German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39

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Motif of a commemorative medal presented to members of the expedition in October 1939
Map of the Antarctic. The red background shows the extent of the Antarctic region overflown by the German Antarctic Expedition in 1938/39

The German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39 was the third official Antarctic expedition of the German Reich . It was ordered by the "Commissioner for the Four-Year Plan " Hermann Göring ; Ministerialrat Helmuth Wohlthat was responsible for planning and preparation . The expedition was carried out mainly for economic reasons, in order to secure new fishing grounds for the German whaling fleet and thus the " fat gap ", i.e. H. to reduce the dependence of the German Reich on the import of technical fats and food fats. The intention was to create a basis for a later German occupation of an Antarctic sector, so the preparations for this expedition were made in the strictest of secrecy. The target area of ​​the expedition was the region between 20 ° West and 20 ° East.

preparation

The Swabia 1938

In July 1938, Captain Alfred Ritscher was entrusted with the management of an expedition to the Antarctic. Within a few months it was possible to put together and equip an expedition, the aim of which was to create topographical knowledge for the German whaling fleet, while at the same time carrying out a scientific program along the coast taking into account biology , meteorology , oceanography and geomagnetics and the hitherto unknown hinterland to explore through survey flights.

Since only six months were available for preparation, Ritscher had to fall back on existing ships and aircraft that had previously been in the Atlantic service of Deutsche Lufthansa . After urgent reconstruction work on the ship Swabia and the two Dornier Wal - flying boats Boreas and Passat , the expedition left on December 17, 1938 in Hamburg .

execution

The German Antarctic Expedition reached the work area on the Princess Martha Coast on January 19, 1939 . In seven measurement flights between January 20 and February 5, 1939, an area of ​​approx. 350,000 km² could be recorded photogrammetrically with serial cameras . In the process, completely unknown, ice-free mountain regions were discovered in the coastal hinterland. At the turning points of the flight polygons, metal arrows with national emblems were dropped in order to establish German claims to ownership (which, however, were never raised). During an additional eight special flights , in which Ritscher also took part, particularly interesting regions were filmed and taken with color photos. Biological studies were carried out on board the Schwabenland and on the sea ice on the coast. However, the equipment did not allow sled expeditions to the ice shelf or landing of the flying boats in the mountain region. The explorations were carried out without a single member of the expedition having entered the territory.

The region between 10 ° W and 15 ° E that was viewed and flown over was christened “ Neuschwabenland ” by the expedition leaders. In the meantime, the Norwegian government had received information about the German activities through an indiscretion of the wife of the deputy expedition leader Ernst Herrmann to the Norwegian geologist Adolf Hoel and the entire sector between 20 ° W and 45 ° E on January 14, 1939 as Dronning Maud Land became Norwegian Territory declared without defining its southern extent.

The expedition left the coast of Antarctica on February 6, 1939 and carried out further oceanographic investigations in the vicinity of Bouvet Island and Fernando de Noronha on the return voyage . At the request of the Navy High Command , crew members landed on the Brazilian island of Trindade on March 18 to check whether submarines could be supplied with fresh water and food without being noticed. The landing crew was shipwrecked in a small bay and had to be rescued after climbing. Since the landing had taken place in the strictest secrecy, nothing about it appeared in Ritscher's printed report. On April 11, 1939, the Schwabenland entered the port of Hamburg again.

Scientific evaluation

Until 1942 Otto von Gruber produced detailed topographical maps of eastern Neuschwabenland on a scale of 1: 50,000 and an overview map of Neuschwabenland. Among the newly discovered areas were, for example, the Kraulberge, named after the ice pilot of the expedition Otto Kraul . The evaluation of the results in western Neuschwabenland was interrupted by the Second World War and a large part of the 11,600 oblique aerial photographs were lost during the war. In addition to the images and maps published by Ritscher, only about 1100 aerial photos survived the war, but these were only rediscovered and evaluated in 1982. The results of the biological, geophysical and meteorological investigations were only published after the war between 1954 and 1958. It is known from Captain Ritscher that he prepared another expedition with improved, lighter aircraft on skids, which however was never carried out due to the outbreak of the Second World War.

