In April 1945, Soviet planes sank the freighter "Karlsruhe".
There were around 1,100 refugees on board the ship - and perhaps also a previously lost Nazi treasure.
Divers have discovered a WWII wreck off the coast of the Baltic Sea.
It should be about the cargo ship "
Karlsruhe
".
The steamship left
the
port of Pillau near Königsberg
(Kaliningrad)
on
April 12, 1945
.
Warsaw - According to their own statements, Polish divers
discovered
the wreck of
the cargo ship “
Karlsruhe
”
in the
Baltic Sea
, which was
sunk in
1945 with many
East Prussian refugees
on board.
"We are practically certain that it is the" Karlsruhe ", said diver Lukasz Piotrewicz on Wednesday the German press agency.
This results from the position and shape of the ship as well as recognizable details such as the chimney and the screw.
However, there can only be complete certainty if the Polish maritime authority gives permission to salvage objects.
On board, the divers made out military vehicles, china and many boxes with unknown contents.
Is the secret of the Amber Room buried in the wreck of the "Karlsruhe"?
According to the divers, the find of the "Karlsruhe" could possibly also provide information about the whereabouts of the
legendary
Amber Room
.
This was last seen in
Königsberg
, from where the freighter started its last journey with a large load.
Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I gave
the preciously carved
amber wall paneling to
the Russian tsar in
1716
.
German soldiers brought the legendary state room to Königsberg in 1942.
There his track is lost.
Since then, many, often adventurous, theories have been circulating about its whereabouts.
+
The replicated Amber Room in the Catherine Palace in Pushkin near Saint Petersburg (archive photo).
© Arno Burgi / dpa
“Karlsruhe” - This is how the divers discovered the wreck
The wreck lies at a depth of 88 meters, several dozen kilometers north of the port of Ustka.
The divers' search work took a year, Piorewicz said.
Among other things, reports from
Soviet fighter pilots were
evaluated for
the location
.
Freighter "Karlsruhe" sank with refugees from East Prussia
According to the Polish news agency PAP, the steamship left
the
port of Pillau near Königsberg
(Kaliningrad)
on
April 12, 1945
.
Around 1,100 people were
on
board,
most of them refugees from East Prussia.
The next day the convoy of ships in which the “Karlsruhe” was en route was bombed by Soviet planes.
The freighter sank, about a hundred people survived.
(dpa / ml)
