Wilhelm Brennecke, Pionier der südozeanischen Tiefenzirkulation, und seine Rolle beim desaströsen Ende der Zweiten Deutschen Südpolar-Expedition 1911/1912

Abstract

Thanks to the readings he took on the voyage of the survey vessel PLANET to the German colonies in the South Seas in 1906/07, the oceanographer Wilhelm Brennecke (1875-1924) of the Deutsche Seewarte (German nautical observatory) in Hamburg was able to draught the first realistic depiction of deep oceanic circulation in the Atlantic. He developed this depiction further with data he had obtained as a participant in the German Antarctic Expedition of 1911/12 on the vessel DEUTSCHLAND. The actual aim of this undertaking - the topographic recording of the mainland ice sheets between the Weddel and Ross Seas - was not achieved, due only partially to the ship’s becoming frozen in prematurely. A further cause for this failure was the fact that the initiator and leader of the expedition, Wilhelm Filchner (1877-1957), did not succeed in arousing the enthusiasm of the scientists on board for a continuation of the undertaking.