With the camera in the eternal ice

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Movie
Original title With the camera in the eternal ice
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1913
length approx. 59 minutes
Rod
Director Sepp Allgeier (image design)
production Sepp Allgeier for Express Film Co., Freiburg i. Br.
camera Sepp Allgeier
occupation

With the expedition participants

Theodor Lerner , Rudolf Biehler , Bernhard Villinger , Gerhard Graetz , Christopher Rave , Hermann Rüdiger , Arve Staxrud , Alfred Ritscher .

With the camera in the eternal ice , often with the subtitle The Tragedy of the Schröder-Stranz Expedition explaining the intention of this film expedition , is a German silent documentary film from 1913.

Filmed expedition course

After the Schröder-Stranz expedition planned for 1913 to explore a north-east passage under the direction of Herbert Schröder-Stranz had already failed during the preparatory phase in the previous year and in a catastrophe - the expedition leader Schröder-Stranz and seven other men were killed Life - had ended, in the spring of 1913 several men set out to search for the missing as part of the so-called “Lerner auxiliary expedition”.

The only 18-year-old young photographer Josef Allgeier, who was to make an important name for himself as the optical designer of several famous mountain films by Arnold Fanck and Luis Trenker in the 1920s and 1930s , reported on this film expedition in a two-part report that was published in the Austrian trade journal Kinematographische Rundschau on December 28, 1913 on pages 123 and 125 and in the January 11, 1914 edition on pages 84 and 85. In it he described the following sequence:

The Nordland expedition began on a March Sunday in 1913, when two well-known skiers, Dr. Biehler and cand. Med. Bernhard Villinger, said goodbye to friends and relatives in the Feldbergerhof (Baden-Württemberg) to rush to the aid of the missing expedition members around the deceased Herbert Schröder-Stranz. They joined the Lerner auxiliary expedition. Allgeier's production company was asked to provide a cameraman for the visual documentation of this expedition, and Allgeier also joined the Nordland drivers. Allgeier went from Christiania (today's Oslo ) to Trondheim , where he met the rest of the expedition members who had come by ship from Hamburg. From there the expedition traveled on to Tromsø by ship Lyra . There the team switched to the small expedition ship Loevenskjold . On April 21, 1913, they cast off towards Spitzbergen . Ten days later they had reached the north coast of the main island.

From now on Allgeier began to film intensively. His photographic motifs were initially drifting ice, ice sheets illuminated by the polar sun and other natural spectacles. At the Mosselfjord, the expedition ship, which was only 21 meters long, was finally enclosed by ice sheets, so that it initially seemed impossible to get any further. Finally, the expedition members Biehler, Villinger and Graetz tackled a ski expedition from there to get to the Treurenbergbai, where the missing Schröder-Stranz expedition members were suspected. Drift ice and strong winds that grew into a polar storm meant increasing danger for the ship and the men who remained there. Allgeier documented these difficult circumstances with his camera on board for three days. Then the Loevenskjold set off over the Hinlopenstrasse to its actual destination.

Allgeier spotted a polar bear for the first time on the Ryss Island. Dinghies were dropped off to hunt down the polar bears for food. The journey with the expedition ship continued to the edge of the ice on the north cape of the northeast , where progress was no longer possible due to a massive ice barrier. Soon, ice masses completely enclosed the ship. In order not to endanger the expedition, a provisions store was set up in a refuge six kilometers away. Allgeier also recorded the transport there by dog ​​sled on celluloid. On Pentecost Sunday, May 11, 1913, the journey by sled was continued even in a snow storm until Extreme-Huk was reached. Meanwhile, Biehler, Villinger and Graetz set out for another bay to look for any survivors of last year's expedition. It was −24 degrees Celsius. But neither of the two groups could make any trace of the missing Schröder-Stranz people. Graetz and Allgeier then undertook another search for a sled that lasted about 160 kilometers.

The expedition ship increasingly threatened to be crushed by the towering ice sheets. Allgeier documented "at risk of death", as he wrote, the piling up ice floes and how they then crashed together. The enormous pressure of the ice floes drilling into the ship's hull caused the first leaks, which made the ship no longer seem seaworthy. Allgeier had already stowed his exposed and unexposed film rolls in his rucksack when the crew had to leave the ship at lightning speed because it threatened to sink. Landed on the temporarily safe ice field, Allgeier took up the destruction of the Loevenskjold by the forces of nature. The captivity in the ice did not end until July 22, 1913, when the summer thaw exposed a channel back to the southern Hinlopenstrasse. The dinghies were laboriously transported to the exposed water channel by sledges in order to start their journey home. When they reached mainland Svalbard, they met the Norwegian captain Staxrud. Meanwhile, Herzog Ernst , the expedition ship of the Schröder-Stranz troop, which was once also enclosed by ice masses, was able to free its expedition by means of dynamite explosions.

The Lerner people now united with the Staxrud people on the Herzog Ernst . Experiences were exchanged. While Staxrud set off south across the ice on Wilhelmsinsel , the ship could not go any further south, as the newly emerging pack ice made the path seem too dangerous. Eventually another route was chosen. On the way home, another polar bear and two seals were hunted down to ensure that the expedition members were fed. Allgeier stayed on deck for almost the entire return voyage in order to capture filmic impressions on celluloid. Finally the north side of Svalbard was reached, from there the journey home could be started without problems. On August 16, 1913 around 3 p.m. the crew reached Tromsø unscathed.

Production notes

Filming location Spitzbergen ( Adventdalen near Longyearbyen )

With the camera in the eternal ice , the work was mainly made in the months of May to mid-August 1913 on site on Svalbard and on the Norwegian mainland (including Tromsø). The three-act film was 1,077 meters long and was shown for the first time in October 1913 in the “Cines” Nollendorf Theater. Other sources name December 24th, 1913, with the premiere location Freiburg im Breisgau.

The film was advertised as follows on a poster for the producing Express-Film:

“The film contains all phases of an arctic and real expedition and so far has no competition! For the first time in the history of cinematography, the sinking of a polar ship through terrible ice pressures was recorded. Artistic photographic execution! Topical content! Exciting u. exciting moments! "

This film is often confused or mixed up with another (full-length) documentary called “The Tragedy of the Schröder-Stranz Expedition” by the ship painter Christopher Rave . However, this was created in 1912 during the named expedition, in which Rave had also participated. He was one of the few survivors and brought his film, which competes with Allgeier's work, to the cinemas on September 24, 1913.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ the wrong spelling Schröder-Stran t z can be read several times
  2. ↑ Cinematographische Rundschau v. Dec. 21, 1913, p. 16

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