The Wegener Diaries: Original Document
Alfred Wegener’s handwritten diaries cover his three main Greenland expeditions between 1906 and 1931. The original document can be found at the Archives of the Deutsches Museum. For this virtual exhibition, the diaries have been completely digitized and are available for the first time as a comprehensive collection of PDFs. You may choose to read chronologically starting with June 1906, or go directly to specific dates of interest by clicking on the list below.
The documents displayed in this section are in German, without comment or translation. The transciption and translation of selected diary entries are now also available (transcript). To view selected pages from Wegener’s diaries that have been transcribed and translated into English, please also visit Expedition 1, Expedition 2, or Expedition 3.
Unfortunately, the documents cannot be displayed using Internet Explorer.
Expedition 1
- June–August 1906: diary scan
- September 1906: diary scan, transcript
- October–November 1906: diary scan, transcript
- December 1906: diary scan, transcript
- January–February 1907: diary scan, transcript
- March 1907: diary scan
- April 1907: diary scan
- May 1907: diary scan, transcript
- May 1907: diary scan
- June–July 1907: diary scan, transcript
- August–September 1907: diary scan, transcript
- October–November 1907: diary scan, transcript
- December 1907: diary scan, transcript
- January–February 1908: diary scan, transcript
- April–May 1908: diary scan
- May–August 1908: diary scan, transcript
- Instrumentjournal: diary scan
Expedition 2
- July 1912: diary scan, transcript
- August 1912: diary scan, transcript
- September 1912: diary scan, transcript
- September 1912: diary scan, transcript
- October–December 1912: diary scan, transcript
- January–April 1913: diary scan
- April–May 1913: diary scan, transcript
- Jun 1913: diary scan, transcript
- July 1913: diary scan, transcript
- Beobachtungsjournal: diary scan, transcript
Expedition 3
- April–May 1930: diary scan
- June–July 1930: diary scan
- July–August 1930: diary scan, transcript
- September 1930: diary scan, transcript
Overview map of Greenland with transition routes. Map by Fritz Loewe, n.d.
Overview map of Greenland with transition routes. Map by Fritz Loewe, n.d.
In Johannes Georgi, Im Eis vergraben: Erlebnisse auf Station „Eismitte“ der letzten Grönlandexpedition Alfred Wegeners (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1933: Attachement).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0 License.
To cite from the diaries:
Alfred Wegener, Tagebücher, June 1906 – September 1930. Deutsches Museum Archiv, NL 001, in Christian Kehrt, “The Wegener Diaries: Scientific Expeditions Into the Eternal Ice.” Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2013, no. 2 [updated 18 March 2020]. Version 2.0. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/8941.
To cite from the exhibition:
Kehrt, Christian. “The Wegener Diaries: Scientific Expeditions Into the Eternal Ice.” Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2013, no. 2 [updated 18 March 2020]. Version 2.0. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/8941.
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The Wegener Diaries: Scientific Expeditions into the Eternal Ice
This virtual exhibition sheds light on Alfred Wegener’s expeditions to Greenland between 1906 and 1931. Its main focus is on the diaries Wegener wrote during his explorations, which offer unique insights into the manifold challenges man and material faced in Greenland’s extreme environments. You may choose to read the diaries in their original state, or browse the expeditions individually and read transcribed and translated excerpts by clicking on the individual chapters.
This version, published in 2020, includes minor updates to the original 2013 virtual exhibition. PDFs of the virtual exhibition, as well as original scans and transcripts of the Wegener Diaries, can be found at the exhibition’s PDF Depot.
Christian KehrtAbout the author
