K.A.K.T.U.S. e. V.
Looted Art Investigation Group Thuringia and Saxony

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The results of our investigations force us to act !
Please help to recover looted art !

PROJECT "SLATEX"

Information for Supporters

On this page, we want to give an overview to the many interested people who wished to be more informed about our activities. It has only informative character. We also inform about the possibilities to participate in our research.

The K.A.K.T.U.S. group was found in January 1989. All members are interested in the investigation of the history of the slate mines in Thuringia and Saxony during World War II. and their use as secret war production sites and deposits. Investigation concentrates in lost art now because we found several hints on such activities in suspicious parts of the mines during our work.

The members of K.A.K.T.U.S. consist out of Historians, Journalists, Authors, Electronic Engineers, Cave Divers, experienced THers and Survival Experts. For certain jobs however, we hire specialists.

Compared to the hunt for pirate gold or other historical treasures from past centuries, searching for "Nazi treasures" is of course much more likely to be successful. Looting art by the Nazis is a sad reality and not too far in the past, so the events can be clarified with some effort.

Hitler-Germany had captured many European countries since 1938 and occupied wide areas of Europe. Only in the first 4 years of the war a value of about 80 Milliards of German Reich Mark got stolen from the people of Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece and Russia. In the period of 1944/45, a giant treasure existed in the hands of a couple of Nazis. Tons of gold, jewelry and diamonds, human art work, whose value, if even can be estimated - would be about 10 Milliards of Gold Mark.

Until today, only some insiders know about the amount and the remains of this giant treasure. We still miss the proof of several tons of gold from that treasure. The Nazis left wrong bookings on a large scale. The government of USA and England by far has not recovered all the values. We have to follow the traces of the thieves, which covered up traces, lost their faces and names.

Our policy does not allow us to publish details of our projects. We also do not want to announce our activities. Our actual projects are explained briefly to give a common overview about future plans and current activities.

All project investigations are in a final stage now. Recovery starts as soon as the last questions (owner rights, permits, financing) are answered. Since most of the recoveries are underground, weather conditions do not play a big role.

Currently, K.A.K.T.U.S. works on 7 projects in different stages, which have been financed only by its members so far. We ran out of funds quickly because the time consuming investigation was very costly. Our investigations have been very detailed and accurate and not one single chance to talk to an eye witness has been missed, even if in many occasions, long travel was nessesary. Not only the archives of villages, cities, counties, countries and companies have been used. It was extremely  difficult to find still living eye witnesses and the interrogations needed much patience. However, the results are overwhelming and force us to react.

The treasures - theories and first hints

1. In general

Many investigators in looted art have stated that slate mines were unsuitable to hold art treasures.
However, we could prove them wrong. In 1943 already, a big task was started by the Nazis to find underground rooms for war production and deposits of all kind. All mines in work and out of work as well as caves have been checked for their suitability and we have found reports about several duzen slate mines as well stating an excellent suitability to host art work. In fact, all of the slate mines in the Southern East part of Thuringia have been used during WWII. Most served as a host for secret  underground production, some have been reported to be perfect for the deposit of archives and art treasures.

One thought, slate mines would be to humid. However, the people saying that appearently never entered a slate mine. The truth is that the average humidity in the mines is only about  60-70 % with a stable temperature of approximately 50 Fahrenheit. Just ideal to host art work of all kind. If we compare the humidity of the slate mines to the humidity af the salt mine Altaussee in Austria, which hosted the largest collection of paintings, we see that the average humidity there was 74-79 % with an equal temperature of about 50 Fahrenheit. We could even find a document saying that the salt mine Altaussee had problems with humidity. Insolation of roofs and floors was needed to solve the problem. As a result, we know that slate mines have been the better choice to serve as a secret deposit.

The entire leadership of the Third Reich had concentrated in Southern Thuringia in 1945. In the area of the slate mine for example, the Wehrmachts-Auskunftsstelle had formed up in January 1945 in Saalfeld and Rudolstadt. The RSHA Wirtschaftsstelle Amt V1/Wi was using Castle Lauenstein to counterfei money and produce secret inks. Hitler has sent Admiral Canaris to the castle where he was kind of imprissoned. He was allowed to move on the Castles grounds, but not to talk to anyone. Many high ranking military personal has been there and there was a Shortwave Radio Station on the castle, from where a mysterious radio message regarding the hiding of the Amber Room has been sent. Georg Stein, an investigator from Northern Germany had found out about the origin of the radio message and some time later has been killed in a forest in Southern Germany.

