Second German North Polar Expedition

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Climbing a secondary peak of the Payerspitze and looking west to the Petermannspitze .

The Second German North Polar Expedition was a scientific expedition inspired by the geographer August Petermann with the ships Germania and Hansa . The expedition led by Captain Carl Koldewey explored and mapped parts of the east coast of Greenland between 74.5 ° and 77 ° north latitude that were previously unknown in 1869/70 . Further south, she discovered the Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord and mapped part of this fjord system.

prehistory

August Petermann

The mystery of the lost Franklin expedition , which set out in 1845 to find the Northwest Passage , had given polar research a great boost. The numerous attempts to clarify the fate of the missing had led to the exploration of large parts of the Canadian Arctic archipelago between 1848 and 1860 . Germans hardly appeared in polar research until the 1860s. Although Hamburg whalers were already active off Spitzbergen in the 17th century , and individuals had taken part in British, Russian or American expeditions, there had been no German expedition to the polar regions.

The initiator of German polar research was the geographer and cartographer August Petermann. At a geographical meeting called by the Free German Hochstift in Frankfurt am Main on July 23, 1865, he put his plans for a German expedition to the North Pole up for discussion. Petermann was one of the leading proponents of the theory of the ice-free Arctic Ocean . He was convinced of the existence of a sea, at least navigable in summer, north of a belt of pack ice around the 80th parallel . He felt encouraged, among other things, by the observations made by the Americans Elisha Kent Kane and Isaac Israel Hayes , who had attempted to advance across Smithsund to the North Pole in 1853–1855 and 1860/61, respectively . Both reported seeing open water beyond their northernmost positions reached. The geographic assembly gave Petermann its full support. The interest shown by the governments of Prussia and Austria ended with the outbreak of the German War of 1866. Petermann now relied on private financing for the planned expedition.

preparation

Petermann's journalistic activities resulted in close contacts with the Bremen merchants. Important supporters were Arthur Breusing , the director of the Bremer Steuermannschule , the shipowner Albert Rosenthal (1828-1882), Hermann Henrich Meier , the founder of the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd , Wilhelm von Freeden , the rector of the navigation school in Elsfleth and founder of the North German sea observatory , and Moritz Lindeman , the stenographer of the Bremen citizenship . At a meeting in Gotha , where Petermann received Breusing, Rosenthal and the scientists Reinhold Buchholz and Franz Joseph Dorst (1833–1901), an expedition plan was drawn up on October 11 and 12, 1867. Confident in future financing, Petermann took out a larger loan at his own risk in order to be able to send out a pre-expedition in 1868. He transferred the command of the voyage, which went down in history as the First German North Polar Expedition , to Breusing's former student Carl Koldewey.

The pre-expedition took place from May 24th to October 10th, 1868. Following Petermann's instructions, Koldewey bought the Nordic Jagt Greenland in Bergen and set sail with a crew of 11 to either break through the ice belt off East Greenland or to bypass Svalbard with the aim of finding the hypothetical Gillis Land. Both failed, and in addition to extensive meteorological and oceanographic observations, the mapping of the southern area of ​​the Hinlopen Strait between the islands of Spitzbergen and Nordostland is one of the most important results of the expedition.

The Germania
The Hansa

At the beginning of March 1869, Petermann commissioned the construction of the screw steamer Germania at the Joh. C. Tecklenborg shipyard with the money that was left over from the collection for the pre-expedition . A further step was the constitution of the committee for the German north polar journey on April 9th ​​in Bremen, through which the further financing was handled. The Comité bought the five-year-old schoonerbrigg Fulton , which was renamed Hansa , as the escort ship for Germania .

Expedition destination

On June 7, 1869, Petermann issued an "Instruction for the second German North Pole Expedition 1869-1870" consisting of 31 paragraphs. The most important purpose is the scientific exploration and discovery of the Arctic central region north of the 75th parallel. The expedition was supposed to firstly clarify the question of whether the North Pole is permanently covered by ice or is located in a sea that is at least temporarily navigable, and secondly to discover, measure and research eastern Greenland and areas adjoining it to the north. Petermann instructed Koldewey to first head for Sabine Island at about 74.5 ° north latitude and then to advance further north with both ships along the coast. Wintering should take place as far north as possible, if possible at the North Pole. In addition to a degree measurement at the highest possible latitudes, scientific work was primarily intended to include meteorological, geological, botanical and zoological research. Koldewey was also instructed to persuade some Inuit , at least one man and one woman, to accompany the expedition to Germany.