public perception

As a result of the secret preparation, the public did not find out about the expedition in advance. On the return journey, a first report was telegraphed from Cape Town to Helmut Wohlthat , which published a press release on March 6th. While the Daily Telegraph in Great Britain and the New York Times in the USA reported on the expedition, each with a reference to the Norwegian occupation of the area shortly before, only the local Hamburg press took notice on the return to Germany. On May 25, 1939, the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung published a small-format map of the mountains discovered and the flight polygons that was not authorized by the expedition leader. The map was drawn by the aircraft mechanic Franz Preuschoff and is therefore called the "Preuschoff map ". This map was incorporated by the Australian cartographer EP Bayliss in his 1939 map of Antarctica on a scale of 1: 10,000,000.

In Berlin, a reference to the expedition was posted on a sign in the zoological garden . This was set up in front of the enclosure of the emperor penguins , which were caught on the expedition by the flight captain of Lufthansa Rudolf Mayr , the flight mechanic Franz Preuschoff and the zoologist of the expedition Erich Barkley and who arrived in Cuxhaven on April 12, 1939 . The expedition's geologist, Ernst Herrmann, published a popular science book in 1941, which for more than 60 years was the only report for a wider audience. The lack of information in the period that followed made it possible for myths and conspiracy theories to revolve around the expedition and the newly discovered Neuschwabenland .

See also

Web links

literature

  • Cornelia Lüdecke: On a secret mission to the Antarctic . The third German Antarctic Expedition in 1938/39 and the plan for a territorial definition to safeguard whaling. In: German Shipping Archive . tape 26 , 2003, p. 75-100 ( ssoar.info ).
  • Cornelia Lüdecke, Colin Summerhayes: The Third Reich in Antarctica. The German Antarctic Expedition 1938-39 . Bluntisham Books, Erskine Press, Eccles, Bluntisham 2012, ISBN 978-1-85297-103-8 .
  • Alfred Ritscher: Scientific and aeronautical results of the German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39 . tape 1 . Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1942.
  • Alfred Ritscher: Scientific and aeronautical results of the German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39 . tape 2 . Striedieck, Hamburg 1942.
  • Heinz Schön : Myth of New Swabia . For Hitler at the South Pole, the German Antarctic Expedition 1938–1939. Bonus, Selent 2004, ISBN 3-935962-05-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gert Lange: An electrode in the eternal ice. In: Free World . Expedition heading, around 1981.
  2. ↑ C. Lüdecke, C. Summerhayes: The Third Reich in Antarctica. 2012, pp. 50–51.
  3. ↑ C. Lüdecke, C. Summerhayes: The Third Reich in Antarctica. 2012, pp. 76-77.
  4. ^ K. Brunk: Cartographic work and German naming in Neuschwabenland, Antarctica . In: German Geodetic Commission, Series E: History and Development of Geodesy . tape 24 / I , 1986, p. 1-42 ( doi.org [PDF]).
  5. ^ Alfred Ritscher: 10 years ago . In: Polar Research . tape 18 , 1948, p. 30–32 ( awi.de [PDF; accessed on April 21, 2009]).
  6. ↑ C. Lüdecke, C. Summerhayes: The Third Reich in Antarctica. 2012, p. 83.
  7. ^ Heinz Schön: Myth Neuschwabenland. 2004, p. 106.
  8. ↑ C. Lüdecke, C. Summerhayes: The Third Reich in Antarctica. 2012, p. 85.
  9. ↑ EP Bayliss: Antarctica 1: 10,000,000 map. Property and Survey Branch, Department of the Interior, Canberra 1939.
  10. ^ Ernst Herrmann: German researchers in the southern ocean . Safari-Verlag, Berlin 1941. (New edition: ZeitReisen, Bochum 2010, ISBN 978-3-941538-55-9 )
  11. ^ The tale of Hitler's fortress in the eternal ice. In: Spiegel online. April 5, 2007, accessed May 11, 2009.