2. Koch's looted art collection

One had begun to construct a second headquarter for Erich Koch, the Gauleiter of East Prussia, near Saalfeld in Southern Thuringia. Quotation of "Bernsteinzimmer-Report" by Paul Enke: "One wanted to bring the art collection of Koch, which has been at the museum in Weimar, to it's new headquarter near Saalfeld."

In fact, on the 9th and 10th of April 1945, each one truck loaded with one third of his collection, left Weimar to the South (direction of Saalfeld). The last third of his collection had to remain in Weimar, because the allies had arrived and there is a list of all the items it contained.

We suppose that his collection was deposited in a slate mine and the entrance has been closed. We found eye witnesses confirming that a blast was done by the SS at this mine in April 1945, which had no regular mining reason. The blast was neither registered in the blast book nor did it make any sense. The mine is located near Koch's planned headquarter. In the cellars of the castle located near the mine, the allies found a deposit of material from the museum in Weimar. The rooms in the cellars have been filled up and therefor could not hold Koch's collection, why it has been brought to the near mine.

Archivists from Weimar found a record saying that Gauleiter Koch brought his collection to Thuringia. This was the prove of the theory that Koch could have brought more important art work to Thuringia instead of Saxony in agreement with Bormann and the Gauleiter of Thuringia, Saukel.

3. The stolen art collection of Göhring

If one talks about Göring and his fabulous treasures, it always comes to the subject Castle Veldenstein, which was the residence of Emma and Edda Göring. The people of the village near the Castle have been always infected by the treasure fever. Even if the last big hunt after the treasure dates back more than 30 years already, people are still convinced from the existence of the treasures of the former owner.

Göring was Hitler Germanys biggest and most prominent art collector. Since 1926 he had collected art already with great passion. In November 1940, Göring wrote to Rosenberg in a letter: "Today I already own the most important private collection, at least in Germany, if not in Europe"

In February and March 1945 each one railway train left Berlin with Görings loot to direction south. However, only a part of his collection has been transported this way. We have reasons to assume that big parts of his collection have been brought to Thuringia by his air force. Several eye witnesses support this theory. Former soldiers remember mysterious transports which they had to accompany to Thuringia. Quotation by Paul Enkes "Amber Room-Report":

»The speculation is not unjustified that the Amber Room has been brought to Thuringia by a unit of the air force of Göring. Several letters of readers support this version.«

The fact that Göring was the "care taker of the German mining industry", lets one guess that some of the transports have been deposited in the numerous slate mines near Saalfeld. In addition, a second headquarter was planed for him near castle Schwarzburg. Also the "Navy Home" was in this area. All together, there is much evidence that the region around Saalfeld had an important meaning. On a very small area, second headquarters have been planned for several of the thieves. In Castle Schwarzburg, which was supposed to become a secret meeting place, one wanted to build a headquarter for Joseph Göbbels. A headquarter for Erich Koch was prepared near Saalfeld. Consequently, three people which had been involved in art robbery at considerable measure were united in direct neighborhood. And yet one does not pay enough attention to the hints on hidden art work in the close mines.

Since Göring was the care taker of German mining, he must have had extensive knowledge in this special field. He knew for sure that the slate mines are very suitable to take important underground productions, because by his command, they constructed an underground testing plant for the tubes of V-2 rockets explained in a later chapter. Big parts of Görings loot are still missing.

4. The famous Amber Room

The Amber Room boxes were said to be seen in Castle Reinhardsbrunn where children used amber plates to make them jump over a pond. We believe, the Amber Room was indeed in Reinhardsbrunn, from where it was taken to the South by Gustav Wyst and Albert Popp. There is no prove yet, but we could prove that the railway from Weimar to Ludwigsstadt was still accessible until the 9th of April 1945. In a small village near Saalfeld has been a branch of concentration camp Buchenwald. It was a slate mine with a secret V2 tube test plant. The railway from Weimar went directly into the mine.

The SS has closed several tunnels with concrete, still being closed today. The mining office does not allow anyone to enter because of the blasts done by the Russians after WWII. K.A.K.T.U.S. found out, that the mine is still accessible, but under big danger. In April 1945, the testing of tubes was finished already and the prisoners were handled good compared to before. However, suddenly 30 Jewish prisoners have been shoot to death at one night without an explainable reason. The mine was on the list of objects of the STASI, which had to be searched for art work during GDR time. Due to the political changed in Germany and the said end of the STASI, the mine never has been investigated.

K.A.K.T.U.S. has much more information about the subject and with your help, we can finally finish the first projects by uncovering the old mining tunnels and returning the looted art work to the original owners.

