Alfred Wegener and his Greenland expeditions. Collections of the Alfred Wegener Archive, Bremerhaven

• Main Author: Voss-Diestelkamp, Jutta
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: Alfred Wegener Institute; Greenland; GRIP; Ice cap; ice core; Scoresbysund
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/3234/; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.13817

AbstractAlfred Wegener gave the name to the German Institute of Polar Research that was founded in Bremerhaven in 1980. Although he understood the need for bi-polar research (conducted by the Institute nowadays), he himself only participated in Arctic research. He was a member of four expeditions to Greenland, leading the last two in 1929 and 1930/31. The Alfred Wegener Archive in Bremerhaven collects material of Alfred Wegener's life and expeditions, especially the last one in 1930/31, during which Wegener died while trying to support the meteorological overwintering station in Central Greenland. Papers and documents relating to the overwintering station "Eismitte" and the question of Wegener's death constitute the greater part of the Alfred Wegener Archive. However, diaries and photos also show the big efforts of all expedition members to fulfill Wegener's plan of a meteorological and glaciological profile over the whole inland ice cap of Greenland addressing questions about climate and climatic history of Europe. After Wegener's death his brother Kurt Wegener became the leader of the expedition, and subsequently editor of the expedition results. The archive collects many letters relating to this and other publications about the Wegener Expedition, and of course recent publications and biographies refering to Alfred Wegener.Wegener's expeditions are being "relived" by recent research proposals of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute: its activity in the European Greenland Icecore Project (GRIP) in Central Greenland near "Eismitte", also trying to elucidate climate history (of course with much more sophisticated methods than Wegener) and ice core projects at Scoresbysund where Wegener's East-Station was located.