glaciers

Biography of Alfred Wegener

Biography of Alfred Wegener

Historian Christian Kehrt presents a short biographical profile of geologist and polar explorer Alfred Wegener, with historic photographs. Wegener’s diaries from his three Greenland expeditions (1906–1931)—digitized, transcribed, and translated—are the focus of this Virtual Exhibition.

Original Footage: Alfred Wegener’s German Greenland Expedition, 1930–1931 (1936)

Original Footage: Alfred Wegener’s German Greenland Expedition, 1930–1931 (1936)

Commenting actual film footage from Alfred Wegener’s last Greenland expedition, literary historian Dorit Müller describes the content and context of this unique material.

The German Greenland Expedition, 1930–1931

The German Greenland Expedition, 1930–1931

This is a selection of the original diary entries of German explorer Alfred Wegener’s last Greenland expedition in 1930 and is part of the virtual exhibition “The Wegener Diaries: Scientific Expeditions into the Eternal Ice” authored by historian Christian Kehrt.

The Danish North Greenland Expedition, 1912–1913

The Danish North Greenland Expedition, 1912–1913

This is a selection of original diary entries of German explorer Alfred Wegener, who participated in the Danish North Greenland Expedition (1912–1913) and is part of the virtual exhibition “The Wegener Diaries - Scientific Expeditions into the Eternal Ice” authored by historian Christian Kehrt.

The Danmark Expedition, 1906–1908

The Danmark Expedition, 1906–1908

This is a selection of original diary entries of German explorer Alfred Wegener, who participated in the “Danmark-Expedition” led by explorer Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen (1872–1907) and is part of the virtual exhibition “The Wegener Diaries - Scientific Expeditions into the Eternal Ice” authored by historian Christian Kehrt.

Mountains, Glaciers, and Climate

Mountains, Glaciers, and Climate

In this chapter of her virtual exhibition, “Human-Nature Relations in German Literature,” Sabine Wilke examines mountains and glacial environments in German-language literary descriptions. Whereas the German Romantic poets still highlighted mountainous nature as deeply ambiguous, Goethe’s Faust tried to understand mountainous nature in its materiality through scientific studies. Modernism focuses on the more often destructive results of human-nature entanglements. For the German-language version of this exhibition, click here.

Berge, Gletscher und Klima

Berge, Gletscher und Klima

In this chapter of the German-language version of her virtual exhibition, “Mensch und Natur in der deutschen Literatur (Human-Nature Relations in German Literature),” Sabine Wilke examines mountains and glacial environments in German-language literary descriptions. Whereas the German Romantic poets still highlighted mountainous nature as deeply ambiguous, Goethe’s Faust tried to understand mountainous nature in its materiality through scientific studies. Modernism focuses on the more often destructive results of human-nature entanglements. For the English-language version of this exhibition, click here.

"Glacial Time and Lonely Crowds: The Social Effects of Climate Change as Internet Spectacle"

Margret Grebowicz argues that James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), in particular the time-lapse films of glaciers receding, presents a unique example of what Guy Debord calls the ”tautological” nature of spectacle, its capacity to serve as its own evidence at the same time as it becomes a mode of relation among people.