New Swabia

{{conspiracynav}}
'''New Swabia''' (German: '''Neu-Schwabenland''') was the name given to an area in [[Antarctica]] by the [[Nazi Germany | Nazi German]] expedition that explored it in 1938/1939.<ref name="WOGHE2018">{{cite book |author=<!--Not stated-->  |url= https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_World_s_Oceans/5BjHEAAAQBAJ|title=The World's Oceans: Geography, History, and Environment |date= 2018  |publisher= ABC-CLIO |page=84 |isbn=9781440843525 |quote= '''A SECRET NAZI BASE IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN?''': A persistent myth that haunts the Internet is the existence of a secret Nazi base in Antarctica called New Swabia. Ever since Germany became a unified country in 1871, German scientists participated in the exploration of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. When the Nazi Party took power in Germany in 1933, it commissioned an exploration of the northern coast of Antarctica by a ship called New Swabia. Between 1938 and 1939 the members of the expedition sought to find a suitable location for a German whaling station to supply the country with fat. Although secondary aims, such as the potential setup of a weather station, had some military applicability, Germany never officially annexed the area. At the end of World War II in 1945, the rumor emerged that the Nazis took refuge in a large underground system of caves supplied by warm underground rivers to establish a base for future operation of Nazi weaponry in New Swabia. The United States' Operation Highjump supposedly set out to defeat the last Nazi stronghold in 1946. Although this operation did indeed take place, it was meant to familiarize U.S. personnel with extreme low temperatures in the event of a potential showdown with the Soviet Union. - Rainer F. Buschmann}}</ref><ref name=whitfield>John Whitfield, [http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070326/full/news070326-14.html Did Hitler have a base in the Antarctic?] [[Nature (journal)|''Nature'']], 30 March 2007.</ref> It was an Antarctic region covering 600,000 km2 between longitude 20°E and 10°W located in {{wpl|Queen Maud Land}}, which at the time was claimed by [[Norway]] (and still is).<ref>McGonigal, D. (2009). Antarctica: Secrets of the Southern Continent. Frances Lincoln. Page 400. ISBN: 9780711229808</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Forutsetninger for Antarktistraktaten: Dronning Maud Lands statsrettslige stilling – "utviklingen" frem til 1957 |url=http://www.polarhistorie.no/artikler/2009/Dronning%20Maud%20Lands%20statsrettslige%20stilling |work=Norsk Polarhistorie |access-date=15 May 2011 |language= Norwegian |archive-date=13 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513095909/https://www.polarhistorie.no/artikler/2009/Dronning%20Maud%20Lands%20statsrettslige%20stilling/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Nazi Germany]] claimed the area for itself on January 19, 1939, which Norway, who had discovered Queen Maud Land, did not accept. No other country recognized Germany's territorial claim. The Germans were mainly interested in New Swabia as a base area for whaling.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/nazis-in-antarctica |title=Hitler's Secret Antarctic Expedition for Whales |date=November 6, 2019 |publisher=Atlas Obscura |author=Luke Fater |accessdate=February 27, 2021}}</ref> The Nazis were ultimately never able to advance any territorial claims to the region, even though they had invaded Norway and forced the native rulership and the government in exile for most of [[World War II]], and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 effectively killed those ambitions.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jacek Machowski|title=The Status of Antarctica in the Light of International Law|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=41ERAAAAYAAJ|year=1977|publisher=Office of Polar Programs and the National Science Foundation}}</ref>

Rumors about New Swabia and/or a Nazi base in Antarctica began in 1945, following the end of World War II. Around 1943-1946, the [[British]] started {{wpl|Operation Tabarin}}, which began under the pretense of searching for Nazi U-boats and other German naval threats in Antarctica, when in reality, it was a cover to construct bases in territorial dispute with [[Argentina]].<ref>Rose, L. A. (2013). ''Explorer: The Life of Richard E. Byrd.'' University of Missouri Press. Page 426. ISBN: 9780826266439</ref><ref>Taylor, A. (2017). ''Two Years Below the Horn: Operation Tabarin, Field Science, and Antarctic Sovereignty, 1944-1946.'' University of Manitoba Press. ISBN: 9780887552069</ref> Related to Tabarin, possibly being mistaken for it, a 1946 US military exercise called {{wpl|Operation Highjump}} was said to be to defeat a Nazi stronghold in Antarctica—when in reality, it was to train US troops in Antarctic environments.<ref name="WOGHE2018"/> Despite the fact that no permanent base was built and the region is now a part of the Norwegian Antarctic territory, it has become the focus of several [[conspiracy theories]], sometimes involving [[Nazi UFOs]].<ref>Colin Summerhayes and Peter Beeching, [https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/attach/49/49783_.pdf Hitler’s Antarctic base: the myth and the reality]. Polar Record 43 (224): 1–21 (2007) via Wikileaks.</ref><ref>Daniel Oberhaus, [https://www.vice.com/en/article/fake-news-about-a-secret-nazi-ufo-base-in-antarctica-refuses-to-die/ Fake News About a Secret Nazi UFO Base In Antarctica Refuses to Die]. ''Vice'', 12 march 2017.</ref><ref>Holm Hümmler: Neuschwabenland – Verschwörung, Mythos oder Ammenmärchen? In: Skeptiker. Nr. 3, 2013, S. 100–106. </ref>

Appropriately enough, nowadays there is a German research station (also in the Norwegian Antarctic territory) that became the focal point of an unrelated conspiracy theory—[[Neumayer Station]].

[[File:Map of Antarctica with Neuschwabenland.jpg|thumb|500px|center|Old map showing the approximate territory.]]

==See also==
* [[Ernst Zündel]]<ref>''Germany's Antarctic Claim: Secret Nazi Polar Expeditions'' by Christof Friedrich (i.e., Ernst Zündel) (1977) Samisdat Publishers.</ref>
* [[Nazi occultism]]

==References==
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[[Category:Conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Geography]]
[[Category:Nazism]]
[[Category:Ufology]]

Categories: Conspiracy theories, Geography, Nazism, Ufology