09/04/2021 17:16
Clarín.com
International
Updated 09/04/2021 17:16
In September 2020, the discovery had surprised historians: the
Karlsruhe
, a
Nazi ship
torpedoed and sunk at the end of World War II, had been found almost by chance in the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Poland.
What was already a remarkable find took on astonishing tones when researchers began to suspect that
"La Cámara de Ambar"
, also known as
The Eighth Wonder of the World,
could be found in its cellar
.
The vessel is
65 kilometers off the Polish coast
, at a depth of almost 100 meters, which partly facilitates the operation.
Now the rescue operation has begun, and in the next few days, tactical divers from the Baltictech company will set out to search for this precious treasure.
In particular, they are interested in a
huge unopened boxes
that sank with the ship.
A team of divers explores the remains of the Nazi ship Karlsruhe off the coast of Poland in the Baltic Sea.
Photo: Reuters
"The Karlsruhe was only carrying cargo, a few refugees boarded it at the last minute," said
Tomasz Zwara
, a diver on the Baltictech team, in a press release emailed to the Gizmodo site.
In addition to that
estimated cargo of 350 tons
, the ship was carrying a company of 150 elite Nazi army commandos and some 900 civilians.
The Karlsruhe was one of
two German ships with the same name
that sank during the Second War. The Karlsruhe that Baltictech is investigating is a freighter steamer, while the other Karlsruhe was a light war cruiser that sank off Norway in 1940.
Both shipwrecks were found within days of each other
in autumn 2020.
"
We don't have any solid evidence
that the Amber Chamber is there, but no one also has any solid evidence that the Amber Chamber is elsewhere," said Tomas Stachura, president of the SANTI diving company and a technical diver who already he also visited the wreck. "The truth is that
the Germans wanted to send something valuable west
and they could only do it through Karlsruhe, since that was their last chance. We will dive and check all the boxes," he added to gizmodo.com.
"The Chamber of Ambar" and a mystery of almost 80 years
Designed in 1701 by the Baroque sculptor Andreas Schülter, this work was the most outstanding of the palace that
Frederick I of Prussia
had in Berlin.
Its dimensions and composition explain its majesty: measuring around
55 square meters
, it was made with approximately
6 tons of amber and many semi-precious stones.
How much would it currently be worth?
Experts estimate that around
$ 176,000,000.
The Chamber of Ambar, the eighth wonder of the world.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The story goes that in 1716, the camera was gifted to Tsar Peter I the Great as a way to
seal the alliance between Prussia and Russia against Sweden
.
In this way, the treasure traveled from Berlin to present-day Pushkin, near Saint Petersburg.
Although at first it was going to be placed in the Winter Palace, Tsarina Isabel ordered its transfer to
the Catherine Palace
in the Villa de los Czars, in 1755.
The Amber Chamber was designed in 1701 by the Baroque sculptor Andreas Schülter.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Years passed, and The Amber Chamber
survived the Russian Revolution
of 1917 and arrived
intact
at World War II.
Everything changed there: on June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler started
"Operation Barbarossa"
, with the aim of invading the Soviet Union.
The Amber Chamber could be among the remains of Karlsruhe.
Photo: Reuters
Although the Soviets tried to hide it, Nazi soldiers managed to find it.
His intention was to
dismantle it and take it back to Germany
.
The first step was to take it to the
castle of Königsberg
(present-day Kaliningrad), where the camera remained until the end of 1943.
It was a year later, in 1944, when
the track of this treasure began to be lost.
The Allied army bombed Königsberg and the castle where the Amber Chamber was located was destroyed.
Of course: some versions indicated that at that time a Nazi ship came to set sail from the port of the city
with a heavy and valuable cargo
.
It was the Karlsruhe.
What the experts say
"
The ship is practically intact
. In its cellars we discovered military vehicles, porcelain and many boxes with still
unknown
content
," explained Stachura.
Inside the Karlsruhe there are "many boxes with contents still unknown".
Photos: Reuters
According to the British newspaper The Guardian, Karlsruhe was part of
Operation Hannibal
, one of the largest maritime evacuations in history, which helped more than a million German soldiers and East Prussian civilians
escape the Soviet advance
in recent years of World War II.
Documents of the time indicate that the ship sailed from Königsberg
"in a great hurry" and a "great load"
.
There were also 1,083 people on board.
"All of this, taken together, stimulates the human imagination. Finding the German cruiser and the boxes with as yet unknown content resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea
may be meaningful to the whole story,
" Zwara hoped.
The Karlsruhe left Königsberg "in a hurry" and with a "heavy load".
Photo: Reuters
For now, recovery work continues around Karlsruhe.
And also to the
Eighth Wonder of the World
?
Time, in the end, will tell.
Look also
He was dumped in the trash when he was a baby and now he's a tech millionaire
The story of the woman who found her parents 50 years after abandoning her
