Adolf Hoel

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Adolf Hoel 1911

Adolf Hoel (born May 15, 1879 in Sørum , † February 19, 1964 in Oslo ) was an influential Norwegian geologist and polar explorer . He was Norway's leading polar explorer at the beginning of the 20th century and was instrumental in ensuring that Norway was granted sovereignty over Svalbard and Queen Maud Land . He was also involved in the Norwegian occupation of the Eirik Raudes Land in East Greenland from 1931 to 1933. In 1928 he founded the Norges Svalbard- og Ishavs-undersøkelser (NSIU), today's Norwegian Polar Institute . Hoel was a professor, prorector and rector of the University of Oslo .

The mineral hoelite is named after him.

Life

childhood and education

Adolf Hoel attended grammar school for two years and matriculated at the University of Oslo in 1897 . He himself financed his education through lessons that he gave in various schools in the capital. From 1897 to 1904 he studied mathematics , geography , geology , botany and zoology . His grades were very good.

At the university, Hoel came into contact with the important Norwegian geologists Amund Helland (1846-1918) and Waldemar Christofer Brøgger, and not least with the conservator Peter Annæus Øyen (1863-1932). These acquaintances were important for Hoel's development as a geologist. He subsequently developed a friendly relationship with Helland and Øyen.

Svalbard

In 1907, Adolf Hoel and the geologist Gunnar Isachsen went on an expedition to the northwestern part of Svalbard . The expedition was financed by Prince Albert I of Monaco . The prince also made his research ship Princess Alice II available. After this expedition, Hoel traveled to Svalbard every summer until Norway gained sovereignty over the archipelago in 1925. At the beginning he worked as a geologist for Isachsen. He later took on more responsibility for organizing expeditions and after around 1915 became the driving force behind the research on Svalbard. Every year Hoel had to raise funds for his expeditions.

After Svalbard came under Norwegian sovereignty, Hoel had problems securing further funding for the exploration of the archipelago. In 1928 he founded the Norges Svalbard- og Ishavs-undersøkelser (NSIU, the predecessor of the Norsk Polarinstitutt ), which was financially supported by the state. Hoel also later organized several expeditions to Svalbard, including important cartography projects in the late 1930s. Hoel was last on Svalbard in 1939 in connection with the planning for a Norwegian icebreaker.

Greenland

By the late 1920s, Noel became a central figure in the Norwegian occupation of East Greenland . In the Peace of Kiel on January 14, 1814, sovereignty over Greenland was passed to Denmark . Norway had initially accepted this, but when Denmark wanted to completely ban Norwegian fishermen from staying in East Greenland, fishermen occupied this area. The operation, approved by the Norwegian government, was officially supported by Hoels undersøkelser . Both Norway and Denmark tried to justify their claim to power with as many scientific results as possible. The dispute was finally decided in 1933 by the Permanent International Court of Justice in favor of Norway.

Nasjonal Samling

The lost litigation between Norway and Denmark before the International Court of Justice in The Hague (for Eirik Raudes Land ) weighed heavily on Hoel. He was frustrated by many politicians who, in his opinion, were insufficiently prepared to act, whom he saw primarily as party politicians and not as Norwegian patriots. In autumn 1933 he was visited by Vidkun Quisling , who wanted to advertise him for the Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling and found him in exactly the right mood. Hoel supported the Nasjonal Samling, joined the party and ran for this party in second place on the list just behind Quisling for the elections to Storting in the fall of 1933. In the election, the NS received just over two percent of the vote and no member of the parliament. In the following period, Hoel contributed in particular to the development of a programmatic position in the party on Arctic / Antarctic issues. According to his own later statements, he broke with Quisling as early as the 1930s, but remained connected to the party after the outbreak of war, especially in his work at the university.

Queen Maud Land

It can be traced back to an initiative by Hoels that Norway lays claim to Queen Maud Land in Antarctica . The area is seven times larger than the motherland. During a visit to Berlin in 1938, Hoel had learned that the Germans intended to annex the area in Antarctica, although it has been proven that Norway could have made earlier claims. Hoel informed the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and got Norway to issue the official declaration of ownership on January 14, 1939, a few days before the arrival of the German expedition . Like all other territorial claims in the Antarctic, the Norwegian claims have been suspended since the Antarctic Treaty came into force on June 23, 1961.

Second World War

Adolf Hoel, 1958.

