# German Antarctic Expedition (1938–1939)

The German Antarctic Expedition (1938–1939), led by German Navy captain Alfred Ritscher (1879–1963), was the third official Antarctic expedition of the German Reich, by order of the "Commissioner for the Four Year Plan" Hermann Göring. Prussian State Councilor Helmuth Wohlthat was mandated with planning and preparation. The expedition's main objective was of economic nature, in particular the establishment of a whaling station and the acquisition of fishing grounds for a German whaling fleet in order to reduce the Reich's dependence on the import of industrial oils, fats and dietary fats. Preparations took place under strict secrecy as the enterprise was also tasked to make a feasibility assessment for a future occupation of Antarctic territory in the region between 20 ° West and 20 ° East.

## Preparations

In July 1938, Captain Alfred Ritscher received a mandate to launch preparations for an Antarctic expedition and within a few months he managed to bring about logistics, equipment and organizational measures for a topographical and marine survey expedition. Whale oil was then the most important raw material for the production of margarine and soap in Germany and the country was the second largest purchaser of Norwegian whale oil, importing some 200,000 tons annually. Dependence on imports and the forthcoming war was considered to put too much strain on Germany's foreign currency reserves. Supported by whaling expert Otto Kraul marine explorations were to be undertaken in order to set up a base for a whaling fleet and aerial photo surveys were to be carried out to map territory.
With only six months available for preparatory work, Ritscher had to rely on the antiquated MS Schwabenland ship and aircraft of Deutsche Lufthansa's Atlantic Service, with which a scientific program along the coast was to be carried out and retrieve biologic, meteorologic, oceanographic and geomagnetic studies. By applying modern aerophotogrammetric methods, Aerial surveys of the unknown Antarctic hinterlands were to be carried out with two Dornier Do J II seaplanes, named Boreas and Passat, that had to be launched via a steam catapult on the MS Schwabenland expedition ship. After urgent repairs on the ship and the two seaplanes, the crew of 82 members in total, left Hamburg on December 17, 1938.

## Expedition

The Expedition reached the Princess Martha Coast on January 19, 1939, and was active along the Queen Maud Land coast from 19 January to 15 February 1939. In seven survey flights between January 20 and February 5, 1939, an area of approx. 350.000 km$^2$ (135.136 sq mi) was photogrammetrically mapped. Previously unknown ice-free mountain ranges, several small ice-free lakes were discovered in the hinterland. The ice-free Schirmacher Oasis, which now hosts the Maitri and Novolazarevskaya research stations, was spotted from the air by the pilot Richard Schirmacher (who named it after himself). At the turning points of the flight polygons, 1.2 m (3.9 ft) long aluminum arrows, with 30 cm (12 in) steel cones and three upper stabilizer wings embossed with swastikas were supposedly dropped in order to establish German claims to ownership (which, however, was never raised). Through flight complications, those marker were only dropped once. During an additional eight special flights, in which Ritscher also took part, particularly interesting regions were filmed and taken with color photos. The team flew over an area of about 600.000 km$^2$ (231.661 sq mi). Around 11,600 aerial photographs were taken. Biological investigations were carried out on board the Schwabenland and on the sea ice on the coast. However, the insufficient equipment did not allow sled expeditions to the ice shelf or landings of the flying boats in the mountains. All explorations were carried out without a single member of the expedition having entered the inner territory.
The region between 10 ° W and 15 ° E was named New Swabia (Neuschwabenland) by the expedition leader. In the meantime, the Norwegian government had found out about the German Antarctic activities after the wife of the deputy expedition leader Ernst Herrmann had informed Norwegian geologist Adolf Hoel. On January 14, 1939, the Norwegian government declared the entire sector between 20 ° W and 45 ° E Norwegian territory (Queen Maud Land) without defining its southern extent.
On February 6, 1939, the expedition embarked on its return voyage, left the coast of Antarctica and carried out oceanographic research in the vicinity of Bouvet Island and Fernando de Noronha. At the request of the Navy High Command, crew members landed on the Brazilian island of Trindade on March 18 to check whether submarines could be supplied with fresh water and food without being noticed. The landing crew was shipwrecked in a small bay and had to be rescued. Since the landing had taken place in the strictest secrecy, Ritscher did not include the event in his final printed report. On April 11, 1939, the Schwabenland arrived in Hamburg.

### Geographic features mapped by the expedition

As the area was first explored by a German expedition, the name New Swabia and German names given to its geographic features are still used on many maps. Some geographic features mapped by the expedition were not named until the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition (NBSAE) of 1949–1952, led by John Schjelderup Giæver. Others were only named after they were remapped from aerial photos taken by the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition of 1958–1959.
See: New Swabia - Geographic features mapped by the expedition

## Scientific evaluation

Until 1942 pioneer geodesist Otto von Gruber produced detailed topographical maps of eastern New Swabia at a scale of 1: 50,000 and an overview map of all explored territories. Among the newly discovered areas were, for example, the Kraul Mountains, named after whaling expert and pilot Otto Kraul. The evaluation of the results in western New Swabia was interrupted by World War II and a large part of the 11,600 oblique aerial photographs were lost during the war. In addition to the images and maps published by Ritscher, only about 1,100 aerial photos survived the war, but these were only rediscovered and evaluated in 1982. The results of the biological, geophysical and meteorological investigations were only published after the war between 1954 and 1958. Captain Ritscher did in fact prepare another expedition with improved, lighter aircraft on skids, which however was never carried out due to the outbreak of the Second World War.

