German educational film: Alfred Wegener and The Greenland Expedition

Alfred Wegener (Nov. 1, 1880 - Nov. 1930) studied in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Innsbruck. After obtaining his doctorate in 1904, this geophysicist, meteorologist, and climatologist followed his brother Kurt to the Aerological Observatory in Lindenberg. Alfred Wegener's first expedition from 1906 to 1908 was to set the course taken during the rest of his life, for Greenland became the place he carried out the bulk of his research work. He was described by a contemporary as "quiet man with a charming smile." From 1909 to 1919 as a lecturer at the University of Marburg, he began to search for paleontological, climatological and geological evidence in support of his theory of continental drift, which he first presented to the scientific world in 1912. Wegener also conducted research on thermodynamics and cloud physics. After expeditions to Greenland in 1906 and 1912, he returned in 1929 and 1930, as a professor at the University of Graz, aiming to measure the thickness of ice with the help of a new technique. In November 1930, he and his companion Rasmus Villumsen died while returning from camp in the middle of the Greenland ice to their base camp on the west coast, about 400 kilometers away. This is part one of a three part film of which USHMM has all three parts. (Film IDs 2587, 2591, and 2602). Footage of Alfred Wegener and his crew as they embark on the first phase of their journey (via ship) to Greenland to explore the island. CU of Wegener, smoking a pipe, and another crew member on the ship's deck. VS of the cargo being loaded and unloaded from the ship, the cargo included supplies, food, horses, etc. MCU of the ships helm, the ship is named the Gustav Holm. VS of the icy waters that the ship encounters. The natives of the island come to meet the ship at its port of call, and to help unload all of the equipment. VS of the men jumping from one chunk of floating ice to another in order to carry the equipment to shore. VS, Wegener and crew setting up their base camp near the shore, panoramic views of the shoreline and the snow capped mountains in the distant BG. Portions of the crew begin the journey into the icy mountains, still transporting some equipment by sea.