equipment

The Germania , the main ship of the expedition, was launched in Bremerhaven on April 16 . The costs for the new building amounted to 18,000 thalers. The Germania was 30.48 m long and 6.86 m wide. Their gross volume was 165 tons. The outer walls of the ship were provided with a special outer skin ( spiked skin ) and covered with thick sheet iron. The bow was additionally reinforced by iron bars to make the ship particularly suitable for ice. The propeller of the Germania was supported by a 30-PS steam engine of the company Co. Waltjen C. & driven. During a test run on the Weser , a speed of 4.5  knots was achieved. The crew consisted of 14 men, including the captain and ship's doctor.

The Hansa was only slightly smaller than the Germania and offered the 13-person crew comparable comfort as this one. It was purchased for 8,000 thalers and rebuilt and reinforced at the Wencke shipyard for a further 3900 thalers. It carried the greater part of the coal freight for the Germania steam engine . A total of 110 tons of coal were on board the Hansa and 70 tons on board the Germania .

The provisions consisted mainly of canned meat and bread. A large amount of pemmican was provided for supply on sled trips . Canned vegetables, lemon juice and alcoholic beverages were also plentiful.

The clothing and underwear consisted mainly of wool, but fur hats, fur gloves and sheepskin coats were also part of the equipment. Sleeping bags were made of sheepskin or buffalo skin for overnight stays outdoors.

The expedition was equipped with scientific devices for astronomical and geomagnetic observations, most of which had been made by Moritz Meyerstein in Göttingen . Various thermometers , barometers , actinometers and anemometers were carried along with meteorological instruments .

Expedition participant

Captains and scientists of the expedition
above: Pansch, Payer, Börgen
Middle: Koldewey, Petermann, Hegemann
below: Laube, Copeland, Buchholz
Germania
  • Carl Koldewey *, expedition leader and captain
  • Karl Nikolai Jensen Börgen , astronomer and geophysicist
  • Ralph Copeland , astronomer
  • Julius Payer , geologist, cartographer and alpinist
  • Adolf Georg Pansch , doctor and biologist
  • Heinrich Sengstacke *, 1st officer
  • Otto Tramnitz, 2nd officer
  • Karl August Krauschner, machinist
  • Hermann Warkmeister, boatswain
  • Johann Friedrich Büttner, carpenter
  • Louis Ollenstädt, cook
  • Georg Herzberg, sailor
  • Peter Ellinger, seaman
  • Theodor Klentzer, sailor
  • Wilhelm Mieders, sailor
  • Peter Iversen *, seaman
  • Louis Wagner, stoker
Hansa

* already participant of the First German North Pole Expedition

course

Departure from Bremerhaven on June 15, 1869.
Overview map of the areas discovered on the sledge trip from March 24th to April 28th
Arrival of the Hansa men in Friedrichsthal
The devil's castle on the Kaiser-Franz-Joseph-Fjord
Sketch map of the Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Fjord

The expedition left Bremerhaven on June 15, 1869 with great interest from the population. The Prussian King Wilhelm I , his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg appeared to see them off.

On July 9, the ships passed Jan Mayen and lost contact with one another in thick fog. Three days later the first iceberg appeared in front of the Germania . When the fog cleared on July 18, the ships found themselves at the agreed latitude of 75 ° north. In search of a passage, they sailed along the edge of the pack ice drifting off the Greenland coast to the southwest until July 20 , when a signal from Germania that was misunderstood on the Hansa led to - as it turned out - the final separation of the ships.

The Hansa fell while trying to pass through the pack ice belt, increasingly tighter fairways and remained on 14 September in the ice stuck. It drifted to the southwest with the East Greenland Current. As a precaution, the crew, under the direction of Captain Hegemann, built a house from coal briquettes on a large ice floe by October 3, and deposited provisions there for an initial two months. In mid-October the situation of the ship, which had been subjected to constant ice presses, became hopeless. The crew removed everything that was of value to them, including two stoves with fuel and the three dinghies. On the night of October 23, the Hansa sank at 70 ° 52 ′ north and 21 ° west off the coast of Liverpool Land . Within 200 days, the Hansa men drifted around 1500 km along the coast of East Greenland on their floe. When the floe had shrunk to a size of only 300 m² by the beginning of May 1870, the fourteen men continued the journey in their three boats. After another 36 days of hardship, they reached the Moravian mission station in Friedrichstal on the southern tip of Greenland. From Frederikshåb they were able to return to Europe on the Danish sailing ship Constance and were back in Germany in September 1870.

