The Claim
There is a stash of stolen Nazi gold at the bottom of the lake.
Sitting high up in the Austrian alps within a region known as the dead mountains is lake Toplitz. Surrounded by cliffs and forest and only accessible by foot along a mile long path, the lake is responsible for the deaths of numerous treasure hunters and is now patrolled by the police in an attempt to stop people from diving in it.
So why would people risk their lives to dive in such a hazardous lake you ask? excellent question, and the answer is the same as it always is with these stories, there’s supposed to be a hell of allot of treasure down there.
Between 1943 and 1944 the lake housed a Nazi naval testing facility which conducted various underwater explosive tests. They detonated single charges up to 4000kg underwater and also fired torpedo’s into the banks of the opposite site, covering one of the shores in large craters.
Since it was a top secret facility it would have been one of the most trusted places to store and if needs be, hide any large amounts of wealth, and what better place to stash it all than at the bottom of a huge lake.
There is actually known to be more than £100 million worth of counterfeit British pound notes dumped into the lake after operation Bernhard failed, which was an attempt to airdrop huge amounts of money over Britain in an attempt to flood the country with to much money and collapse the economy, but this failed for various reasons.
The money itself would be totally useless now though, as not only would they be bad forgeries of a type of note not used for decades, but they would have almost certainly rotted away by now.
What wouldn’t have rotten away though is all the other treasure thought to have been stashed at the base, including a large quantity of gold.
So why has no one ever found it?
You would have thought looking for something in a lake would be quite straight forward, as its a static body of water and there’s only so much floor area of it you’d need to cover, unlike searching for something in the sea for example, so why hasn’t it turned up yet?
Well lake Toplitz isn’t an ordinary lake, and apart from the local authorities arresting several people each year who were trying to dive in the lake, its also incredibly dangerous.
At its deepest point the lake reaches 103 meters, but after 20m deep the water has no oxygen at all, forcing the fish that live in it to remain above a depth of 18m at all times. Below 20m the water also starts to get very salty, making it denser than the fresh surface water.
Half way to the bottom of the lake sitting in the saltwater is a level of old logs which have been submerged for many years, preserved in the lakes salt. They aren’t light enough to float but aren’t heavy enough to sink further through the dense salt water below, instead settling in a thick layer half way down.
These logs are the reason people have lost their lives in this lake, and because of the deaths the authorities now patrol and have put a complete ban on any further expeditions.
So could it be true?
As for gold its hard to say as its not known if this facility stored gold specifically in its vault, though its quite likely. But it is known that it housed a significant amount of wealth and being one of the more secure and out of the way facilities its likely it would have been trusted with a larger quantity of goods.
Since so many of the attempts to reach the bottom have been met with tragedy, its unlikely any large scale investigation will happen, and since the lake is 2km long and at its widest 400m across, the cost of such an operation for nothing more than the promise that “something” is down there isn’t enough to make anyone pay for such an endeavour.
But just because no one plans to perform a proper expedition for cost and legal reason, doesn’t mean that there isn’t something worth having down there.
So maybe, just maybe at the bottom of lake Toplitz, settled in the thick layer of mud lays a number of chests containing enough wealth to start your own small country, or maybe its nothing more than rotting counterfeit 1940’s bank notes.
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