The Amber Room_ The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure - Cathy Scott-Clark [135]
Enke's letter to Semyonov continued:
After an interruption of several months we are working again on the opening of an old mine for which there are indications that it might have been selected in 1944-5 as a depository for works of art. At the request of my comrades we have now decided to publish the provisional results of our researches. It will turn out to become two publications around which I currently negotiate with publishers. Due to the shortage of paper the print run may be too low. I embrace you and send you the warmest fraternal regards and messages of congratulations on the anniversary of the victory over Hitler's fascism.
The Ministry of Truth files confirmed that in 1984 Seufert's 'Operation Puschkin' team was targeting a new site at Langenstein, a village in the foothills of Brocken Mountain, an area riddled with lead, copper and zinc reserves.53 It was miles away from the Erzgebirge and Enke's previous hypothesis and the dig site was surely symbolic, located near a high-security Soviet military base and a Stasi electronic eavesdropping station that overlooked the West German border. The Stasi would be seen digging by Russians and West Germans. We are pulled up short by the language Enke uses. 'We are working'. 'Our researches'. In fact Enke was at home with his incomplete manuscript, fighting to save Bernsteinzimmer Report from budget cuts. It must have been now that Enke called up Giinter Wermusch at Die Wirtschaft publishing house.
Another letter from Paul Enke.
15 May 1984. My dear Julian, I have heard that you have returned from South America to your native country. I do hope the large tour has been a success. Your readers and I myself will obviously be especially interested if you manage to trace the tracks of Martin Bormann. Following the forged Hitler Diaries, Der Stern of Hamburg has warmed up the legend that surmises that Martin Bormann could still be alive. Since Bormann was so obviously involved in the concealment of the Amber Room, the story would certainly create interest. I have just looked again at the correspondence between Martin Bormann and his wife. Extremely meaningful for the study of the psyche of this criminal. An author with whom I have become friendly claims to have located Gerda Bormann in Italy and to have spoken personally with her. He swore by all the saints in the calendar that this woman was really and truly Bormann's wife. You know my attitude to such 'sensations'. Comments are superfluous.54
Another month, another letter to Julian Semyonov and another conspiracy for Enke, who clearly yearned for the respect of his brother writer. His own problems, over forgeries and the 'Rudi Ringel' debacle, seemed to have been forgotten.
Enke continued:
Last month George Stein called at the State Archives Administration in Potsdam. He also tried to make contact with P. Kohler. But Kohler had been at the time on an extended journey to Cuba. I therefore had to represent Kohler and look after Stein... discussions that lasted four days. He informed us extensively about his work and about the clues he has been following, whereby I am afraid, regarding the Amber Room, the tracks followed were more in the realm of wishful thinking than in the region of reality. In spite of all this, it is still regrettable that although in this way a so-called German-Russian dialogue and exchange of experiences on the subject of the Amber Room has materialized it is, however, only in Berlin instead of in Moscow.
In creating his persona of a senior researcher at the Ministry of the Interior archives, Stasi officer Enke had borrowed the identity of a real employee, a man