Herbert Schröder-Stranz

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Herbert Schröder-Stranz (actually Herbert Schröder ; born June 9, 1884 in Stranz ; † August 15, 1912 in northeastern land (lost)) was a German officer and polar explorer .

Life

Herbert Schröder was born on his parents' estate. Later he added the place name to his last name to distinguish himself from the many people with the same name.

At the age of 19 he volunteered in the 4th Guards Regiment on foot in the Prussian Army and was transferred as a lieutenant to the protection force for German South West Africa a year later . There took part in the suppression of the Herero and Nama uprising in the German colony. Due to illnesses of typhus and dysentery , he ended his service in Africa. After his recovery, he toured the Russian Kola Peninsula and Karelia .

German Arctic Expedition

In 1905, Schröder-Stranz came up with the idea of ​​a scientific expedition to clarify whether the Northeast Passage could be used for shipping . After several years of unclear funding, a patron was found in Duke Ernst von Sachsen-Altenburg . First of all, the suitability of the equipment and the crew was to be checked in 1912 as part of a pre-expedition to Spitzbergen . The plan was to carry out the actual expedition a year later; which, however, should no longer happen.

Drawing of Duke Ernst

On August 5, 1912, the pre-expedition set sail with 15 participants under the leadership of Schröder-Stranz on board the Herzog Ernst in Tromsø . The group consisted mainly of inexperienced scientists and adventurers, and Captain Alfred Ritscher was also in the Arctic for the first time; only the Norwegians hired as a team knew the area. Shortly before departure, Ludwig Kohl-Larsen, who was supposed to be the ship's doctor, jumped off because the adventure seemed too daring to him. After the onward journey through pack ice between the North Cape and Cape Platen had become impossible, Schröder-Stranz and three companions left the ship on August 15 to cross the inland ice of northeastern country with a train sledge . His plan was to no later than 15 December in the Krossbai on the west coast of Spitsbergen to get back on board. Schröder-Stranz and his companions have been missing since then.

Six days after the departure of Schröder-Stranz and his companions, the ship Herzog Ernst reached the Sorgebai (also Treurenberg-Bai) on August 21, where she was supposed to leave supplies for Schröder-Stranz in the shelters there. Due to unfavorable winds and pack ice, they could no longer leave the bay and were trapped in the ice. The attempt to get to the Advent Bay on foot in order to avoid wintering in the polar night of Svalbard was paid for with their lives by four participants. While the rest of the crew turned back to the Sorgebai , only Captain Ritscher reached the settlement of Longyearbyen, 250 km away, after a solo march on December 27, 1912 with frostbite .

Several rescue expeditions were sent to the rest of the Duke Ernst's crew in the following spring, including Kurt Wegener (start on February 21, 1913), the Norwegian Arve Staxrud from April 12, 1913 and one under Theodor Lerner . On April 24th, Staxrud reached the Sorgebai overland and rescued the team with dog sleds.

Treurenberg Bay (Svalbard)

After learning of the rescue by Staxrud, Lerner went on looking for Schröder-Stranz. However, his expedition was not a lucky star either. In May 1913, his ship was trapped in the ice on the North Cape of Northeast. Lerner and his companions then went on long hikes in the area on skis and dog sleds, but without discovering a trace of Schröder-Stranz. On June 26, the ship was finally crushed by ice masses and sank shortly afterwards. However, the team managed to save large parts of the equipment. On July 25, 1913, the crew managed to cross over to Sorgebai by boat, where the Herzog Ernst was still located. With the ship, which is now maneuverable again, the expedition members were able to save themselves.

In the summer of 1937, seal hunters found remains of thermal gaiters, canoe parts and ammunition in the Duvefjord. The abbreviation “DAE” (“German Arctic Expedition”) carved into a piece of wood identified the finds as belonging to the Schröder-Stranz expedition. The location was later located at 80 ° 14 '3' 'N / 23 ° 44' 33 '' E and is considered the probable landing site of Schröder-Stranz after his way over the pack ice. In 1945, as part of the Haudegen auf Spitzbergen operation, German soldiers came across aluminum plates about 8 km from this location, which could also be assigned to the Schröder-Stranz expedition equipment. In 2007, other objects were found at the landing site, including the remains of a sleeping bag and parts of a meteorological device. Criminological examinations of the found objects and the circumstances of the location suggest that the objects necessary for survival in the arctic climate were left behind on purpose, probably at a time when at least one of the expedition participants had already died. What is unusual, however, is that no written message was left, as is usually the case with polar expeditions in this case. The survivors probably tried to walk west across the inland glacier to the Hinlopenstraße as planned . If the expedition participants have made this extremely grueling walk behind them, they will have drowned at the latest when trying to cross it with a small kayak. What Schröder-Stranz also did not know at the time is that it is practically impossible to cross the Hinlopenstraße in autumn when the pack ice and the strong currents there are in a small boat.

There are many reasons for the disaster. Schröder-Stranz and his companions had little experience in the Arctic and had little knowledge of the area. In addition, the start time in August for an Arctic expedition was chosen much too late. The planned return of Duke Ernst to Tromsø in the middle of the deepest Arctic winter was impossible and doomed to failure from the start. The decision of the group around Captain Ritscher to leave the Herzog Ernst and to set off for a 300 km long march at the end of September, with the polar night falling and temperatures below −30 ° C, was a life-threatening undertaking.

After the failure of the DAE, scientists therefore called for future planning of state expeditions to be improved and examined by experts. In 1920 the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft was founded, from which the German Research Foundation later developed.

There are film recordings of the rescue expedition led by Theodor Lerner by the later Riefenstahl cameraman Sepp Allgeier . In the meantime, fragments of the film recordings made by Christopher Rave during the Schröder-Stranz expedition have resurfaced in Russia.

Literary processing

Herbert Schröder-Strunz is (under this name) the main male character in the novel "Olga" published by Bernhard Schlink in 2018 ( Diogenes , Zurich 2018). Schröder's stay in German South West Africa as well as his travels, especially the failed northeast expedition , are essential components of this narrative work.

Works

  • South-West: War and hunting trips , Süsseroth, Berlin 1910

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Arctic drama 25 years ago. Traces of a missing German expedition on Spitzbergen. In:  Neues Wiener Journal , August 19, 1937, p. 4 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nwj
personal data
SURNAME Schröder-Stranz, Herbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schröder, Herbert (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Strączno
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1912
Place of death Spitzbergen (island)