | 06:49 PM

    Also just finished Steve Berry's book (my 4th of his 8 titles) and was again pleased with his history context treatment about the Amber Room. Found this website while reviewing various sites. He bases his stories around actual subjects with the writer's license to fill the fictional plots. He's quite good, and a real pleasure if you are a Dan Brown fan. Happy reading to all.

    Posted by Edward on April 24,2010 | 09:54 PM

    Many years ago (1950s) I remember reading, as a child about a german leader, Goering I think, showing a piece of the Amber Room to a visitor. The visitor was the author of the book I read. Sadly I cannot remember who the author was. I was fascinated and ever since have read little bits about the room and followed the search for it with great interest.
    I thought the visitor/author might have been Adolf Galland and read his autobiography but did not find the reference to it.
    In passing, I went to see the Mapa Mundi at Hereford Cathedral, a note said a finer (?) version had been destroyed by Allied bombing in WW2, a great pity. Also the destruction of the library at Louvein in 1914. We loose so much in war.

    Posted by DavidM on April 3,2010 | 10:47 AM

    I found the book by Steve Berry by accident when I was stuck in Kuwait at the airbase. I had never even heard of the Amber Room before. Love it

    Posted by dallanta on March 7,2010 | 01:09 AM

    I googled the Amber Room also after reading the first of a series by Elizabeth Lowell. Awesome rare gems and "uncle Sam" mystery and romance. Was also curious if real story. All the theories seem plausible. So much was lost in the past do to greed and war.

    Posted by jenz on December 1,2009 | 11:04 PM

    Googled the Amber Room after reading the book The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny. The book is a mystery but a piece of amber from the Amber Room was found in the story and I was curious as to whether it really existed. Fascinating but sad, too -- no one wins in war.

    Posted by Gerry on November 22,2009 | 04:37 PM

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