Merkers Mine: The story of the secret Nazi treasure hoard
Uncover the Nazi treasure hoard hidden deep in a German mine, and what the Allies did with it after Merkers was uncovered in 1945.
Image: American soldiers looking at Manet's 'Wintergarden' recovered from Merkers Mine | Public Domain
The small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it village of Merkers isn’t the kind of place you’d expect to find a Nazi treasure hoard. But in April 1945, as the Third Reich collapsed and Russian soldiers advanced on the German capital, rumours started to spread that the unassuming Kaiseroda salt mine complex near Merkers was storing more than just equipment.
Following leads from local displaced persons, US troops decided to take a closer look. Turns out the rumours were true.
The mine was being used to store the lion’s share of the Reichsbank’s gold reserves (more than 400 million Reichsmarks worth). That’s equivalent to more than two billion Euros in today’s currency. Along with gold, the mine was filled with thousands of crates of artworks from the Berlin State Museums.
This fascinating tale is the subject of a new Sky HISTORY series, Last Hunt For Nazi Gold, starting Monday, 30 March at 9pm. Ahead of the show, here’s everything you need to know.
Why a mine?
By 1945, German cities were being pounded from the air. Underground space offered what even a well-built shelter couldn’t: depth, stable conditions and long stretches of tunnels that could hide an entire operation out of sight. Bonus points if the space was tucked away in a tiny, unassuming village in central Germany.
The Reichsbank started transporting reserves to Merkers by rail in February 1945. It was more than a 'stash loot in the mine and hope for the best' operation. Within the complex was a sealed vault area called 'Room No. 8'. It sounds like a modest storage cupboard but it really, really wasn’t.
When US engineers broke through the masonry, they walked into a chamber roughly 75 feet by 150 feet. Tracks ran down the middle and thousands of sealed bags sat in neat rows. Inside? An absolute fortune in gold, artwork, books and more.
What was actually hidden at Merkers?
Headlines lean towards 'Nazi Gold' but in reality the haul was much broader than that. It helps to think of it as three overlapping stashes.
1. Reichsbank reserves (the state hoard)
Almost half a billion Reichsmarks were stashed at the main entrance to the mine. The gold was protected by a vault and weighed an eye-watering 250 tons in total. Also inside the vault were currencies from across Europe, including almost 100 million French francs (equivalent to over 11 billion Euros).
2. Artworks (the cultural cache)
As Berlin became increasingly vulnerable, museum collections were moved for 'safekeeping'. In hindsight, the word did a lot of work in Nazi Germany. After an early shipment went to a nearby site that proved unsuitable, later loads ended up at Merkers, including important holdings from major museums.
Allied officers reported crates of sculptures, antiquities, prints and paintings, including Albrecht Dürer woodcuts and works by heavyweight artists like Rubens, Goya, Manet and Cranach.
3. SS loot (stolen personal property)
This is the part that turns the story from 'wartime treasure' into something much darker. Alongside the bullion were dozens of suitcases, trunks and boxes linked to SS deliveries of property taken from concentration camp victims. Inside was everything from jewellery and cash to dental gold and household silverware. When Eisenhower visited the mine, he was struck not just by the value of the stash, but the coldness of it all.
Merkers was a big HQ but it definitely wasn’t the only place the Nazis were stashing loot. In Last Hunt For Nazi Gold, historian Guy Walters and Justine Ostrowska embark on a 4000-kilometre journey across Europe, chasing legends of hidden Nazi treasure, from bunkers in Italy to lakes in Austria.
Unpacking the mine
The Americans inventoried the site, guarded every entrance and organised heavily protected convoys to move the haul to a Reichsbank building in Frankfurt. Gold and currency were shipped first under tight security, with air cover.
Then came the art. A convoy nicknamed Task Force Hansen set off with 26 10-ton lorries loaded with cultural material, escorted on the ground and from the air.
What happened to the Merkers haul?
The short version is that the Merkers haul became evidence for war trails, and eventually, a long and complicated restitution process.
Foreign currencies recovered by the Americans were returned to various countries in the summer of 1945. The painstaking work of identifying and restituting artworks followed.
The gold from Merkers was handed over in early 1946 to the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency. Later, the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold (set up by the US, UK and France) took charge with the goal to redistribute stolen central-bank gold to claimant nations. Because the claims exceeded what was available, countries generally received only a portion of what they were owed.
As for the SS 'Melmer' property (aka the non-monetary gold and valuables tied to victims of Nazi persecution). This 'loot' fed into separate postwar restitution and relief efforts, and it also featured in war-crimes investigations and prosecutions.
Want to learn more? Join historian Guy Walters as he begins a 4,000-kilometre European odyssey to uncover the truth about Nazi plunder in Last Hunt For Nazi Gold, airing exclusively on Sky HISTORY available from Monday, 30 March at 9pm.
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