Where did the gold of the Third Reich go and who got it?

Hitler inspects the train, which is later found filled with gold

There are many rumors and legends about Nazi gold. Historians, journalists and professional treasure hunters are still engaged in fierce debate about where the gold bars of the Third Reich disappeared. After all, the Allies, having occupied Nazi Germany, found only empty bank vaults there.

The version that Hitler's Germany completely squandered its gold reserves in the last years of the war has now been completely refuted by serious scientific research. However, 70 years after the collapse of the Third Reich, only a small part of the missing treasures was found. The Nazis carefully collected gold throughout Europe and had no intention of squandering it. The chief treasurer of the NSDAP, Martin Bormann, declared the Reich's gold an emergency reserve, its strategic reserve. And this reserve by the end of the war, according to American experts, amounted to 400-500 billion dollars in modern prices.

In addition to German gold itself, it included captured gold reserves of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Hungary, Romania and part of Poland. Even in the Soviet Union, the Nazis managed to profit and seize three wagons with gold in Ukraine, which Gokhran employees did not have time to evacuate. 120 tons of gold were handed over to the Germans “for safekeeping” by Benito Mussolini, 100 tons by the Croatian dictator Ante Pavelic. To this we must add gold confiscated from private banks, jewelry stores, confiscated church valuables and other “trifles.” In general, as it was said in one popular novel, the client had money and a lot of money.

Was there any wealth and where did it come from?

According to researchers, the value of the Third Reich's gold reserves amounted to hundreds of billions of US dollars. According to some estimates, Nazi Germany had gold worth four hundred billion dollars. However, not everyone believes this story. According to skeptics, if Germany had gold, the country spent all its wealth in the last years of the war.

According to researchers, the value of the gold reserves of the Third Reich amounted to hundreds of billions of US dollars // Photo: terraoko.com

Fans of the theory of incredible treasures have an argument for this statement. They claim that in 1944, Martin Bormann ordered that gold and diamonds should not be touched under any pretext, and began organizing the evacuation of treasures, of which there is supposedly documentary evidence.

As for the source of untold wealth, the Third Reich acquired gold thanks to the plunder of the states it occupied. There are assumptions that the Nazis confiscated gold bars worth five hundred million US dollars after the conquest of the Netherlands and Belgium, acquired more than a hundred tons of precious metal by conquering Czechoslovakia and Austria, and so on. In addition, German soldiers and their command tried to remove all valuables from the occupied territories. This is how many of the world's museums and churches were looted. The invaders took everything of value.

And the most terrible way to obtain gold and jewelry was concentration camps. The Nazis not only took jewelry from prisoners, but also did not disdain the gold crowns of their victims. About eight tons of gold bullion arrived from Auschwitz alone to the treasury of the Third Reich.

At the same time, there were still a huge number of private banks and collaborationist regimes. Supposedly, the Nazis planned to take all the wealth abroad and then use it to continue Hitler's work.

Golden Train of the Third Reich

In 2015, in Poland, two treasure hunters found a train with 300 tons of gold, diamonds, and pearls in an abandoned mountain tunnel. In the vicinity of the town of Walbrzych. The lucky guys, through lawyers, handed over the coordinates of the high-profile find to the authorities, demanding 10 percent of the value of the treasure. The exact location has not been disclosed. The Walbrzych authorities held a press conference, essentially confirming the sensation. Have they really found the precious composition? They have been looking for the train since 1945!

“Legends about the golden echelon have been circulating in these parts since the end of World War II,” said historian of the Third Reich Konstantin Zalessky. - It’s not for nothing that the “Gold of Breslau” was included in the book “100 Great Treasures”.

- What does Breslau have to do with it? Walbrzych appears in the news.

— Walzbich is located in Lower Silesia. It passed to Poland after the war. Before that, it was a German land with the capital of Breslau (now the Polish city of Wroclaw). Rich German landowners and aristocrats lived here for a long time. They had gold. Breslau went down in the history of World War II as the German Brest. Since February 1945, Soviet troops tried to take the fortress city. But he capitulated only on May 6. The defense was led by Gauleiter SS Obergruppenführer Karl Hanke, the Fuhrer's favorite.

