Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

This is a tale of treasures. It’s a tale of disappearances and rediscoveries. It’s about the lure of beautiful things, and what they mean to us as a community. This is a tale about what the 20th century did to so many. THREAD /1

For centuries, the town of Quedlinburg, nestled against Germany’s Harz mountains, was a treasure house. Home to a religious community of women, Quedlinburg Abbey, it also had the distinction of being where Henry the Fowler, the first real ‘German’ king, was offered his crown. /2

This meant Quedlinburg was rich and full of gorgeous treasures. Quedlinburg Abbey would, in time, amass a huge collection of books, relics (and reliquaries) and jeweled items, either donated to or commissioned by the women themselves. Over time, a castle was built around it. /3

(As an aside, the women of Quedlinburg Abbey - I hesitate to describe them *fully* as nuns - could marry and pass on some property. This was because many were drawn from the nobility, and as we all know, money talks. Still, remarkably progressive! /4)

Even after Germany’s monasteries, abbeys and convents were largely dissolved in the 19th century, Quedlinburg Abbey was still considered a treasure house and a centre of devotion for not only the townspeople, but those for many miles around. This was for two reasons. /5

The first, quite naturally, was the love that people have for beautiful and sacred things. The second is that Quedlinburg Abbey was, as I said, built to commemorate the location where Henry the Fowler won his crown. In the era of the rising nation state, this had a huge draw. /6

When the Nazis came to power, they were drawn to Quedlinburg Abbey as a supposed ‘birthplace of the Germans’. Himmler was particularly attracted to the place, and visited numerous times, seeing it as the focus of a future Nazi ‘sacred site’, in a manner of speaking. /7

When the tide of the Second World War turned, the treasures of Quedlinburg were taken from the Abbey and stored in a mineshaft. This was a fairly standard practice - many of Germany’s cultural treasures spent the war underground for safekeeping. /8

After the defeat of Nazi Germany, & its division between the US-backed West Germany & Soviet-backed German Democratic Republic, Quedlinburg found itself in the GDR. In what was a further blow, several significant treasures seemed to be missing when the mineshaft was emptied. /9

The Samuhel Gospels, dating from the 10th century, with a spectacular 13th century jeweled cover, could not be found. This handwritten edition of the Gospels would have taken thousands of hours to scribe, the jeweled cover worth a fortune at the time of its manufacture. /10

Among reliquaries that were missing, a box made in the 10th century, partly from wood, partly from walrus-tusk was gone. An ivory comb could also not be found. The focus of adoration for centuries, the people of Quedlinburg were distraught at the loss. /11

With the people of Quedlinburg behind the Iron Curtain, and the GDR more interested in building a new state that seeking relics of a dead one, it seemed that the items would remain lost. First years passed, then decades. The GDR rose and then began to decline. /12

Meanwhile in Texas, an old soldier, Lt Joe Meador, passed in 1980. In the wake of his death, his family began to dig out, then place on the market, some of the souvenirs he had brought back from his time in the Army, as part of the forces fighting, then occupying Germany. /13

Now, from the look of these objects, there was a sizable price to be had from them, so Meador’s souvenirs quickly found themselves on art markets across the United States and beyond - and that’s when German art historians were stunned to rediscover the Quedlinburg treasures. /14

Meador, who had studied art, knew he’d come across something special when his unit discovered the mineshaft. While they were posted there to secure and protect the treasures, he was able to sneak several pieces out. Then, he mailed them home to his family in Texas. /15

For almost forty years, Meador held onto his stolen treasures. Family knew about them, but didn’t quite see the value that Meador did in them. Later, he stowed them in a local bank vault, until his death. /16

We can only be grateful for the fact by the time several of the items were being placed onto the market, a group representing several (reunified) German states was able to make a bid for the treasures and secure them, for return to Quedlinburg Abbey. /17

Today, the treasures have been returned to the Abbey, where they are on (magnificent) display in a treasure chamber. Some of the pieces close up (I’m told) are quite a sight. The Abbey is lucky, however - many (including Jewish Germans) - never had their treasures recovered. /18

To this day, pieces come up for auction, having been hid away behind drawn curtains since the end of the war. There are still art historians employed, tracing the route taken by artworks confiscated by the Nazis, or stored for safekeeping, to be returned to their families. /19

We love beautiful things, and some of those beautiful things take on a value far, far beyond what the materials they’re made from cost. In the case of the Quedlinburg Abbey treasures, both were links to an age of myth and legend that generations of Germans have revered. /20

Other items, for return, have much simpler provenance. That doesn’t mean, however, that family portraits, sculptures or other items don’t mean as much. Sometimes, the memory of a treasured item can be passed down generations - inspire a burning quest for rediscovery. /21

Meador was never charged for stealing the items from the mineshaft near Quedlinburg - by the time his actions were revealed, he’d been dead a few years. There was an attempt to prosecute some of Meador’s relatives, but in the end, a settlement was reached. /22

An interesting sidenote. Joe Meador, it turned out, was gay. He never married, never had children. Some wonder whether the man held onto his treasures ttghtly, as it was one way that he could hold on to the potential he felt he was denied, in rural Texas of the 50s and 60s. /23

The history of Europe, especially, I think, is a history of memory. It’s a history of emotions stirred by something reminding us of the past. They made Quedlinburg rich. They brought the Nazis. A yearning for a glorious past, by the death cult of Nazism, nearly destroyed it. /24

I keep on saying over and over again, but the past is far more present than we could ever imagine. It drives and pushes everything we do. We forget this all too often. Memory is the map we take with us when we venture forward, the path shining like jewels. /24

If you would like to visit Quedlinburg Abbey - now the castle & collegiate church - everything you need to know is here, or via @QuedlinburgInfo. Trust me, they would be delighted to have you. /25 quedlinburg.de/en/castlehill.…

If you would like to know more about the recovery of the Quedlinburg treasure, this is a great story. /26 dmagazine.com/publications/d…

There’s also a documentary about the theft and recovery of the Quedlinburg treasure, ‘The Liberators’. Here’s a trailer for it. /27

I hope you enjoyed that. This one got me thinking more than most. /FIN

PS. Attn: @dwnews & @dw_culture - so many stories!