The Germania managed to break through the ice barrier and on August 4, Sabine Island driving. Following Petermann's instructions, the journey was interrupted here in order to identify the location of Edward Sabine's observatory from 1823 and to redefine its location. While the Pendulum Islands and the island of Shannon , which can be seen to the north, were stuck on land in the fast ice, there was an opportunity to advance further north to the east. In fact, Shannon was passed by Germania and reached a latitude of 76.5 °. Then pack ice prevented the ship from moving on. On August 17th, two land expeditions were sent out to survey Shannon. They met musk ox and polar bears and found traces of earlier human habitation. After visiting Lille Pendulum , the ship sailed into a sheltered bay on Sabine Island on September 13, which was named Germaniahafen, and was prepared for wintering. Meanwhile, Koldewey, Payer, Tramnitz and three sailors went on a sleigh trip to Kuhn Island from September 14th to 21st , where they discovered coal seams , among other things . Payer went on a second excursion with Copeland and three sailors from October 27 to November 4 to Clavering Island . They discovered the Tirolerfjord, the existence of which Douglas Charles Clavering had already suspected. However, they did not find any fresh traces of Inuit, such as Clavering had encountered on the island in 1823.

At the Germaniahafen two observatories were built by October 6, one astronomical and one geomagnetic, both piled up from stones. The meteorological instruments were also set up at the observatory and read regularly during the entire stay.

From March 24th to April 28th, the longest excursion took a team of sledges, led by Julius Payer and Carl Koldewey, along the coast to the north into a still unknown area. Under great exertion and with several interruptions due to the weather, the men pulled their hand sledge past the islands of Groß Koldewey and Klein Koldewey to Germanialand . On April 15, they turned around at 77 ° 1 'north and 18 ° 50' west at the northernmost point that a scientific expedition in East Greenland had reached by then. Further excursions with geological and archaeological objectives took place in May and June 1870.

On July 10th, the ice began to break up in Germaniahafen. On July 22nd, Germania set course north again, but made no further progress than the year before. After eight days, Koldewey turned around and drove south past the Pendulum Islands along the coast. On July 1, Jackson Island was visited, the vegetation of which was found in full bloom. Several fjords and bays were mapped before the massive mouth of a still unknown fjord, which was named Kaiser-Franz-Joseph-Fjord, was reached on August 8th. Payer and Copeland climbed the 1200 m high Franklinspitze to get an idea of ​​the extent of the fjord. Then the Germania drove as deep as it could safely into the fjord system. On August 12, Payer, Copeland and Ellinger climbed a prominent peak, almost 2100 m high, near the Payerspitze and discovered the Petermannspitze (2970 m) in the distance .

On August 16, the Germania left the fjord and set course for Bremerhaven, which was reached on September 11, 1870.

Results

The remains of Inui huts found by the expedition on Sabine Island

The Second German North Polar Expedition could not achieve its main goal, the discovery of the North Pole, because August Petermann's assumption of an ice-free polar sea was not true and the predicted polynya along the east coast of Greenland did not exist either. Nevertheless, the expedition represented an important pioneering achievement in the exploration of East Greenland in the scientific sense. Areas of northeast Greenland that were previously unknown were discovered and the entire coast between 73 ° and 77 ° North was mapped. Around 125 names were given for geographical objects and most of them still exist today.

The scientists collected extensive material of geological, zoological, botanical and archaeological nature and made extensive meteorological, astronomical, glaciological, hydrological and geomagnetic observations. The published scientific results fill almost 1000 pages in the expedition report. The occurrence of musk ox in East Greenland was documented for the first time. The exact astronomical local regulations Copeland and Börgen were a key factor in the later development of the theory of continental drift by Alfred Wegener .

