Erich Dagobert von Drygalski (; February 9, 1865 – January 10, 1949) was a German

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

, geophysicist and polar scientist, born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

, East Prussia. Between 1882 and 1887, Drygalski studied mathematics and natural science at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Pruss ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. He graduated with a doctorate thesis about ice shields in Nordic areas. Between 1888 and 1891, he was an assistant at the

Geodetic Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivale ...

Institute and the Central Office of International Geodetics in Berlin. Drygalski led two expeditions between 1891 and 1893, which were supplied by the Society for

Geoscience Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four sphere ...

of Berlin. One expedition wintered during the winter between 1892 and 1893 in Western

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...

. He habilitated 1889 for geography and geophysics with the collected scientific evidence. In 1898, Drygalski became associate professor and 1899 extraordinary professor for

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

and

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' so ...

in Berlin.

''Gauss'' expedition

Drygalski led the first German South Polar expedition with the ship ''Gauss'' to explore the unknown area of

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

lying south of the Kerguelen Islands. The expedition started from

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

in the summer of 1901. A small party of the expedition was also stationed on the Kerguelen Islands, while the main party proceeded further south. Drygalski also paid a brief call to

Heard Island The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) is an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall size ...

and provided the first comprehensive scientific information on the island's geology, flora and fauna. Despite being trapped by ice for nearly fourteen months until February 1903, the expedition discovered new territory in

, the

Kaiser Wilhelm II Land Kaiser Wilhelm II Land is a part of Antarctica lying between Cape Penck at 87° 43'E and Cape Filchner at 91° 54'E. Princess Elizabeth Land is located to the west, and Queen Mary Land to the east. The area is claimed by Australia ...

with the

Gaussberg Gaussberg (or Schwarzen Berg, Mount Gauss) is an extinct, high volcanic cone in East Antarctica fronting on Davis Sea immediately west of Posadowsky Glacier. It is ice-free and conical in nature, having formed subglacially about 55,000 ...

. The expedition arrived back in Kiel in November 1903. Subsequently, Drygalski wrote the narrative of the expedition and edited the voluminous scientific data. Between 1905 and 1931, he published twenty

volumes Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). The defi ...

and two

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

es documenting the expedition and was awarded the 1933 Royal Geographical Society's

Patron's Medal The Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal consists of two separate awards: the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. Together they form the most prestigious of the society's awards. They are given for "the encouragement and promoti ...

Later years

From October 1906 until his retirement, Drygalski was a professor in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

, where he also presided the Geographic Institute, founded by him, until his death. In 1910, he also took part in Count

Ferdinand von Zeppelin Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (german: Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name soon became synonymous with airships a ...

's expedition to Spitsbergen and participated in other expeditions to North America and northeastern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

. He died in 1949 in Munich.

Trivia

Drygalski Island Drygalski Island is an ice-capped island that is long and rises to in the Davis Sea of the Southern Ocean, about north of the coast of Queen Mary Land and north-northeast of Cape Filchner. The island has an area of . Drygalski Island was f ...

Drygalski Fjord Drygalski Fjord is a bay wide which recedes northwestwards , entered immediately north of Nattriss Head along the southeast coast of South Georgia. It was charted by the Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–12, under Wilhelm Filchner, an ...

in South Georgia, and an avenue in the southern part of Munich were named after him, as is the crater Drygalski on the Moon. Two glaciers, including Drygalski Glacier (Antarctica) and

Drygalski Glacier (Tanzania) Drygalski Glacier was on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, on the northwest slope of the peak. The glacier terminus once extended to an elevation of with an origination point near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro and was fed by the Northern Ice Field ...

on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro are also named for him. An archive in the Ludwig Maximilians University remembers his pioneering efforts. He also has a South African spider named after him, ''

Araneus drygalskii ''Araneus'' is a genus of common orb-weaving spiders. It includes about 650 species, among which are the European garden spider and the barn spider. The genus was erected by Carl Alexander Clerck in 1757. Description Spiders of this genus pres ...

'' (Strand, 1909), based on material collected on the Gauss expedition.

References

External links

Biography

* ttp://todayinsci.com/V/VonDrygalski_Erich/VonDrygalski-SouthPolarExpeditions.htm South Polar Expedition; instructions and preparations for the voyage {{DEFAULTSORT:Drygalski, Erich Von 1865 births 1949 deaths Explorers of Antarctica German geophysicists German explorers German geographers Scientists from Königsberg People from the Province of Prussia University of Königsberg alumni University of Bonn alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Humboldt University of Berlin faculty Leipzig University alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty Germany and the Antarctic Botanists with author abbreviations Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences

''Gauss'' expedition

Later years

Trivia

References

Further reading

External links