## Public perception

As a result of great secrecy and relatively little time for preparation, the enterprise completely escaped any advanced public attention as the MS Schwabenland embarked unnoticed.
The first report of the expedition was telegraphed only during the return journey from Cape Town to Helmut Wohlthat, who published a press release on March 6, 1939. As in Great Britain the Daily Telegraph and in the USA the New York Times reported on the expedition in reference to the Norwegian occupation of the area, only the Hamburg local press took notice of the expedition's return to Germany. On May 25, 1939, the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung magazine published a small-scale map of the mountains discovered and the flight polygons without authorization by the expedition leader. The map was drawn by the aircraft mechanic Franz Preuschoff and is as such referred to as the "Preuschoff map". This map was incorporated in the 1939 1: 10,000,000 scale map of Antarctica by Australian cartographer E. P. Bayliss.
A reference to the expedition was posted in the Berlin Zoological Garden in front of the Emperor penguin enclosure. The penguins had been caught by Lufthansa flight captain Rudolf Mayr, flight mechanic Franz Preuschoff and zoologist Erich Barkley and arrived in Cuxhaven on April 12, 1939. The expedition geologist Ernst Herrmann, published the only popular science book for a wider audience for more than 60 years in 1941. Due to the lack of information during the following decades, myths and conspiracy theories eventually developed around the expedition and Neuschwabenland.
Although Germany issued a decree about the establishment of a German Antarctic Sector called New Swabia after the expedition's return in August 1939 no official territorial claims were ever advanced for the region and were fully abandoned in 1945. No whaling station or other lasting structure was built by Germany until the Georg von Neumayer Station, a research facility, established in 1981. The current Neumayer Station III is also located in the region.
New Swabia is now a cartographic area of Queen Maud Land which is administered by Norway as a dependent territory under the Antarctic Treaty System by the Polar Affairs Department of the Ministry of Justice and the Police.

