Herbert Schröder-Stranz

Herbert Schröder- Stranzberg (actually Herbert Schröder, born June 9, 1884 in Stranzberg in German crown (today Poland); † August 15, 1912 on North Country ( lost) ) was a German officer and Arctic explorer.

Herbert Schröder was born in 1884 on the manor of his parents. Later he hung on the place name to his last name in order to differentiate themselves from the many people with the same name.

At the age of 19 he joined voluntarily in the 4th Regiment of Foot Guards, and enlisted in the fight against the Herero, an African pastoral people of German South-West Africa in present-day Namibia, to quell the uprising of the Herero and Nama.

Because of diseases of typhoid and dysentery, he finished his commitment to Africa. After his recovery, he traveled to the Russian Kola Peninsula and Karelia.

German Arctic Expedition

Germinated in 1905 when Schröder- Stranzberg the idea to clarify with the help of a scientific expedition, whether the Northeast Passage could be harnessed for the waterway. After several years of uncertain financing could be found with Duke Ernst of Saxe- Altenburg a sponsor. First, should the 1912 team suitability of the equipment and will be reviewed as part of a pre-expedition to Spitsbergen. The plan was then to perform the actual expedition a year later; this, however, it should not come.

On August 5, 1912, the pre-expedition stabbed with 15 participants led by Schröder- Stranzberg on board the Duke Ernst in Tromsø in the lake. The group consisted mainly of inexperienced scientists and adventurers, Captain Alfred Ritscher was even for the first time in the Arctic on the way; only hired as a team Norwegians knew the area. Shortly before departure was the intended as a ship's doctor Ludwig Kohl- Larsen jumped, as appeared to him the adventure as too risky. After the onward journey had become impossible by pack ice between North Cape and Cape Platen, left Schröder- Stranzberg together with three companions on August 15 the ship to pass through the ice by dogsled from East country. His plan was to come later than 15 December in the Crossbai on the west coast of Spitsbergen on board again. Schröder- Stranzberg and his companions have been lost since then.

Six days after the discontinuation of Schröder- Stranzberg and his companions reached the Duke Ernst August 21, the Sorgebai (also Treurenberg Bai ), where they should leave inventories in the local shelters for Schröder- Stranzberg. Due to unfavorable winds and pack ice she could not leave the bay and was trapped in the ice. The attempt to walk to Adventbai to avoid a winter in the polar night Spitsbergen, paid an additional four participants with their lives. During the rest of the crew turned back to Sorgebai, only Captain Ritscher reached after a single march and severe frostbite on 27 December 1912, the 250 km distant settlement Longyearbyen.

Several rescue expeditions were sent out the following spring after the rest of the team of Duke Ernst, among others, Kurt Wegener ( starting on February 21, 1913), the Norwegian Arve Staxrud (12 April 1913) and one under Theodor Lerner. Staxrud reached on 24 April by land the Sorgebai and saved the team by dogsled.

Lerner made ​​after he had learned of the rescue by Staxrud, continue on the search for Schröder- Stranzberg. However, his expedition was ill-fated. In May 1913 his ship at the North Cape North Highlands was trapped by ice. Lerner and his companions took then with skis and dog sleds long walks in the area, but without discovering a trace of Schröder- Stranzberg. On June 26, the ship was eventually crushed by ice and sank shortly afterwards. The team, however, managed to save much of the equipment. On July 25, 1913, abolished the team, ferry boats for Sorgebai where still the Duke Ernst was. By now back maneuverable ship, the expedition members were able to save.

In the summer of 1937, sealers found in the remains of Duvefjord Wärmegamaschen, canoe parts and ammunition. The incised into a piece of wood symbol " DAE " ( " German Arctic Expedition" ) identified the finds as the expedition Schröder- Stranzberg belonging. The site could be located later at 80 ° 14 ' 3'' N/23 ° 44 ' 33'' O80.23416666666723.7425 and is considered a likely landing place of Schröder- Stranzberg after his way through the pack ice. 1945 met with German soldiers stationed in the context of company warhorse on Spitsbergen, about 8 km from this place on plate of aluminum, which could also be assigned to the expedition equipment of Schröder- Stranzberg. 2007 could be found at the landing site more items, including remains of a sleeping bag and parts of a meteorological device. Criminological studies of lost property and the circumstances of the discovery site suggest that the necessary for survival in the Arctic climate items were intentionally left behind, was probably arrived at a time when already at least one of the members of the expedition died. Unusually, however, that no written message was left, as it is usual with polar expeditions in this case. The survivors tried probably as planned to walk to the west over the inland glaciers to Hinlopen Strait. If the expedition members have brought this grueling walk behind, so they are at the latest when trying to cross the Hinlopen Strait with a small kayak, drowned.

The reasons for the disaster are varied. Schröder- Stranzberg and his companions had little experience in the Arctic and had little knowledge of the area. In addition, the start time was selected in August for an Arctic expedition far too late. The planned return of Duke Ernst to Tromsø in deepest arctic winter was impossible and doomed to failure from the outset. Even the group's decision to Captain Ritscher to leave the Duke Ernst and the end of September, beginning at break -breaking polar night and temperatures below -30 ° C to a 300 -km-long march, was a suicide mission. What Schröder- Stranzberg also did not know at the time, is that a crossing of the Hinlopen Strait in autumn in pack ice and prevailing strong currents with a small boat is virtually impossible.

After the failure of the DAE scientists therefore demanded in future to improve the planning of government expeditions and be checked by reviewers. 1920, the Emergency Association of German Science was founded, which later developed the German Research Foundation.

From the rescue expedition led by Theodor Lerner exist filming of the later Riefenstahl cameraman Sepp Allgeier. Meanwhile, fragments of film recordings that Christopher Rave made ​​during the Schröder- Stranzberg expedition, resurfaced in Russia.