Background

Erich von Drygalski was born on February 9, 1865 in Königsberg, Eastern Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia).

Education

At the age of seventeen Drygalski began to study mathematics and physics in Königsberg but soon went to Bonn in order to attend the lectures of Ferdinand von Richthofen, whom he followed in 1883 to Leipzig and in 1886 to Berlin.

In 1887 he received his doctorate after completion of a dissertation in geophysics, but Richthofen’s strong scientific and personal influence led him to become a geographer.

Career

In 1887 Drygalski worked as an assistant at the Geodetic Institute in Potsdam. In 1899 he became a professor of geophysics at the University of Berlin. In 1906 he accepted a call to the newly established chair of geography at the University of Munich, which he made highly regarded and held until his retirement in 1935.

Ice and oceans figured prominently in Drygalski’s lifework. In the summer of 1891 and in 1892-1893 he led the preliminary and main expeditions of the Berlin Geographical Society to western Greenland. This expedition established Drygalski’s international reputation. The following years were dedicated to the painstaking preparation of the first German expedition to the South Pole, which was tirelessly advocated and supported by Georg von Neumayer. It was carried out under Drygalski’s direction in 1901-1903 on the polar ship Gauss. It had little outward publicity in comparison with other South Pole expeditions because of the considerable difficulties of the area allotted to it by international agreement.

Of great value, however, were the scientific data, a wealth of scrupulously presented observations of the most varied scientific matters that brought the name “Antarctic University” to the Gauss expedition and gave it the highest rank among the South Pole explorations of the “classical” period.

Although the expedition’s report appeared soon after its return (1904), the scientific conclusions were fully developed only after almost thirty years of indefatigable labor by Drygalski and his co-workers.

From October 1906 until his retirement, Drygalski was a professor in Munich, where he also presided the Geographic Institute, founded by him, until his death. In 1910, he also took part in Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's expedition to Spitsbergen and participated in other expeditions to North America and northeastern Asia. He died 1949 in Munich.

Achievements

• 

  Erich von Drygalski was classed among the leading authorities in the fields of polar and oceanic exploration.
  
  Drygalski was a member of many academies, honorary member of numerous geographical societies, and recipient of their medals, which included the Carl-Ritter-Medal (1898), the David Livingstone Centenary Medal (1926), the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art (1928), the Patron’s Medal (1933).
  
  In 1944 the Munich Geographical Society, which he had headed for twenty-nine years, established the Erich von Drygalski Medal in his honor.
  
  Drygalski Island, Drygalski Fjord in South Georgia, and an avenue in the southern part of Munich were named after him, as is the crater Drygalski on the Moon. Two glaciers, including Drygalski Glacier (Antarctica) and Drygalski Glacier (Tanzania) on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro are also named for him.
  
  An archive in the Ludwig Maximilians University remembers his pioneering efforts. He also has a South African spider named after him, Araneus drygalskii (Strand, 1909), based on material collected on the Gauss expedition.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Deutsche Südpolar-Expedition, 1901-1903, im Auftrage des Reichsamtes des Innern 1908
  • Zum Kontinent Des Eisigen Südens 1904
  • Deutsche Sudpolar-Expedition
  • Botanische Ergebnisse Der Von Der Gesellschaft Für Erdkunde Zu Berlin 1897
  • Gronland-Expedition Der Gesellschaft Fur Erdkunde Zu Berlin, 1891-1893 1897
  • Die Geoiddeformationen der Eiszeit, Vol. 1 1887
  • Amerikanische Landschaft 1936

Membership

Drygalski was a member of many academies, honorary member of numerous geographical societies, which included the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

• 

  German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , Germany

• 

  Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities , Germany

Personality

Drygalski was an excellent teacher. Thousands of students came to Munich to attend his stimulating classes, which were never confined to his special fields but dealt with many areas of geography, even those in which he had little interest. He emphasized regional geography, especially that of Asia, North America, and Germany.

Eighty-four dissertations were written under his guidance; it is characteristic that he did not impose a single one of the subjects, and that none of them was designed to confirm or develop his own views. This absolute scientific freedom was highly appreciated by Drygalski’s students.

Connections

teacher:

Ferdinand von Richthofen

References

• Antarctica: An Encyclopedia
  2011
• Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für erdkunde zu Berlin
  1898