The history of the Amber Room search begins right after Konigsberg capitulation and lasts till now. There are many theories of its present-day location, but none of them has been proved either scientifically, or by documentation. 

Main hypotheses:

  1. The Amber Room was burnt in fire in Konigsberg Castle, caused by the assault on the city.
  2. The Amber Room is hidden on the territory of former Konigsberg (nowadays Kaliningrad), lost amid the maze of its long-sealed underground tunnels and bunkers.
  3. The Amber Room had been evacuated from Konigsberg before the assault of the city and is now hidden somewhere in Germany (or Austria, Poland, Czech Republic).
  4. The Amber Room was found in Germany in the occupation zone by US troops and was secretly transported to the United States of America where it became part of some private collection.
  5. The Amber Room is in the South America where it was brought by the Nazis who escaped Germany after the End of the Third Reich.
  6. The Amber Room was on the torpedoed ship “Wilhelm Gustloff” or on the cruiser “Prinz Eugen” which was given to the USA for reparation. 

    Down through the years the Amber Room location theories have multiplied and there even emerged an idea of “The Amber Room Curse”…

 

Information given below should not be anyhow considered as scientifically proved.

The history of the Amber Room search begins right after Konigsberg capitulation.
But first let us return to the World War II. By August 1941 the Germans had reached the outskirts of Leningrad (St. Petersburg), capturing the outlying Catherine Palace. Upon hearing of this event, Alfred Franz Ferdinand Rohde - Head of the Prussian Art Museum and Doctor of Art - wrote a letter to the Gauleiter of East Prussia, Erich Koch, in which he calls for returning “our national pride – the Amber Room” to Germany. As early as November, of the same year, Professor Rhode’s dream came true as he received the great Amber Room in Konigsberg. When the Amber Room was completely assembled, to the disillusionment of Rohde, it became clear that it was not Rastrelli’s masterpiece anymore, not that Amber Room which visitors of the Catherine Palace used to admire. One of the Florentine mosaics was missing, as well as 24 bronze candelabrums; there were only few pieces of furniture left; relief decorations, separate stones and figures were lost; mirrors broken. This information is proved by Dr. Rohde’s article “The Amber Room of Friedrich I in Konigsberg Castle”, which was published in “Pantheon” magazine in 1942.
In August 1944 allied bombing raids pulverized the city and reduced the Konigsberg castle to rubble. It is said that the Amber Room was dismantled, crated and hidden in the basements of the south wing of the castle. After one of the harshest attacks, it was almost completely destroyed. But from Rohde’s correspondence it seems certain that the Amber Room survived these attacks. It is believed that the crates with the dissembled Amber Room were taken out of the basement and transported to a safe place which until now remains unknown. 
Right after Konigsberg surrender, the search for the Amber Room began. The information on the subject was scarcely provided by Dr. Rohde himself, as he elected to stay in the city. A lot of damaged furniture and porcelain from the Catherine Palace was found in the ashes of the ruined castle as well as an inventory book of the Prussian Museum which contained records on the Amber Room being delivered there. But the Amber Room itself was never found in the castle. 
One of the participants of the specially organized research group, Professor A. Brusov said later that from the very beginning he doubted the possibility of placing the Amber Room in such a small basement room as identified by Rohde. Soon afterwards, Rhode changed his statement and declared that the Amber Room was hidden in another hall and burnt in fire. After a while Brusov found documents signed by Rhode, where the evacuation of the Amber Room was mentioned. A secret bunker, where the Nazis were hiding treasures was also found, but the Amber Room was not there. 
Later there was one more attempt to examine the Konigsberg Castle. In its basements and underground passages plaster gilded decorations and bronze panels of the doors of the Amber Room were found. Moreover, three totally faded mosaics were found buried among the garbage and ashes. They were determined to be the Florentine mosaics from the Amber Room. 
Brusov’s committee came to the conclusion that the Amber Room evidently burnt in fire. But not everyone agreed to share this opinion. The most outspoken opponent of this version was a famous scholar and expert of the ornamental art - Anatoly Kuchumov. He, on the contrary, declared that the amber panels may have been packed separately from the mosaics and probably removed from the castle before its assault. It is known that by the order of Alfred Rohde many of the amber articles of the Konigsberg castle collection were moved to private estates in East Prussia. It is unlikely that Rohde, who was obsessed with amber, would have left the priceless amber interior for certain death. Rohde’s friends also affirmed that there was no possibility that he would have left the Amber Room to the mercy of fate. However, Rohde and his wife suddenly died from typhus at the hospital in the end of December 1945. From this moment there was hardly anyone left to ask about the exact location of the Amber Room.
Documents directly supporting the removal of the Amber Room from Konigsberg have never been discovered. But later in the ruins of the castle private papers of Professor Rohde were found. In them, the idea of the possible relocation of the amber panels to some private houses and castles of the East Prussia and Saxony was repeatedly mentioned. 
In August 1949 new information about the location of the Amber Room was received. Some Konigsberg citizens claimed that before surrender of Konigsberg a lot of building materials were delivered to the castle grounds and several construction projects were completed. Moreover, in the castle yard some big crates were being packed. Relying on this information a newly organized committee made a decision to examine the castle once again. Unfortunately no hidden depository was found.
In 1950 it was decided to look for the bunker mentioned by Rhode once again and this time to examine it thoroughly. To the greatest disappointment, Brusov was neither able to find the bunker nor even indicate its probable location. The city had been completely destroyed since his first visit and it was too difficult to detect the bunker among the stones and ashes of the recent war. 
In 1960s geophysical searches were conducted in Kaliningrad, the former Konigsberg. Their purpose was to find the underground bunkers. In 1969 archeologists joined the research. However their work, as with the work of many men before them, produced no results. Only in 1984 was the search of the Amber Room finally stopped. Yet even today many people still hope that the amber miracle may one day be found and to this day continue their independent searches.