Treasures: Undiscovered riches are said to lie dormant in these lakes

Treasures
Undiscovered riches are said to slumber in these lakes

Myths about buried riches have been around for centuries. Tales of pirate treasures that are said to be lying in shipwrecks or buried on a small island in the South Pacific attract adventurers every year. But gold and jewels should not only slumber in distant places. Treasures are said to be waiting to be discovered in German waters too.

The Nibelungen treasure in the Rhine

There is no other treasure in Germany that has more legends than the Nibelung treasure. According to the myth, Hagen von Tronje removed 144 wagonloads of gold from the manor house in Worms and sank them at an unknown location in the Rhine. The origin of the story is the heroic epic "Das Nibelungenlied", which an unknown author wrote at the beginning of the 13th century.

There it says: "He had it sunk into the Rhine at the Loche" – many suspect that the name is Lochheim, 20 kilometers from Worms. Some researchers targeted the "black place" near Gernsheim. It is the sharpest curve in the Rhine. Divers have searched the site several times, but the treasure has remained undetectable to this day.

The Stolpsee and the sunken "Nazi treasure"

The 13-meter-deep Stolpsee lies in the north of Brandenburg. A completely normal body of water if it weren't for the rumor that an SS commando dumped 18 boxes with 350 kilograms of gold and 100 kilograms of platinum there shortly before the end of the Second World War. Hermann Göring (1893-1946) is said to have stolen the gold during the war.

Alatsee: military tests and gold?

In the Alatsee, west of Füssen, a treasure should also be slumbering. The lake lies at an altitude of 840 meters and is up to 32 meters deep. Many myths and legends have always been entwined around the water: mythical creatures live there, ghosts roam at night and sea monsters roam the bottom. The reality is that Luftwaffe technology carried out experiments in the lake with underwater models during the Second World War. Iron frames can still be found in the water today.

According to a rumor, gold treasures from the Deutsche Reichsbank that had previously been stored in Neuschwanstein Castle were sunk there towards the end of the war. But there is still no trace of it, since 1983 the lake has also been closed to divers.

Dollar bills at Walchensee

The Walchensee is about 75 kilometers from Munich. In April 1945 the Wehrmacht and officials from the Reichsbank brought a fortune to a small town on the south-west bank, in Einsiedl. The treasure was then buried above today's Obernach power plant. This allegedly included four boxes of gold, 365 bags of two gold bars each, two bags of gold coins and 94 bags of foreign currency – mainly US dollars and Swiss francs.

In June the property was handed over to the Allies. However, there were apparently missing 100 gold bars and all Swiss francs and dollar bills. To this day there is speculation as to whether there might not be other underground depots.

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