Vitalis Pantenburg

Vitalis Peter Joseph Pantenburg (born June 3, 1901 in Wittlich , Rhineland , † after 1979) was a German engineer and economic geographer , journalist , writer, translator and photographer. His areas of work were the economic geography of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic , energy and hydraulic engineering .

Life

Vitalis Pantenburg attended the Schiller-Gymnasium in Cologne-Ehrenfeld . He then studied economic geography , energy management and electrical engineering in Hanover , Stuttgart and Braunschweig as well as at the University of Munich . Numerous study trips and expeditions led him a. a. to the Nordic countries of Scandinavia , Iceland , Greenland , the Central Arctic and Canada .

Pantenburg appeared as a National Socialist publicist in the 1930s and 1940s . For the Nordic Society , which was developed into the most important German espionage organization in Sweden and Scandinavia in the run-up to the war , he worked for a time as managing director of the Cologne branch ("Rhein- Kontor ") and from 1935 as a freelancer. He had been working for the Cologne radio station since 1931 .

In 1935 he published the article An encounter with the swastika in the far north . In the same year he published the article Norden - et geopolitisk problem in issue 8 of the Norwegian National Socialist monthly magazine Ragnarok . In 1936, Vitalis Pantenburg published a folklore article about the Finns with his own photos and pictures in the journal Neues Volk , the organ of the racial political office of the NSDAP , under the title Erkki vom Großer Saima . On May 12, 1937, his article Who Owns the Arctic? Five flags above the pole in the illustrated magazine Die Woche . In 1938 his book Russlands Griff um Nordeuropa was published , which was then very popular. In it, as in his other writings, he particularly pursued the tendency to paint a heroic picture of the Finnish people, which he understood as a “shield”, “sword” or “bolt of the north” against Russian expansion. As an author, editor and translator, Pantenburg published several books and articles about the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939/40, which he had observed closely while working in Scandinavia. He also published his reports from Scandinavia in books for young people during the war; So in 1940 a picture report by Vitalis Pantenburg from Finland appeared with the title Under the blue swastika: Encounter with Lotten in a BDM yearbook for girls. At the beginning of the Russian campaign, Pantenburg published the article The Red Shadow on Northern Scandinavia in the early autumn of 1941 . The threat to the Scandinavian north from the Soviets in the Danzig NSDAP propaganda magazine Der Deutsche im Osten . In 1943 he was one of the authors of a Scandinavian issue of the same magazine entitled Tame Polar Mark . In addition, Pantenburg gave numerous lectures on the radio in which he lectured on Finland and other Nordic topics.

From abroad Pantenburg was regarded as a "high Nazi " and was considered "one of the best Nazi spies in Europe" and "master spy in Finland". His research trips and stays in Scandinavia made this work easier for him. After a use in Greenland ordered defense boss Wilhelm Canaris Pantenburg during the Soviet-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40 and before the German occupation of Norway in the spring of 1940 as a head of the Scandinavian section of the German secret service (along with Paul Burckhardt and Adolf Hoel ) to Lapland . There Pantenburg obtained plans for practically all of the major military installations in the Arctic, such as the Boden fortress in northern Sweden and the Narvik fortress in Norway. However, just three weeks after his arrival he was arrested while taking pictures of the Swedish fortress Boden and interned in Sweden. After a short time he was deported and then continued his activities in Finland. After the occupation of Narvik by the Germans, Theodor Broch , the social democratic mayor of the city who had fled to England , named Pantenburg in the American magazine Life as “a well-known Nazi journalist” who would have visited Narvik before. Broch also reported a letter of the leader of the Norwegian National Coalition Party Vidkun Quisling for Pantenburg from 1935, which was addressed to Colonel Konrad Sundlo, the commander of the Norwegian garrison of Narvik, the later with the German attackers collaborated .

Later Pantenburg headed in Finse on Hardangerjøkulen at the strategically located mountain railway in Norway, the "test site Northern (Arctic)" in the Technical Office of the Air Ministry , which went into operation in spring 1943rd The main task was the training of the personnel of the air force weather stations in the Arctic , as well as the testing of equipment and research into living conditions under extreme polar conditions. Military weather reconnaissance in Norway was particularly important for combating the allied northern sea convoys .