Hoel's opportunities for practical research in the polar regions were severely limited during World War II . He had been a full professor at the University of Oslo since 1940 , a more important position then than it is today, because each department of the university usually had only one professor. In 1941, Hoel was appointed by the German occupation forces first as deputy rector and then as rector of the University of Oslo. During this time he worked as a leading spy for the German defense and headed the Scandinavian section of the German secret service together with Paul Burckhardt and Vitalis Pantenburg . He also campaigned for the students at his university who were taken prisoner in Germany.

After the war

In May 1945 Hoel was first interned in the prison camp Ilebu (formerly Grini fangeleir ) and was only released in April 1946. It was not until May 1949 that his criminal case came to court with the charge of treason. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The main charges were his membership in the Nasjonal Samling and that he had been appointed rector of the university by the occupying forces.

With the end of the war Hoel lost all his offices and his employment. He was expelled from several organizations and lost the Order of Saint Olav , which he had received in 1938. This was a severe blow to him and he spent a lot of time soliciting understanding for his behavior from the organizations concerned. Among other things, he published Et oppgjør med landsmenn (Settlement with Compatriots) in 1951 . In it he explains the motives behind the actions during the war. He also published a number of academic or political articles in various journals.

In the 1950s, Hoel was asked to write history for the Norwegian Polar Institute in Svalbard. The work was published posthumously in three volumes between 1966 and 1967.

Adolf Hoel was critically injured in an accident in December 1963. He died in hospital in February 1964. The Hoelfjella mountain range in Antarctica bears his name.

Fonts (selection)

  • Frost iron. Det norske geografiske selskabs aarbok 1906–1907. Kristiania 1907, pp. 127-151.
  • An unknown bit of Norway. In: The Geographical Journal. 34 (1), 1909, pp. 59-61.
  • Geologiske iagttagelser paa Spitsbergensekspeditionerne 1906 og 1907. In: Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift. 1 (11), 1909, pp. 1-28.
  • Fra Okstinderne. In: Årbok for Den Norske Turistforening. 1909, pp. 102-115.
  • Okstinderne. Fjeldgrunden og bræerne. In: Norges Geologiske Undersøkelser. årbok 1910.
  • Etnas siste utbrudd. In: natures. nr 7-8, 1910, pp. 193-209.
  • En slædetur paa Spitsbergen under ritmester Isachsens ekspedisjon i 1909. In: Årbok for Den Norske Turistforening. 1912, pp. 1-33.
  • Litt om kul, verdens kulforbruk og kulforraad. In: natures. 41, 1917, pp. 160-171, 210-218.
  • Om ordingen av de territoriale krav på Svalbard. In: Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift. B. 2. 1928, pp. 1-24.
  • The Norwegian Svalbard Expeditions 1906–1926 - Resultater av de Norske statsunderstøttede Spitsbergenekspedisjoner. (= Skrifter om Svalbard og Ishavet. No. 1). Jacob Dybwad, Oslo 1929.
  • Krassin-ferden. In: I G. Hovdenak: Roald Amundsens siste ferd. Gyldendal, Oslo 1934.
  • Report on the activities of Norges Svalbard and Ishavs-undersøkelser 1927-1936. (= Skrifter om Svalbard og Ishavet. Nr . 73). Jacob Dybwad, Oslo 1937.
  • Norges Livsrom. I Det Nye Norge. B. III, Oslo 1944.
  • Report on the activities of Norges Svalbard and Ishavs-undersøkelser 1936-1944. (= Scrifter. No. 88). Jacob Dybwad, Oslo 1945.
  • Since Svalbard ble norsk land - og noen betraktelser i forbinnelse hermed. Polarårboka, 1950.
  • Et oppgjør med landsmenn. Minerva Forlag, Oslo 1951.
  • Flat-rate receipts from breer and snøfonner in Norway. Norsk Polar Institute, Meddelse, no. 76, 1953.
  • Hjalmar Johansen's deltagelse i ekspedisjoner etter Framferden 1896. In: B. Henriksen: Polfareren Hjalmar Johansen og Skien. Eget forlag 1961.
  • Svalbard. Svalbard's history 1596–1965. 3 volumes. Oslo 1966–1967.
  • Mit liv i og for polar tracts. John Griegs Forlag, Oslo 1977.
  • Universitetet under okkupasjonen. John Griegs Forlag, Oslo 1978.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt D. Singer: Spies and traitors of World War II . Prentice-Hall, 1945, p. 59f. ( Preview on books.google.de ).
predecessor Office successor
Didrik Arup Seip Rector of the University of Oslo
1941–1945 		Otto Lous Mohr
personal data
SURNAME Hoel, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian geologist and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH This way
DATE OF DEATH 19th February 1964
Place of death Oslo