The Amber Room_ The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure - Cathy Scott-Clark [95]
Did Oberst Seufert ever hint at what new evidence the Stasi was working on, we ask?
'No. I told you I was not involved. I worked for a different directorate. But I do recall strict instructions about informants who came in with leads about art thefts. We were to pass them immediately to the office of Generaloberst Bruno Beater, Mielke's deputy during the 1970s. Particularly if they concerned the Amber Room. Generaloberst Beater apparently took the issue of the missing Amber Room very seriously. Sometimes we would get questions back from Beater's office. But I did not deviate from my orders. I only asked the questions I was ordered to.'
Was Strauss then working for the Stasi, we ask, or perhaps a Soviet security agency? The story he wrote had originated in the USSR after all.
I couldn't possibly say,' says 'Stolz'. I never met Strauss but I knew him by reputation. The Herr Professor Doctor was well respected among the upper echelons of the SED Politburo.'
Can 'Stolz' put us in touch with Oberst Seufert, General Beater or anyone else connected with the Stasi's Amber Room study group?
No response. From a leather folder 'Stolz' produces a slim volume with a cheap cellophane cover decorated with a drawing of the Amber Room, tinted yellow and white: Bernsteinzimmer Report. 'Have you seen this? The author was the GDR's foremost Amber Room expert. Amassed a lot of information.'
Paul Enke's book on the search for the Amber Room, published in 1986
'Stolz' throws the book on to the bed and turns back to look down on Kurfurstendamm. Bernsteinzimmer Report, published in 1986 by a man who might or might not have been a Stasi agent, is the most famous German book about the Amber Room mystery. But it is long out of print and this is the first copy we have actually seen.
Was Paul Enke part of the Stasi study group, we ask? 'Stolz' isn't listening. He's at the mirror, moulding his black felt beret back on his head. We flick through the book to see in the flyleaf a handwritten inscription: 'To my Comrade ['Stolz'], with thanks, Paul Enke.' You know the author, Paul Enke, we say? No response. Can we at least speak to Enke directly?
'Stolz' stifles a little laugh with a gloved hand, brushing the leather against his lips. I don't think so,' he murmurs. 'Enke's dead. Quite unexpected. A relatively young man. We were all very shocked. Bernsteinzimmer Report had only just been published.'
'Stolz' holds out his hand. 'Give. I need it back. Must go. Have to pick up my daughter from the airport.' And with a waft of cheap soap, he is gone although we have held the book just long enough to see the name of its editor, Giinter Wermusch, and the quote that begins Paul Enke's story, something he had taken from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 'Some of the splendour of the world has melted away through war and time.'
8
We ring round the second-hand bookshops in Berlin that specialize in publications from the former GDR, but none of them has a copy of Paul Enke's Bernsteinzimmer Report. One outlet in Ackerstrasse, in former East Berlin, suggests we contact Enke's editor directly. 'Giinter Wermusch. He is still alive,' he says.
But there are several G. Wermuschs in the phone book. Eventually we connect to this weary voice: 'Wermusch, ja bitte?'
A hacking cough interrupts our prepared speech. The man at the other end sounds consumptive or very old. He drops the receiver. Hack, hack, clunk. We call back again, mention a name and wait for his answer.
'Paul Enke? Scheisse. Nein, nein.' Clunk.
We try again: 'Hello?'
Silence. Then Wermusch manages a few words: 'Sprechen sie Deutsch? I don't speak English. Not since 1992.' Clunk.
One final attempt from us: 'Guten Tag, we have flown from London
Hack, hack. Then Wermusch hoarsely whispers: 'Ach. Nah. What did you say your name? OK. Who told you about me? In three days' time you come. 5 p.m. Nur eine halbe Stunde, ja?' Clunk.
We return to