After the Second World War, Pantenburg was a member and research assistant at the Archive for Polar Research in Kiel , in whose journal he published regularly between 1951 and 1971. He was also a member of the American Polar Society and the Canadian Arctic Circle and was on the board of the German-Icelandic Society . His extensive image archive with many thousands of negatives survived the war unscathed, as the specialist magazine Fotospiegel reported with some astonishment in 1948. Pantenburg continued to appear on the radio and was known as a radio and television author. As a non-fiction author, he remained active as a writer and gave numerous lectures and book presentations in many cities in western Germany and Austria . He owned one of the largest polar science libraries in West Germany.

Vitalis Pantenburg was married to the writer and translator Lieselotte Kattwinkel , with whom he often went on long trips. As in the pre-war period, the couple lived in the south of Cologne, in Rodenkirchen since 1938 , and in Hahnwald from the late 1950s . During a six-month study trip to Canada , which Pantenburg undertook together with his wife in 1949/50 as an employee of the Kiel Archive for Polar Research, they covered 30,000 km in the car. The couple were among the first Germans to tour the country after World War II. The fact that the Canadian authorities had issued entry visas to former Nazi spy Pantenburg was on the agenda of a debate in the House of Commons in 1952 . With the material recorded on the trip, the cultural films Neuland im North America and Here begins all over again were made . The Pantenburgs described their travel experiences in the picture and text volume of the same name published in 1954, Here the world begins again , to which Lieselotte Pantenburg contributed the photographs.

Pantenburg wrote popular scientific works for adults as well as for children and young people, books for young people, films, radio plays and television reports, but also travel guides, articles in specialist journals and historical and geopolitical treatises on the areas he traveled. While he was primarily interested in Finland in the 1940s, much of his post-war publications deal with Canada. In total, he has published work in over 370 publications in at least 6 languages. His publications also include 13 lux reading sheets, which deal with the polar and ice regions of the world. In contrast to his war and pre-war writings, which were mainly translated into Scandinavian languages, various non-fiction books by Pantenburg were also published in French and Dutch in the 1950s and 1960s . As an editor and translator, Pantenburg made the books of the British polar explorer Wally Herbert available to the German-speaking audience. In 1976 Herbert's youth book about Eskimos, translated by Pantenburg, was published . People in the Land of the Long Day , which was awarded the German Youth Literature Prize in 1977 . At the end of the 1970s, the Pantenburg couple settled in the Balearic Islands , where they are lost. Vitalis Pantenburg's last book is a travel guide to the Eifel that was published in 1979 in the Polyglott series and was reissued into the 1990s . His last known publication is a short article that appeared in 1980 under his name in the Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie , in which he had published since the 1950s.

In the Soviet occupation zone , his writings, Russia's Griff um Nordeuropa (Schwarzhäupter-Verlag, 1938) and Finland (Goldmann, Leipzig, 1943) were placed on the list of literature to be sorted out.

Fonts (selection)