Golden Train of the Third Reich

This Hanke apparently sent an armored train with gold to Berlin (or somewhere else) at the end of 1944 or at the beginning of 1945, realizing that the city was about to be surrounded by Soviet troops. The train left Breslau towards Waldenburg (present-day Walbrzych). But he didn’t reach the station. According to one version, a secret train entered a tunnel near the Ksenzh castle and... disappeared. In those parts, the Nazis built a whole system of tunnels. According to another version, he was driven under Mount Sobes near the town of Pelersdorf, where there was an underground military plant. There was also a railway there. The supposedly valuable cargo was hidden in adits and tunnels. According to the third version, the gold was hidden under Mount Snezka in the Sudetes.

The search for the golden train of the Third Reich in those parts began immediately after the war. Black diggers also searched for treasures in numerous dungeons in Wroclaw, but to no avail.

- Do you believe in the find?

— Everything is arranged too seriously. Both the law firm and the press conference of the Walzbich authorities. This is not a bluff. Please note what the representative of the Polish Ministry of Culture, Piotr Zukowski, said the other day: “I urge that all searches be stopped until the completion of the official procedure aimed at ensuring the safety of this find... The hidden train, the existence of which I have no doubt, may contain hazardous materials from World War II war. There is a high probability that the train is mined." What doubts can there be here? Found it!

The train carried masterpieces from museums

- And what could be there?

— Possibly, valuables looted by the Nazis in Eastern Europe, in the USSR. Gold, coins, diamonds... I don't exclude ancient treasures. In Breslau there was the famous Royal Museum of Art and Antiquities (now the National Museum of Wroclaw), and other museums. There, in 1944, the Nazis brought collections from Berlin and other cities, since Breslau had not yet been bombed. Museum curator Günter Grundmann was responsible for the evacuation of all the treasures at the end of the war from Gauleiter Hanke. He managed to take out some of the valuables, and hid some in local castles and mines. According to his inventory, the Polish authorities after the war found about 80 such burials in Lower Silesia. But many of Breslau's museum treasures have not yet surfaced. Perhaps they are in this armored train. However, let's not guess. Let's wait for official announcements. The wait won't be long.

— Is this train the last high-profile discovery from World War II?

- Yes you! Let us recall, for example, the priceless Amber Room, stolen by the Nazis in Tsarskoye Selo. To this day, enthusiasts are looking for it in Kaliningrad, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. There are many legends about Nazi treasures in the Austrian Alps, where at the end of the war the Fuhrer created a special fortified area. There really are a lot of things hidden in mines, tunnels, and at the bottom of lakes. Lake Toplitzsee acquired gloomy fame. It seems that the Nazis dropped a lot of mysterious boxes here. Many amateur scuba divers have died trying to find them. 16 boxes were found. But there were... fake banknotes. Many caches from World War II are still waiting for their treasure hunters.

Disappeared trains and hiding places in the mountains

Presumably, Martin Bormann got serious about evacuating the wealth in the summer of 1944.
With the help of Swiss bankers, he brought cash abroad, but they simply could not digest the huge amount of gold, so Bormann had to look for another way. According to some reports, “fascist No. 2” decided to use trains to remove valuables. The most legendary of them is considered to be train No. 277. The train had twenty-four cars and all of them were filled to the brim with ingots of precious metal. There were several more trains loaded with gold. They were united not only by the valuable cargo, but also by the fact that as a result they did not arrive anywhere, but seemed to disappear into the mountains.

According to some reports, “fascist No. 2” decided to use trains to remove valuables. The most legendary of them is considered to be train No. 277 // Photo: fishki.net

Some believe that the trains were intercepted by the Americans, with whom the Nazis had agreements in this regard. It's no secret that many former Nazis fled to America. Not only the south, but also the north. They often held their meetings in small American towns. The local authorities did not care about them, so they felt quite at ease.

Another version says that the Nazis hid the wealth in a network of hiding places in various parts of Austria. The lakes of Salzkammergut have become one of the most popular places for treasure seekers. According to local residents, they managed to make a fortune by renting scuba gear to hunters for fascist gold. There were indeed chests with valuables at the bottom of the lakes, but there were not many of them.

Experts suggest that by creating many caches and scattering some of the gold throughout Austria and Germany, the Nazis wanted to confuse their tracks and convince everyone that what they found was all that the Third Reich had.

