The Amber Room_ The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure - Cathy Scott-Clark [93]
We need help, ideally from one of those responsible for the story. It first broke in Kaliningradskaya Pravda, but when we call no one there has heard of Vladimir Dmetriev. A contact in Moscow, who has assembled a database of journalists, says that no one by the name of Vladimir Dmetriev has ever been registered. That makes Vladimir Dmetriev more than likely a pseudonym and the thought suddenly occurs to us that Dmetriev might be Anatoly Kuchumov, the man sent to reopen the Amber Room search, a key opponent of Professor Brusov. It would have been in Kuchumov's interests to discredit his predecessor's findings. For the first time we notice that Kuchumov's name was absent from all of these articles about his 1949 Kaliningrad mission (articles that are pasted into his scrapbook).
But Kuchumov is dead. Gerhard Strauss too. Freie Welt closed down in 1991. We are not scheduled to go back to Russia for another ten days. However, since the Stasi controlled all publications in GDR times, we contact an information trader from former East Berlin who, we have been told, sells contacts with old apparatchiks.
Could he broker a meeting with a former editor of Freie Welt, we ask? 'No,' the information trader says, 'but there's someone else who might be able to help.. I do have contact with a former Stasi lieutenant-colonel who worked in propaganda. Pay up and I'll get you an introduction. Maybe he knows something about it.' The information trader hangs up.
It is said that if you put the right number of coins in the box these days in Germany, former Stasi officers pop up. And yet when the Stasi lieutenant-colonel calls us, we are still surprised to be talking to him. It is a brief conversation, devoid of any niceties. The man demands a pseudonym. We settle on Herr 'Stolz'. He asks the topic of discussion. We keep it tight. We say we want to talk about his specialism - state propaganda. He asks for our address. We give him the room number at the Berlin Swissotel. Overlooking the Swissotel's glass atrium from the eighth floor, we watch a middle-aged man in a black felt beret pacing the lobby in black zip-up boots. He observes the minimalist scene with its stained pine, marble and chrome, stopping to press the plush cream furnishings and stooping to sniff the pink lilies, all the time keeping an eye on everyone who emerges from the lifts.
Once in a while he sits down on the sofa beside the lobby bar, his black boots easing themselves into the luxurious pile, his suede gloves sliding over the smooth leather seat covers. And then off he goes again. The flowers. Rising and sitting. Stooping and sniffing. This must be 'Stolz'.
We ring down to reception and a few minutes later he is at our door, his milky blue eyes studying our faces, while a gloved hand strokes an immaculate Walter Ulbricht beard.
Only when our room door is locked does he signal that he is ready to talk. Can 'Stolz' tell us anything about Gerhard Strauss's articles in Freie Welt} Hunched on the bed facing the window, his back to us, 'Stolz' is monitoring the shoppers milling along Kurfurstendamm. Suddenly he looks over his shoulder. 'Freie Welt was a textbook case,' he says. What does 'Stolz' mean by a 'textbook case'? He ignores our question but takes off his gloves and his black felt beret. We notice that his rosy cheeks and thin pink fingers have an expensive spa sheen as he launches into a lecture about the art of propaganda and disinformation.
We interrupt. Can he be more specific? Can 'Stolz' tell us about Freie Welt} The Amber Room?
He picks up his beret and starts to pull on his gloves. I don't know anything about the Amber Room. Have you brought me here under false pretences?' he snaps. I thought