• Russia's grip on Northern Europe . (1938, Blackheads, Leipzig);
  Swedish : Rysslands grepp om north. (1940, Dagens Böcker, Malmö)
• Nordland beyond the ice bar. An expedition to arctic primeval land. From the author's diaries . (1940, Ger.Verl.Ges.)
• As editor and translator of the Swedish edition of an original by Viljo Saraja:
  Brothers in Arms. In the original edition [Lunastettu maa] it was awarded as the best representation of reality from the Finnish-Russian winter wars of 1939/40. (1942, P. List, Leipzig)
• Finland, the youngest empire in the far north . (1941, 2nd edition 1943, W. Goldmann, Leipzig);
  Czech : Finsko. Nejmladší stát na dalekém severu. (1942, Orbis, Prague)
• To the roof of Europe . (1948, Ger.Verl.Ges.)
• Wild reindeer, hunting trips on the Nordic high steppe . (1949, Ger.Verl.Ges.)
• Arctic. Continent of the future . (1949, bagel)
• Eirik the young catcher . (1951, Greven)
• The trappers and the great road . (1953, Westermann)
• Here the world begins all over again. On Canada's new roads . (1955, Ger.Verl.Ges.)
• Kitimat company - engineers tame wild waters . (1960, arena)
• The Arctic is calling . (1964, Spectrum)
• A giant awakens - Canada From the Hudson Bay to an industrial nation . (1966, Diederichs)
• Werner von Siemens - the adventure of electricity . (1966, Ensslin & Laiblin)
• Expedition today: science on the move . (1967, Schwann)
• The earth gives abundance . (1968, Cotta)
• Save the water! From the global campaign of the hydrologists . (1969, Schwann)
• Process engineering: know how. A new job for engineers . (1969, Schwann)
• The portrait of the earth. History of cartography . (Stuttgart 1970, Kosmos) ISBN 3-440-00266-7
• Adventure Without Arms: The Lords of the Arctic . (1971, Schwann)
• Jump to T3 . (1972, Ueberreuter) ISBN 3-8000-2130-7
• Polyglot Travel Guide, Canada . (1972, polyglot) ISBN 3-493-60804-7
• Polyglot Travel Guide, The Moselle . (1974, Polyglott) ISBN 3-493-60616-8
• Landscape made by human hands . (1975, Greven Verlag Cologne) ISBN 3-7743-0099-2
• Sea roads through the great ice . (1976, Koehler) ISBN 3-7822-0114-0
• Polyglott travel guide, Eifel . (1979, polyglot) ISBN 3-493-60629-X

literature

• Kürschner's German Literature Calendar , 1949. New edition: Verlag de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-130818-0 , column 472

Web links

• Literature list in the online catalog of the Berlin State Library
• Works directory on Google books

