page_title: Karl Hammer
section_title: Media
hierarchical_section_title: Karl Hammer / Media
caption_attribution_description: English: March Impromptu Code, the document alledgedly containing a code message from Martin Bormann to the leaders of the Nazi terror group Werwolven. This document was made available to the public for research purposes. The bottom of the image indicates the original score was from Collection Litolff No. 1189; this was published by Henry Litolff's verlag in Braunschweig, Germany in 1881 and credited to Josef Löw.[1][2] Löw's "Marsch Impromptu" may also have been published as part of Teacher and pupil&#160;: a practical course of four-hand piano playing by Schirmer in New York in 1893. News reports[3] however credit an 1876 work of the same name published in the U.S. by Gottlieb Federlein (1835 - 1922); however the Library of Congress deposit sample[4] does not seem to match. Gottfried Federlein (1883 - 1952) is sometimes credited, but appears to be Gottlieb's son and not related to the work in question. More discussion here.
context_page_description: Karl Hammer Kaatee is a Dutch investigative journalist, author and art photographer.
context_section_description: In the early '80s Hammer started as a bus cleaner with a Dutch public broadcaster and worked his way up from there. He eventually became production assistant, taught himself how to be a video editor, and turned director and producer, working on some of Holland's biggest productions with Joop van den Ende. In subsequent years Hammer was involved with the introduction of private radio and TV RTL in the Netherlands and Belgium, owned a trucker radio station and was advisor to media moguls such as Leo Kirch (Kirch Gruppe).
  After his career in radio and TV, Hammer turned author in 2006, publishing his first book, Satans Lied (Satan's Song). It is a story about one of the most bizarre art thefts in history, that of a panel of Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece. The book was published in various countries and languages, among which German, French, Polish (Tajemnica Oltarza Gandawskiego), Turkish and English (The secret of the sacred panel).
  Subsequent books were specifically aimed at the Dutch market and not translated into other languages; but in 2012 Hammer published a controversial book, The hunt for the Nazi Gold, secrets of the March Impromptu Code revealed. It describes an investigation into a document, drafted at the end of World War II by Martin Bormann, that allegedly contained directions to locate Hitler's personal diamonds and a stash of Nazi gold. These items were hidden somewhere in the Bavarian mountains and intended to finance the terror group Werwolf. Hammer's book received worldwide attention and for some time he and a colleague, Leo Giessen, led various expeditions, mostly near Mittenwald. The expeditions remain unsuccessful and no diamonds or gold have been retrieved.
caption: March Impromptu Code
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