140 years ago: the German station at South Georgia (South Atlantic) of the First International Polar Year (1882–1883)

Abstract

During the First International Polar Year (1882–1883) in the Arctic, Germany set up a meteorological and magnetic station at South Georgia in the South Atlantic, where the transit of Venus in front of the Sun on 6 December 1882 could also be observed. After the return of the expedition the station decayed over the years. Otto Nordenskjöld's Swedish Antarctic expedition and Wilhelm Filchner's German Antarctic expedition passed by in 1902 and 1911, respectively, and gave some information about the status of the huts and scientific installations. 100 years after the polar year only some relics remained. The paper describes the historical station and wants to encourage an archeological investigation to learn more about the social life of the station members.