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Rudolf Radler: The German-language non-fiction literature . In: Kindlers Literaturgeschichte der Gegenwart , Volume 11. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-596-26471-5 , p. 334; 505.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Hans Clemens: Gestalten and Gestalter. Heads from the Cologne district. Verlag Der Löwe Dr. Hans Reykers. Cologne 1960, p. 127 f.
3. ^ Kurt D. Singer: Duel for the northland. The war of enemy agents in Scandinavia . Publisher RM McBride, 1943, p. 175 ( preview on books.google.de ).
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Risto Peltovuori: The image of Finland in the “Third Reich” using the example of the German press. In: Robert Schweitzer (Ed.): Two hundred years of German enthusiasm for Finland. On the development of the German image of Finland since August Thiemes “Finland” Poem of 1808 (series of publications by the Finland Institute in Germany , Volume 11). BWV , Berlin 2010, pp. 195–206 (on Pantenburg: pp. 197 f.).
5. ↑ The Norwegian shipping economist, journalist and local politician Hans S. Jacobsen (1901–1980), who had studied in Kiel from 1922 to 1925, published the monthly Ragnarok from 1934 to 1945. As an advocate of Pan-Germanic ideas and supporter of Nordic mysticism , he supported National Socialism and described his publication as “one of Norway's 2 anti-Semitic magazines”. It conveyed the worldview of its editor in comments and contributions and remained unmolested during the German occupation. Cf. Katja Happe, Michael Mayer , Maja Peers (Hrsg./Bearb.): The persecution and murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany 1933–1945 (source collection). Volume 5: Western and Northern Europe 1940-June 1942. Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-58682-4 , p. 93 u. Note 2 and 5.
6. ^ Ragnarok , contents of the year 1935.
7. ↑ New People. Sheets of the Racial Political Office of the NSDAP. 4th year, issue 11 (November), Berlin 1936.
8. ↑ Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College , Hanover , NH : Vilhjalmur-Stefansson - Collection ( Memento from April 13, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ), Box 18, Folder 54.
9. ↑ Die Wehrmacht im Kampf , Volume 9. Verlag K. Vowinckel, 1956.
10. ^ V. Pantenburg: Finland, youngest empire in the far north. Goldmann, Leipzig 1941 ff .; Viljo Saraja, V. Pantenburg (ed. And transl.): Brothers in Arms. List Verlag, Leipzig 1942; Håkan Mörne, V. Pantenburg (translator): Winter of Honor: Finland's Struggle of the Hundred Days. Universitas Verlag , Berlin 1942; Hjalmar Siilasvuo , V. Pantenburg (transl.): Suomussalmi : Fight and victory in the northern Finnish wilderness. Rütten & Loening, Potsdam 1943; V. Pantenburg: Finland resisted the Soviets: 105 days of winter war on the northern edge of Europe in 1939/40. 3-part series of articles in: Soldier und Technik , 8th year (1965), ed. from the Federal Ministry of Defense , pp. 216–217 (booklet 4), 278–281 (booklet 5) and 342–345 (booklet 6).
11. ↑ Vitalis Pantenburg: Under the blue swastika: encounter with the Lotten. Photo report by Vitalis Pantenburg from Finland. In: We girls. Illustrated yearbook of sport and companionship, happiness and serious knowledge. 5th episode, Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft , Stuttgart 1940.
12. ↑ Detlef Krannhals (main editor): The German in the East: Monthly for culture, politics and entertainment. 4th year, issue 9 (September 1941), Der Danziger Vorposten Verlag (central publishing house of the NSDAP for the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia ), Danzig 1941.
13. ↑ Strohmenger, Pleyer, Pantenburg, Müller, Manhold, Ringmann and others. a .: Tamed Polar Mark. Issue 3 (mid-May) in the 6th year of the magazine Der Deutsche im Osten , Der Danziger Vorposten Verlag, Danzig 1943.
14. ↑ ^{a b c} Kurt D. Singer: Spies and traitors of World War II . Prentice-Hall, 1945, pp. 44, 59f. ( Preview on books.google.de ).
15. ^ ^{A b} Kurt D. Singer: Duel for the northland. The war of enemy agents in Scandinavia . Publisher RM McBride, 1943, pp. 114f., 162, 182 ( preview on books.google.de ).
16. ↑ Life from December 16, 1940, Volume 9, No. 25, pp. 96-103 (on Pantenburg: p. 97; digital view in the Google book search).
17. ^ Wilhelm Dege, William Barr (trans. And ed.): War North of 80. The Last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II . Calgary 2004, p. XX ( preview on books.google.de ).
18. ↑ The archive of the journal Polarforschung lists eight articles from Pantenburg between 1951 and 1971.
19. ↑ "His picture archive with many thousands of negatives escaped destruction as if by a miracle." Foto-Spiegel 1.1947 / 48.9.26 (information from Rolf Sachsse , FotografWiki ).
20. ↑ Walter Habel (Ed.): Who is who? 12th edition, Arani-Verlag, Berlin 1955, p. 882 ( preview on books.google.de ).
21. ↑ Polar Research , Volumes 20–29, Association for the Promotion of the Archives for Polar Research, Verlag W. Keller, Kiel from 1950.
22. ↑ House of Commons debates, official report , session 1952, volume 4. Queen's Printer publishing house, Ottawa 1953, p. 3832 u. 3758 ( verified by HathiTrust ).
23. ^ ^{A b} Thomas A. Rumney: Canadian Geography: A Scholarly Bibliography. The Scarecrow Press, Lanham / Toronto / Plymouth 2010, p. 8 (No. I-221); P. 56 (No. I-1442); P. 59 (No. I-1512); P. 623 (Nos. VII-60 and VII-61).
24. ↑ Vitalis Pantenburg at WorldCat , last accessed on October 19, 2016.
25. ↑ Schreiber-Verlag, Esslingen 1976.
26. ↑ 60 Years of the German Youth Literature Prize , accessed on October 14, 2016.
27. ↑ Vitalis Pantenburg: Biggest rescue operation for sick inland lake. In: Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie 24 (1980), p. 235 f. Proof: Ute Schäfer, Rainald Stromeyer (edit.): Berlin Bibliography (1978 to 1984) (publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin , volume 69). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1987, p. 682 ( No. 11812 ).
28. ^ German administration for popular education in the Soviet zone of occupation: List of the literature to be sorted out. Berlin: Zentralverlag, 1946 ( transcript on www.polunbi.de ).