Deep bottom of Lake Toplitzsee

There is still debate about where the Nazi gold disappeared, including the rest of the gold and foreign exchange reserves from the Reichsbank. There are many versions, including incredible ones. The most reliable version is still considered to be that part of the gold should be looked for at the bottom of Lake Toplitzsee in Austria, about a hundred kilometers from Salzburg.

In July 1958, hidden Nazi “treasures” were recovered from the bottom of Lake Toplitzsee. It turned out to be fake money

On April 29, 1945, the SS actually sank some boxes in this lake, which is located in a remote mountainous area and in which the Nazis tested new naval equipment. The search for them began almost immediately after the end of the war. And in 1959, they found at the bottom... not gold, but counterfeit pounds sterling, with the help of which the Nazis, scattering them over the territory of Great Britain, wanted to achieve the collapse of its financial system. Nothing more has been discovered in the lake, the depth of which in some places is more than a hundred meters, although even ultra-modern deep-sea vehicles have been used.

There have been no amateur treasure hunters here for a long time: the Austrian authorities prohibit any searches without special permission. So the question of where exactly Nazi gold is located - in Toplitz, at the bottom of other mountain lakes, in abandoned deep mines or in anonymous safes of famous banks - still remains open.

See also: • Legendary treasures that disappeared without a trace

• Legendary treasures that disappeared without a trace

Golden houses and cars

Treasures of the Third Reich could be taken abroad under the guise of the most ordinary objects. For example, building materials, frying pans, hooks and other things. In 1983, two tourists who got lost in the forest near the Austrian town of Bad Aussee discovered a small forest house. They were surprised to discover that its roof was made of gold bars with a swastika. The same material was used for window frames and walls. The house in the forest was valued at tens of millions of US dollars.

The roof of the house near Bad Aussee, as well as its window frames and walls, consisted of gold bars with a swastika // Photo: pressa.tv

And as noted in the memoirs of SS Standartenführer Friedrich Schwend, he left for Spain, under the wing of dictator Franco, in a gold car. In addition, he managed to take an incredible amount of gold abroad under the guise of the most ordinary things.

Gold of the Romanovs

Until 1914, the gold reserves of the Russian Empire were the largest in the world. During 1915-1918 he was evacuated several times to different cities. Some went to the Bolsheviks, some went to Kolchak, something was lost, something went to foreign banks... The Bolsheviks transported 35 million rubles from the gold reserves from Irkutsk. The fate of this train is unknown. The legendary cargo may be at the bottom of Lake Baikal.

The biggest cache

The largest cache of Third Reich gold was discovered in Western Thuringia, namely the Merkerz salt mines. It was pointed out to American soldiers in 1945 by women who worked here. In total, gold worth almost two hundred and fifty million Reichsmarks was found, as well as many art objects stolen by the Nazis. Among the treasures were crowns from concentration camp prisoners, as well as their jewelry.

The largest cache of Third Reich gold was discovered in Western Thuringia, namely the Merkerz salt mines // Photo: terraoko.com

Traces of the untold wealth of the Third Reich are periodically found all over the world. Perhaps Nazi Germany really possessed those countless treasures that are attributed to it. By the way, according to the decision of the Potsdam Conference, the values ​​of the Nazis should be divided among themselves by the USA, Britain, France and the USSR.

Under Joseph Stalin, the KGB was investigating the disappearance of Nazi gold. The special operation was called “Cross” and was aimed at finding out all the details of the movement and disappearance of the gold of the Third Reich, as well as the Russian Empire. After Stalin's death in 1953, according to official data, the operation was completed.

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Treasures of the Nibelungs

The famous medieval German epic “The Song of the Nibelungs” is not just a poem in which the conqueror of the dragon, the noble Siegfried, is killed by the treacherous Hagen. Siegfried lost his life, and with it the legendary treasures of the Nibelungs - carts loaded with gold. Hagen allegedly drowned them in the Rhine, as this mid-19th century painting illustrates. They are still looking for the Rhine Gold.

the Amber Room

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Prussian king Frederick William I presented the Amber Room to the Russian Emperor Peter I. During the Second World War, Wehrmacht soldiers dismantled it and took it to Konigsberg, where it disappeared without a trace: it was either burned down during the bombing, or hidden somewhere. Her fate remains a mystery. In the photo: the reconstructed Amber Room in the Catherine Palace in the city of Pushkin.

