The return of a significant part of Dresden’s jewels is good news at a time when terrible news follows terrible news. The miracle is man-made and shows two things: Our police are doing a great job. And hope dies last.
Anyone who visits the Green Vault in Dresden, the treasury of Augustus the Strong, cannot help but be amazed. Jewels set in gold and gems sparkle in competition. It is a miracle that today we can admire the collection that was created three centuries ago. When Dresden was reduced to rubble by Allied bombs in February 1945, the artworks in the Picture Gallery and the Green Vault were in safe locations in Saxon Switzerland. The Red Army’s “Trophy Commission” confiscated the treasures as compensation for the incredible destruction caused by the German Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union.
The return to the GDR began in the mid-1950s, and the inventory of the Green Vault returned home in 1958. Since then, the Saxon art collections have also been a consolation because they survived the destruction of Dresden. The treasury has world-class art history, since the sets of jewels from the 18th century were completely and perfectly preserved and the origin of the most famous stones is fully documented. But then came November 25, 2019. A gang of thieves stole 21 pieces of jewelery with more than 4,300 diamonds and brilliants from the Green Vault.
The shock, amplified by helplessness and being overwhelmed, was all the more profound because the insured value of a good 114 million euros is a piece of cake when it comes to losing the objects that cannot be replaced by imitations. But above all: The news of the disgrace that rushed around the world met a feeling that was spreading among the population – even before the start of the corona pandemic – that Germany was going downhill, that it was so run down was that it was no longer even able to protect its treasury from thieves. The Green Vault was said to be as secure as the uncrackable vaults of Fort Knox, which house the United States’ gold reserves.
And when it became known that behind the coup there were allegedly members of the Remmo clan, an extended family of Arabic origin in Berlin-Neukölln, which is known for all kinds of crimes and also stole the 100-kilogram gold coin from the Bode Museum in the middle of the federal capital had, the annoyance was even greater. Because partially destroying a treasure of the German nation, partially letting it go with it, could not really be seen as proof of successful integration and a commitment to the cultural heritage of the Federal Republic, but rather as disrespect according to the motto: destroy the one who destroys you as a took in refugees.
The Dresden diamond robbery – robbery is when violence is used against victims or threatened with it – was a temporary triumph of organized crime that left people stunned. He fueled the discussion that began during the wave of refugees about the existential question of whether the state can still fulfill what is probably its most important duty – after all, a constitutional duty – to protect the life and limb of its citizens. Where the sense of security is lost because criminal gangs appear to be overpowering, trust is lost in the state of law and its institutions. Probably also because of this knowledge, the Dresden special commission did everything to catch the perpetrators quickly and never gave up looking for the loot.
Now – three years after the brazen burglary – there has again been a wonderful miracle about the Dresden treasure: A considerable part of the stolen diamonds has turned up again. Even if important pieces are still missing and it is not yet clear how well the ones that have been found are preserved – based on everything that is known so far, there is a lot to be said for their authenticity – this is good news at a time when a terrible one is going on Message the next chase, a Christmas present for all Germans and even the whole world. The miracle is man-made and shows two things: Our police are doing a great job. And hope dies last.
It was Marion Ackermann, General Director of the Dresden Art Collections, who declared the return of diamonds to be a “matter of time” from the outset and contradicted all the experts who kept saying that the jewelry had long since been chopped up because it couldn’t be sold otherwise . Ackermann argued the other way around: Whoever breaks out the diamonds devalues ??the objects, while grinding the stones down means the loss is enormous. Now she said on MDR: “We get news from all over the world, people can hardly believe it, it’s a real Christmas miracle.”
Unfortunately, some Germans have lost the ability to see and accept happiness as such. In social media and reader comments, the Christmas miracle is made bad, for example, it is said that the investigation can hardly be said to be successful, because the alleged thieves, who have been in court in Dresden for months, only wanted to reduce their sentence. Anyone who talks such nonsense forgets how the rule of law works – and: In order to negotiate a deal, you first have to catch the perpetrators, which is definitely a success of the investigation.
Above all, the decisive factor is the fact that a large part of Dresden’s jewels are returning to the Green Vault and that Germany once again has a world-class art-historical treasure. This is a million times more important than a harsh sentence for the thieves, even if they are assigned to a clan.
