Amber Room facts for kids
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The Amber Room was a famous room decorated with beautiful amber panels. These panels were backed with shiny gold and mirrors. It was located in the Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg, Russia.
This amazing room was built in the 1700s in Prussia (which is now part of Germany). Sadly, it was taken apart and disappeared during World War II. Before it was lost, many people called it the "Eighth Wonder of the World" because it was so special.
Years later, people decided to rebuild it. The work started in 1979 and finished in 2003. The new Amber Room can now be seen in the Catherine Palace.
The Amber Room was first planned in 1701 for a palace in Berlin. It was designed by a German sculptor named Andreas Schlüter and a Danish amber artist named Gottfried Wolfram. They worked on it for several years.
In 1716, the King of Prussia, Frederick William I, gave the room as a gift to his friend, Tsar Peter the Great of Russia. It was then moved to the Catherine Palace in Russia. After being made bigger and updated a few times, the room covered more than 55 square meters (590 square feet). It contained over 6 tons (13,000 pounds) of amber!
During World War II, the Amber Room was stolen by Nazi Germany. It was taken to a city called Königsberg. In early 1944, as Allied forces got closer, the room was taken apart and packed into crates. These crates were stored in the castle basement. Königsberg was heavily bombed in August 1944, and after that, no one knew where the room was. Its fate is still a mystery today.
In 1979, the decision was made to create a new Amber Room. Russian artists worked for decades, and Germany also helped with donations. The rebuilt room was finished and opened in 2003.
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What Made the Amber Room Special?
The Amber Room was an incredibly valuable work of art. It had amazing features like shiny gold, detailed carvings, and 450 kilograms (990 pounds) of amber panels. It also had gold leaf, sparkling gemstones, and mirrors. All these details looked even more beautiful when lit by candles. There were also statues of angels and children as part of its design.
Because it was so unique and beautiful, the original Amber Room was often called the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Today, experts believe the room would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Amber Room's Story
How It Was Made
The Amber Room began in 1701. It was meant for the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, the home of Frederick, the first King of Prussia. His wife, Sophia Charlotte, really wanted it. The idea and design came from Andreas Schlüter. Artists Gottfried Wolfram, Ernst Schacht, and Gottfried Turau helped build it.
Even though it was planned for Charlottenburg Palace, the finished amber panels were put in the Berlin City Palace instead. But it didn't stay there for long. Peter the Great of Russia saw it and loved it during a visit. In 1716, King Frederick I's son, Frederick William I, gave the room to Peter as a gift. This helped create a friendship between Russia and Prussia against Sweden.
The Amber Room's design was changed and improved in Russia by both German and Russian artists. Peter's daughter, Empress Elizabeth, decided the amber treasure should be placed in the Catherine Palace. This was where the Russian royal family spent their summers. After more changes in the 1700s, the room grew to cover more than 55 square meters (590 square feet) and held over 6 tons (13,000 pounds) of amber. It took more than ten years to build the original room.
Stolen During World War II
Soon after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in World War II, people in Leningrad tried to take the Amber Room apart to save it. But the amber had become old and fragile, so it couldn't be moved without breaking. So, they tried to hide the room behind ordinary wallpaper. This didn't work, and German soldiers found it.
German soldiers quickly took the Amber Room apart in just 36 hours. On October 14, 1941, the valuable room arrived in Königsberg, Germany, to be stored and shown in the city's castle. A local newspaper announced an exhibition of the Amber Room there.
Last Days in Königsberg
In January 1945, orders from Hitler told people to move stolen items out of Königsberg. This allowed officials to transport important cultural treasures. However, before the Amber Room could be moved, the person in charge of Königsberg, Erich Koch, left the city.
In August 1944, Königsberg was heavily bombed by the British Royal Air Force. It was further damaged by the advancing Soviet army before they took over the city on April 9, 1945.
Where Did It Go?
After the war, the Amber Room was never seen in public again. Some people said parts of it survived. A few witnesses claimed they saw the famous room being loaded onto a ship called the Wilhelm Gustloff. This ship left a Polish port on January 30, 1945, and was then sunk by a Soviet submarine.