Holy Grail

The Holy Grail is a relic that is told in Celtic and Norman legends. This cup stood in front of Jesus on the table during the Last Supper, and after the crucifixion, blood from the wounds of the crucified Christ was collected into it. The legendary knights of the Round Table searched in vain for the Holy Grail. According to legend, whoever drinks from the holy cup will receive remission of sins and gain immortality. It is clear that the search continues today.

Treasures of the Templar Order

The knights of the powerful Templar order died in dungeons and were burned, like the Grand Master of the order, at the very beginning of the 14th century. King Philip the Fair wanted to destroy the Templars and get their hands on their countless treasures. But the gold and silver were saved when the Templars began to be arrested. What happened to these treasures? There are several hypotheses. But the treasures have not been found yet.

The Alps reliably hide the gold of the Reich

To Netzeband's complete confusion, responsibility for the valuables was transferred to the local command. The colonel never gave him any receipt for the treasures received, explaining that he “could not verify the values.” But Netzeband managed to fulfill one order from the government - to drown the printing plates for the Reichsmarks in the lake at great depths.

The Germans had almost no time left; the Americans were gradually pushing them out of the occupied cities. It is believed that the German government initially intended to hide the valuables in the heart of the country, but later decided to send them to the highlands. Rumors about the presence of treasures haunted local residents.

On the night of April 28, German soldiers headed toward Mount Steinriegel under cover of darkness, loading the gold onto mules. This mission was top secret; on the instructions of the colonel, the gold was to be delivered to special caches on the mountain. The entire operation was carried out over three days. In total, 96 bags with banknotes from different countries, 56 boxes with bars and coins were buried. Winter weather was favorable for the operation; snow covered all traces. Only those who hid them knew where the valuables were left.

On April 30, two days after the treasures were taken to the mountains, Garmisch-Partenkirchen was surrounded by American troops. Confident that the area was inaccessible and well protected, they called in artillery support. The Germans tried to negotiate a peaceful surrender, and at the last minute the bombing was called off. On May 8, 1945, the city hosted the Victory Parade of the Allied Forces.

With the onset of peace, American soldiers of the 101st Air Division found German treasures hidden in the mountains: a unique collection of Hermann Goering’s valuables, hundreds of priceless paintings and other works of art taken from different parts of Europe. But there was no gold. Those who knew about his whereabouts remained silent.

Germany takes its gold from abroad to stand on its own two feet

According to the Bundesbank, Germany has repatriated about 1,710 tons ahead of schedule, or just over half of its gold reserves, which ranks second in the world.

Germany repatriated 50.6% of its gold reserves from abroad ahead of schedule - about 1,710 tons of the yellow metal. Member of the Board of the Bundesbank (German Central Bank) Karl-Ludwig Thiele reported on this successful operation this week at a press conference in Frankfurt am Main. According to him, the total volume of German gold reserves is 3,378 tons. According to this indicator, Germany is in second place in the world after the United States. German gold has been completely withdrawn from Paris. In New York and London, there are still 1,236 tons and 432 tons of the precious metal, respectively, which, in the context of the transformation of modern money into, essentially, unsecured “candy wrappers,” is the only strong basic economy and well-being of nations.

Each ingot returned from abroad, Thiele noted, was checked for weight and authenticity: “there were no complaints.” A Bundesbank spokesman admitted that “this plan has been implemented earlier than planned.” He called it a “success” that it could be done in 2021, rather than in 2021 as originally planned.

Apparently, something is forcing Berlin to hurry. And you can guess what exactly.

Why are the Germans in a hurry?

Official explanations are unlikely to help much here. They consist in the fact that Germany, having begun to create its gold reserves in 1951, bought gold in New York, London and Paris and left them for storage there. At that time, West Germans feared that Soviet tanks would break through to the Rhine-Main Plain in a matter of days, immediately capture Frankfurt am Main, the country's financial capital, and rush to the shores of the Atlantic. Therefore, it is better to keep gold where you have to go.

True, this scenario was never realistic: a major war in the conditions of the enemy’s possession of nuclear weapons was unlikely, but they were still afraid of it. Over the years, the threat of war disappeared, and the countries that received German gold liked to keep it. Over the years, they began to consider him almost theirs. As long as the West was monolithic and did not quarrel with each other, as it is now, this was tolerated, however, in the face of growing contradictions with the United States and the prospects of the collapse of the European Union, gold must be returned home as soon as possible. And the sooner the better. From France, for example, since the beginning of 2017, the Germans have taken 91 tons of gold out of harm’s way. He's not there anymore. At all.