Brief description of our objects

• Object 1: has concrete rooms, 1944/45 used by war production, former prisoner reports a 2-month deposit of material,  time witness reports a truck transport by the Wehrmacht, German company covers archives material

• Object 2: 1943-45 confiscated by SS, different tunnels closed by the SS, "Stasi" had hints on a deposit of the Amber Room, direct entrance for the train in the tunnel, shooting of 30 prisoners without a reason.

• Object 3: April 1945 depositing of boxes from a truck of the Wehrmacht, time witness.

• Object 4: 1944/45 rented to Navy, deposits have been made.

• Object 5: 1944/45 occupied as a deposit for the Wehrmacht, inaccessible since the war.

• Object 6: 1944/45 occupied from war production company, blasts occurred in April 45.

• Object 7: April 1945 unclear blasts happened.

All objects have been slate mines out of work during World War II. The information are based on written material plus statements of eye witnesses. In the area we explore, we have about 100 mines which got checked for the suitability as a deposit for records, art work and archives. At the objects listed above, K.A.K.T.U.S. could prove, that they had been used as deposits. In all of them, we could find closed tunnels, which have to be reopened by our team. The numeric order does not mean that one object would be more important than the other.

Description of object 1

Object 1, called "Kaulquappe", a mine of the government, which got checked during the searching for underground rooms. The former report says the following: "railroad connection available, rooms are suitable and marked with a "g" in the plans - very suitable for special purposes - natural air conditioning very good - little humidity - no dripping water - rocks are very solid."

At the 18th of April 1944, Schott Glas of Jena, Thuringia got the order to move into the underground rooms to relocate their important glass production. In addition to the 7 existing hollows with 450 sq ft surface and 45 feet height each, several others got digged out. Concrete construction has been brought in and rooms of different size got created. All concrete rooms had an extensive drainage and air conditioning system. 250 workers were involved, 100 of them were mining workers and the other 150 were helpers.

From a first report of the responsible mining worker we could see that 14000 cubic meters of rocks had to be taken out which would fill up about 44000 mining wagons. This work should have been finished in 75 days, but there were not enough workers available. The responsible architect, Ing. Theodor Vogel stated the following: "The cost of the construction site is not important, the German Reich pays it all. The R-numbers are comparable with the highest importance of the Jägerstab (Air Force)."

In December 1944, the underground construction came to a halt, because finishing the project before the end of the war was impossible. Suddenly, in February and March 1945, daily train transports arrived, whose content got deposited inside the mine. Prisoners of the near concentration camp "Laura" had to do this job. One of them states: "40 prisoners had to walk to the mine every day, to take out the content of the railway wagons and put it into the smaller mining wagons. Down in the crater, we saw black tunnel entrances. The place was quiet, no movement, the mine was out of work.
We found a wild chaos of all kind of things in the wagons and many furniture, all messed up.
We transferred it on the small mining wagons. Some boxes have been very heavy. The SS personal said it would be factory equipment from East Germany. When the small wagons were loaded, a small diesel engine pulled them down into the tunnels where they have been discharged. This happened 8 weeks long. The trains always arrived at night and waited for us the next day."

Our investigations led to the result, that some of the mining rooms can not be accessed anymore, because they have been filled up with slate garbage. Many tons of stones would have to be removed to be able to enter the rooms again. They have been absolutely suitable to deposit sensitive material because they were big and dry. During one of our explorations in the mine, we found an old blast record from 1943 on the concrete floor. It was in perfect condition and had no traces of destruction at all. To explore the object "Kaulquappe", we mainly need helpers, since the majority of the work is simply digging. To recover all concrete rooms, we estimate 10 people for the period of about 3 months. We plan on making an access to the side and entering over one of the air conditioning tunnels.

After the war, the mine was out of work. The former production company hides records, lies about the existence of the project and evades all questions. In recent days, they have even threatened us not to further investigate about the mine. Nevertheless, we could get some interesting records with the help of a worker of the companies archive. Today, we have detailed plans about the project "Kaulquappe" and documents, which prove cooperation of the company with the former department of defense V1-Wi on castle Lauenstein (counterfeit money and documents). We could also find out, that in order to get the  missing 150 labourers to finish the project, there has been a direct transport of Jewish prisoners from the concentration camp Auschwitz. A mysterious fact, since this was not common to bypass Buchenwald. Normaly, each transport would have to go from Auschwitz to Buchenwald and from there to "Laura". The remains of these 150 prisoners is unclear.

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