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In 1997, an Italian stone mosaic called "Feel and Touch" was found in Germany. This mosaic was one of four that had decorated the Amber Room. It was with the family of a soldier who said he helped pack the amber room. This mosaic was given to Russian officials and used in the rebuilding project.
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In 1998, two different groups, one German and one Lithuanian, announced they had found the Amber Room. The German team thought it was in a silver mine, while the Lithuanian team believed it was buried in a lagoon. Neither of these places held the Amber Room.
In 2004, two British journalists, Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, did a long investigation. They concluded that the Amber Room was most likely destroyed when Königsberg Castle was damaged. This happened first during the bombing by the Royal Air Force in 1944, and then when the Soviets burned and shelled the castle. Official reports from the Russian National Archives agreed with this idea. The report said: "The Amber Room was destroyed between 9 and 11 April 1945." These dates are when the Battle of Königsberg ended.
Years later, the head of the Soviet team looking for the room, Alexander Brusov, said something different. People believe he was pressured by Soviet officials who didn't want to be blamed for the loss of the Amber Room.
Other information from the archives showed that the remaining Italian stone mosaics were found in the burned ruins of the castle. Scott-Clark and Levy believed the Soviets kept searching for the room, even though their own experts thought it was destroyed. They wanted to know if any of their own soldiers were responsible for its destruction. They also thought that some in the Soviet government used the theft of the Amber Room as a way to spread their ideas during the Cold War. Russian officials have said these ideas are not true.
A former Soviet army lieutenant, Leonid Arinshtein, said he was probably one of the last people to see the Amber Room. He explained that the whole city was burning from artillery attacks. He also denied that the Soviet army burned the city on purpose.
Some people in Kaliningrad (which was Königsberg) believe that parts of the room were found in the castle cellars by the Soviet army after World War II. They think the Amber Room was still in good condition. This was supposedly not admitted at the time so the Nazis could be blamed. To keep this story secret, access to the castle ruins was restricted. The room is said to be in a storage place near the castle.
Then, in 1968, the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev ordered Königsberg Castle to be destroyed. This made it almost impossible to search for the Amber Room at its last known location. Later, the search continued in other places, including near a town in Germany.
Another idea is that the room is in a bunker in Poland. Or that Stalin replaced the Amber Room with a copy before it was stolen, hiding the real one. Finding the Amber Room is hard because the Nazis hid many items in secret places, often without records. This leaves a huge area to search. Sometimes, items were even moved far from Europe. Searches for the Amber Room have also been stopped by authorities in some cases.
In October 2020, Polish divers found the wreck of the SS Karlsruhe. This ship was part of a sea evacuation that helped many German soldiers and civilians escape Soviet forces in 1945. The ship was attacked off the coast of Poland after it sailed from Königsberg. The wreck holds many crates with unknown contents. Some news reports suggested these crates might hold parts of the Amber Room. However, divers later found that the crates contained military equipment and personal items.
Rebuilding the Amber Room
In 1979, the Soviet government decided to build an exact copy of the Amber Room at Tsarskoye Selo. This project took 24 years and involved 40 Russian and German experts in amber craftsmanship. They used original drawings and old black-and-white photos to make sure the new room looked just like the old one. This included matching the 350 different shades of amber in the original panels. A big challenge was finding skilled workers, as amber carving was an almost forgotten art.
The project faced money problems at first. These were solved with a donation of $3.5 million from a German company called E.ON. By 2003, the Russian artists had mostly finished their work. The new room was officially opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. This happened during the 300th anniversary celebration of Saint Petersburg.
Near Berlin, in a town called Kleinmachnow, there is a tiny Amber Room. It's a miniature copy made from real amber from East Prussia.
Images for kids
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An amber chest given by Friedrich Wilhelm I to Peter the Great in 1716.
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A mirror given by Friedrich Wilhelm I to Peter the Great in 1716.
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The Amber Room shown on a 2004 postage stamp.
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See also
- Art in Nazi Germany
- Nazi gold train
- Siege of Leningrad
- Štěchovice treasure
