Lake Toplitz, or Lake Toplitzsee, is a lake located in the Austrian Salzkammergut region. It is known for its murky waters and its mysterious history, which has made it the subject of numerous legends and conspiracy theories.
There are four varied paths that lead to Lake Toplitz. The vehicle access road is closed to normal traffic but it is possible to take a horse and carriage up this peaceful gravel road to the spectacular shores of Toplitz. From this point the only way forward is to take a “Plätte” boat across to the east shore as there are no access paths going around the side of this lake.
From the east shore of Toplitz, it is a short walk to the secluded natural wonder that is Lake Kammersee[1]. Toplitz is in a remote, heavily forested area surrounded by steep cliffs and mountains. It is approximately 338 feet deep and covers an area of around 0.36 square miles.
The Toplitz water contains no oxygen below a depth of 65 feet. Fish can survive only in the top 59 feet, as the water below 66 feet is salty, although bacteria and worms that can live without oxygen have been found below 66 feet.
Lake Toplitz gained notoriety during World War II when it was reportedly used by the Nazis to test various secret weapons and experimental technologies. There are also rumors that the Nazis used the lake to store stolen artwork and gold bullion.
Deep in the Austrian Alps early one morning in 1945, Ida Weisenbacher answered a knock at her door. The 21-year-old Austrian farm girl found herself confronted by a Nazi officer. “Get up immediately,” he told her. “Hitch up the horse wagon. We need you.” Weisenbacher did as she was told and pulled the family wagon up next to a military vehicle. Soldiers then loaded heavy boxes onto the wagon. Each was marked with a series of letters and numbers that gave no hint as to the contents. When the wagon was loaded the officer told the girl to drive it to nearby Lake Toplitz. Once she was given the destination the need for the wagon became obvious: The road did not go all the way to the lake. Only the horse-drawn wagon could take the cargo over the final distance. It took three trips to transport the whole load to the lake. On the final run, Weisenbacher saw that the soldiers were out on the lake and that the boxes were being dropped into the water. They quickly sunk out of sight. Weisenbacher wondered what the boxes contained that they had to be sunk to the bottom of that deep, dark, cold place. What secrets did they possess?
The water is over 300 feet deep and oxygenless. Without oxygen, nothing can live in the lake except some specialized bacteria and one species of worm. With its dark, deep recesses and isolated location, the lake seems the perfect place to hide something. Were those boxes seen by Ida Weisenbacher filled with some of the missing gold? A lot of people thought they might be. In 1959 the German magazine Stern sent divers to the lake to investigate. What they found was not gold, but crates of counterfeit British pounds, secret documents, and a printing press.
In 1963 a German sport diver was hired to find the treasure. Unfortunately, he died in the attempt. The Austrian government responded by making it illegal to dive into the lake for the purpose of hunting treasure. They also started a search of their own. They found rockets, projectiles, mines, and other experimental weapons. Apparently, during the war, Toplitz had been used to test torpedoes and even a missile that could be launched by a submarine from underwater.
By 1983 it was thought that the lake was completely cleaned of all Nazi material, but in that same year a biologist, Professor Hans Fricke, started diving in Toplitz and found even more items. Fricke hadn’t initially been interested in treasure but had obtained special permission to dive into the lake to research what kind of life might survive in its oxygenless depths. He also found counterfeit British pounds along with additional military hardware. His discoveries sparked more speculation that the lake still hid gold bullion. If it did, though, Fricke never came across it.
The most complete examination of the lake came in 2000 when the American television network CBS, along with the World Jewish Congress, sponsored an exploration of the Toplitz by a company called Oceaneering Technologies. Oceaneering Technologies went over the bottom of the lake inch-by-inch using a remote-controlled submarine named Phantom.
They found the floor of the lake covered with trees that had fallen off the surrounding mountains. In some places, the wood was stacked as deep as sixty feet. This made using the submarine difficult. Its long tether, which connected it to the crew on the surface, was always in danger of being tangled in the dead branches and roots.
Lake Toplitz is mentioned in the scene in the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger where Bond receives the gold bar used to tempt Auric Goldfinger (played by Gert Fröbe); the bar is said to have been part of a Nazi hoard that was recovered from the lake. For Fröbe, this was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the 1959 German movie Der Schatz vom Toplitzsee, where he also played the main antagonist – the undercover ex-SS officer who (within the context of Goldfinger) had led both the placement of the Nazi hoard in the lake, as well as the post-war recovery operation.
In the 1981 TV series Private Schulz, Lake Toplitz serves as a location where 50 million forged British pounds are being dumped by the Nazis; the scene in question, however, was filmed at a reservoir in South Wales.
The novel The Salzburg Connection by Helen MacInnes involves Nazi secret files found in a lake in similar circumstances to Lake Toplitz (Finstersee). Lake Toplitz is mentioned throughout the book also. Finstersee is the scene of action and is also shown on slides in the movie, The Salzburg Connection, based on the book.
The novel Not Alone by Craig A. Falconer stated that Nazis hid a flying saucer in the lake along with other artifacts.
In the novel “Amber – A Dane and Bones Origins Story,” Lake Toplitz is visited by the main characters as part of their search for the Amber Room.
When the robot submarine found what looked like the remains of a crate, Oceaneering sent down a manned submarine that found more forged British banknotes. Despite its strange characteristics and dark history, Lake Toplitz remains a popular tourist destination, with many visitors coming to see its eerie waters and to explore the surrounding forest.
Footnotes
- Kammersee is a small lake located in the Austrian state of Styria, near the town of Bad Aussee. It is a glacial lake that is fed by several small streams and has an average depth of around 30 meters (98 feet). The lake is known for its crystal-clear waters and its picturesque surroundings, which include dense forests and snow-capped mountains. Kammersee is also home to a variety of fish species, including trout and grayling, making it a popular destination for fishing enthusiasts. [Back]
Further Reading
Sources
- “Lake Toplitz” Wikipedia
- “Lake Toplitz.” Atlas Obscura. Retrieved from https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lake-toplitz.
- “Lake Toplitz: The Mysterious Lake That Hides Nazi Secrets.” Mysterious Universe. Retrieved from https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/07/lake-toplitz-the-mysterious-lake-that-hides-nazi-secrets/.
- “The Mysterious Depths of Lake Toplitz.” The Vintage News. Retrieved from https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/07/20/lake-toplitz/
- “Kammersee – Bad Aussee.” Visit Salzkammergut. Retrieved from https://www.salzkammergut.at/en/austria/poi/430001227/kammersee-bad-aussee.html
- “Lake Toplitzsee – a scenic treasure hunt” Schifffahrt Grundlsee
- “Hidden Nazi Gold” The Museum of Unnatural Mystery
