WITH ITS GENTLY ROLLING FORESTS, World Heritage Sites like the monumental Wartburg Castle, and cultural icons that include Bach, Goethe, and Luther, Thuringia holds a special place in German hearts. People rave about the ethereal gorges along its popular Rennsteig hiking trail, so I decided to combine the state’s natural wonders with a personal investigation into a remarkable chapter of World War II.
Recreation was not at the forefront of Nazi minds in early 1945 when the Allies marched into Germany during the final stages of the war. As the bombing of Berlin intensified, officials from the Reichsbank, the Third Reich’s central bank, scrambled to hide the untold riches they had stolen from countries Germany had conquered. Nearly 80 years later, I am going to the Nazis’ secret gold vault at the Merkers salt mine to get a sense of those last frenetic months of hide-and-seek and