## Crew List

The list contains all expedition members of the German Antarctic Expedition 1938/39. Under 'Remarks' it is indicated, if the participants had already taken part in any previous polar expeditions. Most of the crew members of the Schwabenland had previously served on this ship in the Atlantic service. As far as is known, all members were of German nationality.
| Name | Organization | Task | Remarks |
| Scientific Personnel ||||
| Alfred Ritscher (1879–1963) | High Command of the Navy | Expedition leader | Participant of the Schröder-Stranz-Expedition 1912–13, Marine Aviator in World War 1 |
| Ernst Herrmann (1895–1970) | Teacher, Berlin | Geologist, deputy expedition leader | Private Expeditions to Spitsbergen 1937 und Greenland 1938 |
| Dr. Herbert Regula (1910–1980) | German Maritime Observatory | I. Meteorologist | Meteorologist on the catapult ship Westfalen 1933–34 |
| Heinz Lange (1908–1943) | Reichs Office for Weather Service | II. Meteorologist, Specialist on radiosondes | |
| Walter Krüger (1905–1948) | Reichs Office for Weather Service | Meteorology Assistant | Participant of the Meteor Expedition 1925–27 |
| Wilhelm Gockel (1908– ) | Marine Observatory Wilhelmshaven | Meteorology Assistant | |
| Erich Barkley (1912–1944) | Reich Institute for Fisheries, Institute for Whale catching | Biologist | Seven months in antarctic waters with the whaler C.L. Larsen 1937/38 |
| Leo Gburek (1910–1941) | University Leipzig, Geomagnetic Institute | Geophysicist | Two expeditions for the purpose of geomagnetic surveys to Spitsbergen in 1937 and 1938 (there he met E. Herrmann) |
| Karl-Heinz Paulsen (1909–1941) | University Hamburg | Oceanographer | One whaling season on Jan Wellem 1937/38 |
| Aviation personnel ||||
| Rudolf Mayr (Pilot) (1910–1991) | Lufthansa | Pilot of the Dornier-Wal airplane Passat | Pilot of Dornier-Wal Perssuakduring the Danish expedition to northeast Greenland and Peary Land April–June 1938 under Lauge Koch, later chief pilot of Lufthansa |
| Franz Preuschoff | Lufthansa | Flight engineer | Together with Mayr on the expedition to Northeast Greenland and Peary Land April–June 1938, later chief flight engineer of Lufthansa |
| Herbert Ruhnke (1904–1944) | Lufthansa | flight radio operator | |
| Max Bundermann (1904– ) | Hansa Luftbild | Aerial photographer | Participant of a NSIU expedition to northeast Greenland in 1932, during which he took 2109 aerial photographs from a Lockheed Vega |
| Richardheinrich Schirmacher | Lufthansa | Pilot of the Dornier-Wal airplane Boreas | |
| Kurt Loesener | Lufthansa | Flight engineer | |
| Erich Gruber (1912–1940) | Lufthansa | Flight radio operator | |
| Siegfried Sauter (1916–2008) | Hansa Luftbild | Aerial photographer | |
| Crew of the Schwabenland ||||
| Alfred Kottas (1885–1969) | Lufthansa | Captain | |
| Otto Kraul (1892–1972) | From Hamburg | Ice Pilot | Whaling chief on the Jan Wellem 1937/38 |
| Herbert Amelang | Norddeutscher Lloyd | I. Officer, Deputy Commander | |
| Josef Bludau (1889–1967) | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Ships surgeon | |
| Karl-Heinz Röbke (1909– ) | Norddeutsche Lloyd | II. Officer | As NSDAP-Member responsible for the „political reliability“ of the expedition members |
| Hans Werner Viereck | Norddeutscher Lloyd | III. Officer | |
| Vincenz Grisar | Norddeutscher Lloyd | IV. Officer | |
| Erich Harmsen | Deutsche Lufthansa | Ship's radio conductor | |
| Kurt Bojahr | Deutsche Lufthansa | Ship's radio officer | |
| Ludwig Müllermerstadt | Deutsche Lufthansa | Ship's radio officer | |
| Karl Uhlig (1885– ) | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Leading Engineer | |
| Robert Schulz | Norddeutscher Lloyd | II. Engineer | |
| Henry Maas | Norddeutscher Lloyd | III. Engineer | |
| Edgar Gäng | Norddeutscher Lloyd | IV. Engineer | |
| Hans Nielsen | Norddeutscher Lloyd | V. Engineer | |
| Johann Frey | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Engineer assistant | |
| Georg Jelschen | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Engineer assistant | |
| Heinz Siewert | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Engineer assistant | |
| Herbert Bruns (1908– ) | Atlas Werke | Electrical engineer | |
| Karl-Heinz Bode | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Electrician | |
| Herbert Bolle | Deutsche Lufthansa | Foreman | |
| Wilhelm Hartmann | Deutsche Lufthansa | Catapult leader | |
| Alfred Rücker | Deutsche Lufthansa | Manager of the flight store | |
| Franz Weiland | Deutsche Lufthansa | Flight mechanic | |
| Axel Mylius | Deutsche Lufthansa | Flight mechanic | |
| Wilhelm Lende | Deutsche Lufthansa | Flight mechanic | |
| Willy Stein | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Boatswain | |
| Richard Wehrend | Norddeutscher Lloyd | I. Carpenter | |
| Alfons Schäfer | Norddeutscher Lloyd | II. Carpenter | |
| Heinz Hoek | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | |
| Jürgen Ulpts | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | |
| Albert Weber | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | |
| Adolf Kunze | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | Took part as a sailor in the Second German Antarctic Expedition 1911/12 under Wilhelm Filchner |
| Karl Hedden | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | |
| Eugen Klenck | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | |
| Fritz Jedamezyk | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | |
| Emil Brandt (1900– ) | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | |
| Kurt Ohnemüller | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Sailor | |
| Alfred Peters | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Easy sailor | |
| Alex Burtscheid | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Ship's boy | |
| Karl-Heinz Meyer | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Ship's boy | |
| Walter Brinkmann | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Storeman | |
| Dietrich Witte | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Engine attendant | |
| Erich Kubacki | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Engine attendant | |
| Walter Dräger | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Engine attendant | |
| Karl Olbrich | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Assistant boiler attendant | |
| Georg Niemüller | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Assistant boiler attendant | |
| Friedrich Mathwig | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Cleaner | |
| Ferdinand Dunekamp | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Cleaner | |
| Erwin Steinmetz | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Cleaner | |
| Herbert Callis | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Cleaner | |
| Helmut Dulatschow | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Baker | |
| Otto Sieland | Norddeutscher Lloyd | I. Cook | |
| Fritz Troe | Norddeutscher Lloyd | II. Cook | |
| Gottfried Thole | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Cook's mate and baker | |
| Ferdinand Wolf | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Cook's mate and butcher | |
| Hans Büttner | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Kitchen boy | |
| Willi Reeps | Norddeutscher Lloyd | I. Steward | |
| Wilhelm Malyska | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Steward | |
| Rudolf Stawicki | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Steward | |
| Willi Fröhling | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Mess steward | |
| Johann van de Logt | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Mess steward | |
| Rudolf Burghard | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Mess steward | |
| Rolf Oswald | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Mess boy | |
| Johann Bates | Norddeutscher Lloyd | Mess boy | |
| other employees ||||
| Herbert Todt (1911–2003) | Employee of the expedition 1938 bis 1941 | Secretary of the Expedition | |
| Ilse Uhlmann (1916–1997) | Employees of the expedition | Secretary | later wife of Alfred Ritscher |