Salomon August Andrée

Salomon August Andrée - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0033031

Salomon August Andrée (born October 18, 1854 in Gränna , † October 1897 on later named after him Andréeneset on Kvitøya , Spitzbergen ) was a Swedish engineer and polar explorer .

Life

Andrée attended the Stockholm Technical College and graduated as a civil engineer in 1874. In 1876 he visited the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and met the American balloonist John Wise . In 1880 he became a teaching assistant in Stockholm, later he was a member of a polar expedition in Sweden as part of the First International Polar Year (1882-1883). The following year Andrée became a senior engineer and head of the technical department at the Swedish Patent Office . During the aforementioned expedition under Nils Ekholm , he dealt with investigations into air electricity . He later wrote scientific articles for journals on this, as well as on heat conduction and his own inventions. Andrée also represented a liberal party on Stockholm City Council from 1891 to 1894.

Andrée became internationally known for his unsuccessful attempt to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon in 1897 .

Polar expedition

→ Main article : Andrée's polar expedition of 1897

With the exception of a carrier pigeon and two buoys with messages, the public heard nothing about the fate of the expedition members for 33 years. It was not until 1930 that the bodies of Andrée, Nils Strindberg and Knut Frænkel as well as their tools and diaries were found on the island of Kvitøya. The bodies were returned to Sweden and cremated . The ashes were buried in a shared grave on Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm .

The diaries later found in the polar region made it possible to trace the course of the expedition, which became a worldwide media event. It was also possible to develop the films from Nils Strindberg's camera. During the expedition and after the remains were found, Andrée was portrayed as a hero by most commentators. Over time, however, the critical voices increased and today there is a differentiated picture of his person.

Honors

• In Andrée's hometown of Gränna there is a museum dedicated to the most famous son of this town and across the street is the house where he spent his childhood.
• The Andrée Land in East Greenland was named after him in 1899 by Swedish geologist Alfred Gabriel Nathorst .
• The Andrée-Land was named in 1912/1913 by the cartographer Gerard Jakob De Geer in the north of Spitzbergen.
• The Andrée Island in Antarctica bears his name.
• Andreestrasse is located in Bremen - Findorff
• In the film Der Flug des Adler , which traces the story of the failed North Pole expedition, Andrée is played by Max von Sydow .

literature

• Detlef Brennecke: With the balloon towards the pole, 1897 . Stuttgart, Vienna: Ed. Erdmann 2002, ISBN 978-3-522-60043-9
• David Hempleman-Adams : With the Wind to the North Pole. A modern adventurer on the trail of a historical tragedy . Frederking & Thaler, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-89405-467-0 .
• Thomas Lautz: With the balloon to the North Pole. 100 years ago: Start of the fateful Andrée expedition . In: Münzen & Papiergeld 11/1997, pp. 7–13 (in particular the complete listing and history of the medals minted in honor of Andrées).
• Theodor Lerner: polar driver. Under the spell of the Arctic, the experiences of a German polar explorer . Oesch, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0350-2014-0 .
• Per Olof Sundman: Engineer Andrées Aviation . Benziger Verlag, Zurich u. a. 1969. New edition dtv Munich 1996, ISBN 978-3-423-12190-3
• SA Andree: Towards the pole . FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1930. (posthumous)
• Adrian Mohr u. a .: 33 years lost in the pack ice . Grethlein & Co., Leipzig a. a. 1930.
• Günther Sollinger: SA Andree: The Beginning of Polar Aviation 1895–1897. Moscow 2005. Russian Academy of Sciences.
• Günther Sollinger: SA Andree and Aeronautics: An Annotated Bibliography. Moscow 2005. Russian Academy of Sciences.
• Bea Uusma: The expedition. How I solved the riddle of a polar tragedy. A love story . btb, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-442-75497-7 .
• PJ Capelotti: Andrée, Salomon August . In: Mark Nuttall (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Arctic . tape 1 . Routledge, New York / London 2003, ISBN 1-57958-436-5 , pp. 89 f . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
• Andrée, Salomon August . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 1 : A-Androphagi . London 1910, p. 971 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Commons : Salomon August Andrée  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Salomon August Andrée in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Salomon August Andrée in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Andrée Museum in Gränna (English)
• Detailed report on the expedition with further links
• Kvitøya - White Island Map (English)
• Map with the three ice-free areas, including Andréeneset