In the early morning of November 29th, 2019, a team of thieves broke into the Green Vault Museum in Dresden, Germany.

Their target was jeweled treasures of the state of Saxony, which were some of the most valuable gems in all of Europe.

In under an hour, they had left with items that were worth a staggering sum of money.

Learn more about the Dresden Green Vault burglary,

the greatest heist in world history,

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Before I get into the details of the Dresden Greenvault burglary, it's probably

necessary to explain exactly what the Dresden Greenvault is and why someone

wouldn't want to break into it. The Dresden Greenvault is, as the name would suggest in Dresden, Germany, and Dresden

is the capital of the German state of Saxony.

For the purpose of this episode, the story begins in the early 18th century, with the ruler

of Saxony, the 2nd the strong

Augustus was as his name would imply strong he was known as the Saxon Hercules and he

reportedly could bend horseshoes with his bare hands.

Augustus held the titles of King of Poland, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and the Elector of Saxony.

Electors were people who selected the Holy Roman Emperor.

It was an extremely important title and one that I'll probably be doing an episode on in the future.

He ruled from Dresden Castle.

Within the castle, there was a vault that had been built in 1547 by a previous elector of Saxony.

The vault was built to house all of the treasures of the castle, primarily jewelry and documents.

It became known as the green vault because of the coloring used on the tops and

bottoms of some of the columns in the first room you would enter. In 1723,

Augustus the Strong converted the vault into a museum to showcase to the public the treasures that it held.

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