Alfred Wegener: Difference between revisions
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At the Russian fort they were finally conducted to a room and allowed to sleep. On the next day, they were examined by the post surgeon. The surgeon took them to lunch and that night the colonel threw a full Russian banquet in their honor. On the following day, transit visas arrived from Warsaw. They were allowed to return to Germany.
=== Polar expedition ===
Toward the end of October 1905, shortly before his 25th day, Alfred read a newspaper feature story about a Danish polar explorer, Ludwig Mylius-Erichsen, who was preparing to mount a two year expedition to the far northeast of Greenland, to map the last uncharted section of Greenland's coast and carry out an extensive scientific program.
The account given was of a great public meeting in the Copenhagen Concert Hall on 17 October 1905. On the podium, in addition to famous naval officers who had explored Greenland, were representatives from parliament, the university, scientific societies, the press, as well as even Crown Prince Frederick -- soon to be King Frederick VIII. Mylius-Erichsen, just back from a two-year expedition to the west coast of Greenland, spoke feelingly about the importance of the opportunity -- almost the last chance offered to any man or nation to fill in the final blanks on the map of Earth.
A part of Mylius-Erichsen expedition plan, as described in the press, included the possibility of a four-man team crossing the ice cap well north of Nansen's route, from east coast to the west. On his birthday, 1 November 1905, Alfred sat down to compose a letter of application. Not knowing how to contact Mylius-Erichsen, he wrote instead to Professor Adam Paulsen, Danish meteorologist and director of the Danish Meteorological Institute, who had considerable experience in Greenland, dating back to the International Polar Year of 1882 - 1883.
Paulsen did not respond to Wegener, but on 3 November he forwarded the letter to Mylius-Erichsen with a brief note, saying that he had received a letter from Dr. Alfred Wegener who hoped to take part in the expedition to Greenland. Mylius-Erichsen was, at the time of Alfred's letter, in a white heat of fund-raising, following his public appeal. Jens Christensen, a leading officer in the Danish government, had promised that if Mylius-Erichsen could raise half the money necessary to fund the expedition, Christensen would see that parliament provided the other half. Mylius-Erichsen had to come up with 130,000 kroner in a very short space of time. It is hardly surprising that Alfred's first letter got no response.
Alfred waited two weeks. When no response was forthcoming, he wrote again, this time to Mylius-Erichsen directly. This time he assured Mylius-Erichsen that he would certainly provide a full scientific kit for atmospheric research, but again emphasizing that he would come on the expedition whether or not there was any need for such research. He wanted to go, and he was willing to suspend his career to do so. This letter apparently brought no response either.
He was not to be deterred. He wrote to Mylius-Erichsen again around 26 November. Alfred explained to Mylius-Erichsen that he was in a bind. If he were to go on the expedition, he would have to give up his place at Lindenberg on 15 April 1906, which entailed giving notice by 1 January 1906. Without such notice, he ran the risk of not being released to join the expedition, even if chosen. "Under these circumstances," he wrote, "even a provisional and non-binding response would be of great value to me."
Still hearing nothing from Mylius-Erichsen, Alfred could stand it no longer. He obtained a brief leave to travel to Copenhagen, arrived on Sunday, 17 December, and checked into the Hotel Victoria. He called at Mylius-Erichsen's home the next day, only to be told that Mylius-Erichsen was in Norway until the following Friday.
Not sure how to proceed, he then called on Paulsen at the Meteorological Institute. Paulsen's news was bitter. Mylius-Erichsen was billing the expedition as an all-Danish affair, in order to assure a good response to the public appeal for funds and in the hope of arousing patriotic sentiment and royal patronage. No non-Danes could currently be considered.
That was that. Alfred returned to Lindenberg and went back to work.
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