The Germans took all their gold from France, are New York and London next? Photo: www.globallookpress.com

What do we protect that we have?

Of course, concerns about the “reliability” of the custodians of German gold have not been officially expressed before. But there were such fears. And the media speculated with all their might that German gold had long been spent. Yes, it is registered with Germany, it is listed, there are audit receipts that everything is top-notch, the Germans are given out every year, but physically this gold no longer exists. The Bundesbank has always recognized that the practice of storing gold abroad complicates the process of verifying its authenticity and inventory. This means that they did not exclude the possibility that someone might one day “borrow” German gold bars, and then not be able to return them back. Therefore, the Germans asked their partners to start returning the yellow metal and did not skimp on spending almost eight million euros on this operation.

Protect yourself from all sides

Gold has long played the role of a protective investment - it is kept for a “rainy day”, in case of a crisis. For this purpose, it is planned to use the German gold remaining abroad - in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of England. What if something happens to the euro? Or will there be serious problems in the eurozone, for example as a result of the debt crisis of a number of member countries? And then Germany's trading partners outside the EU will doubt the value of the single European currency, and serious problems could arise until the situation becomes clearer. What if the EU gets a new currency or Germany returns to the German mark? Then German gold in the Anglo-Saxon countries will be able to act as a guarantor that it is still possible to trade with Germany during this difficult period, without fear of any complications...

Another explanation for why the Germans sped up the gold repatriation process but did not take it completely is that they still want to remain useful to their major Western trading partners. Although trust in them, especially in the United States under Trump and Britain after Brexit, has already been largely undermined. Thus, according to Thiele, gold stored in the Federal Bank of New York can, on occasion, be used “as collateral against the redenomination of the dollar,” and “the liquidity of the pound sterling can be maintained by the collateral of the gold stored in the Bank of England.”

This evidence is, in fact, confirmation of the version current in expert circles that the very tradition of storing German gold in foreign centers partly developed not because of the Soviet threat, but because Germany was paying in this way for a surplus in trade with the United States, Britain and France. These countries were unofficially allowed, in cases of urgent need, to use German gold to stabilize their currencies or for other purposes. This practice helped strengthen confidence in Germany, smoothed out trade imbalances, and served as an additional guarantee for the presence of troops from these countries in Germany.

New times are upon us

However, these times are now becoming a thing of the past. They haven’t left yet, but they are leaving – and this process can be accurately monitored precisely by the situation with German gold.

Germany no longer relies on the Americans and other allies, it intends to defend itself, and gold at hand will not hurt. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Now another era is on the threshold. This is evidenced by the fact that Germany has finally decided to rely on itself in the field of security, and not on the Americans, British and even the French. Germany's military spending will increase to 2% of GDP by 2024, the army will be enlarged, and modern equipment will begin to be supplied to it. In monetary terms this will amount to approximately 60 billion euros. Until recently, these expenses amounted to only 1.2% of GDP; this year they will reach 37 billion euros. This means that Germany will almost double them within just five years. Its military budget has already surpassed in volume the military budget of France, which considers itself the strongest militarily power in Western Europe.

In other words, Germany is no longer the country it was just recently - it will not, as Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said, automatically support the United States. So, to stand on its own two feet, Germany naturally needs more of the yellow metal in its own vaults. Especially when, due to Brexit, world bankers gathered from London to Frankfurt am Main.

Gold and money should also go together.

Are the bankers to blame for everything?

But maybe all these cars are a hoax? Is everything withdrawn through banks? No. In the summer of 1944, the Nazis tried to transfer $10 billion in gold and platinum to Argentina, Peru and Chile through Swiss banks. But this turned out to be technically impossible.

There are versions that the Italian mafia was involved in the disappearance of the gold. Historian Gerhard Zauner believes that Vatican Bishop Aloiso Hudal had a hand in this. He was a Nazi sympathizer, had connections with the Camorra, and could help remove the gold.

In 1946, this became known to the British, and the Allies even tried to search the Vatican monasteries, but they were not allowed in.

Perhaps the Spanish dictator Franco, the only dictator who remained in power after 1945, had something to do with the loss of gold. It is known that soon after the development of the Marshall Plan, gold marked by the Reichsbank flowed like a river from Spain to the United States as collateral for a loan.