In addition to the expedition participants and others, the scientific processing of the biological and geological samples a. Gustav Wilhelm Körber , Gustav Hermann Zeller , Leopold Fuckel , Gregor Kraus , Wilhelm Peters , Hermann von Nathusius , Otto Finsch , Alfred Newton , Karl von Kupffer , Karl Möbius , Ludwig Koch , Adolph Gerstäcker , Alexander von Homeyer , Gustav Heinrich Kirchenpauer , Oscar Schmidt , Ernst Haeckel , Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg , Franz Toula , Oskar Lenz and Oswald Heer involved.

Expedition report

  • Association for the German north polar voyage in Bremen: The second German north polar voyage in 1869 and 1870 under the leadership of Captain Karl Koldewey , FA Brockhaus, Leipzig.
    • 1.1: Narrative part. [Joint voyage of the two ships and voyage of the Hansa. History of the discovery of East Greenland], 1873 ( digitized version ).
    • 1.2: Narrative part. [Germania voyage], 1874 ( digitized version ).
    • 2.1: Scientific results. [Botany, Zoology], 1874 ( digitized version ).
    • 2.2: Scientific results. [Geology, meteorology and hydrography, geodesy, terrestrial magnetism], 1874 ( digitized version ).

literature

  • Jörg-Friedhelm Venzke : The 1869/70 German North Polar Expedition . In: Arctic . Volume 43, No. 1, 1990, pp. 83-84 (English). doi: 10.14430 / arctic1595
  • Reinhard A. Krause : The founding phase of German polar research, 1865-1875 (=  reports on polar research . Volume 114, 1992). Dissertation, University of Hamburg 1992. doi: 10.2312 / BzP_0114_1992
  • Reinhard A. Krause: Background to German polar research from the beginning until today . In: German Ship Archives . Volume 16, 1993, pp. 7-70 ( PDF ; 7.55 MB).
  • Reinhard A. Krause: Two hundred days in pack ice. The authentic reports of the "Hansa" men of the German East Greenland expedition 1869–1870 (=  writings of the German Maritime Museum . Volume 46). Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-8225-0412-2 .
  • Reinhard A. Krause, Jörn Thiede: 150 years of German polar research and the development of Greenland - a Danish-German chronicle. Plan for an international exhibition . In: Polar Research . Volume 86, No. 2, 2016, pp. 35-144. doi: 10.2312 / polar research. 86.2.135

Individual evidence

  1. ^ RA Krause: The founding phase of German polar research, 1865-1875 . 1992, p. 1.
  2. ↑ a b R. A. Krause: Background of German polar research from its beginnings to today . 1993, p. 17.
  3. ↑ a b R. A. Krause: The founding phase of German polar research, 1865–1875 . 1992, p. 95.
  4. ^ RA Krause: Background of German polar research from the beginnings to today . 1993, p. 20.
  5. ^ RA Krause: The founding phase of German polar research, 1865-1875 . 1992, p. 170 f.
  6. ↑ The second German north polar voyage in 1869 and 1870 under the leadership of Captain Karl Koldewey . 1.1: Narrative part, Appendix III, pp. XLIX-LXIII.
  7. ↑ Ship data at tecklenborg-werft.de, accessed on May 10, 2019.
  8. ↑ The second German north polar voyage in 1869 and 1870 under the leadership of Captain Karl Koldewey . 1.1: Narrative part, p. XXXIV.
  9. ↑ The second German North Polar voyage in 1869 and 1870 under the leadership of Captain Karl Koldewey . 1.1: Narrative part, p. XXXII.
  10. ↑ The second German North Polar voyage in 1869 and 1870 under the leadership of Captain Karl Koldewey . 1.1: Narrative part, pp. XXXIII f.
  11. ↑ The second German North Polar voyage in 1869 and 1870 under the leadership of Captain Karl Koldewey . 1.1: Narrative Part, pp. XXXIV – XXXVI.
  12. ^ RA Krause: Background of German polar research from the beginnings to today . 1993, p. 24.
  13. ↑ Anthony K. Higgins: Exploration history of northern East Greenland (PDF; 2.9 MB). In: Exploration history and place names of northern East Greenland (= Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 21, 2010), ISBN 978-87-7871-292-9 . P. 22 f. (English).
  14. ^ Jörg-Friedhelm Venzke: The 1869/70 German North Polar Expedition .
  15. ↑ Alfred Wegener: The emergence of the continents and oceans . 2nd completely revised edition, Vieweg, Braunschweig 1920, p. 127 f.