Alfred Wegener: Difference between revisions
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They days began to blend into one another. Kurt and Alfred already talked privately about what they were going to do after Lindenberg. Kurt was negotiating (quietly) for a job as assistant at the Physikalischer Verein in Frankfurt. Meanwhile, Alfred was seriously considering making a move at the same time.
On 23 March 1906, Alfred was in the headquarters building at Lindenberg, reading the Tägliche Rundschau, a major daily newspaper from Berlin. His eye fell on a telegraphic notice about the Mylius-Erichsen expedition. Christensen had made good on his promise. It announced that Mylius-Erichsen had collected sufficient sponsor and the Danish government had indeed decided to match the funds. The article also contained the following astonishing paragraph : "Outside of the Danish members of the expedition, it is likely that Dr. phil. A. Wegener of Germany will take part as physicist and meteorologist and Dr. phil. Baron von Firicks from Russia as geologist. However, the negotiations with these two scholars have not been concluded."
Alfred dashed upstairs and sat down to compose a letter. He knew better than to try to get an answer from the ever-elusive Mylius-Erichsen directly, so he wrote to Paulsen. He indicated that he badly needed an immediate response, adding, "I'm in the middle of negotiating the terms of a new positions, negotiations that I'll have to break off. So I'd be very obliged if you could tell me as soon as possible what you know about this." He apologized to Paulsen for bothering him again, begging him to take it as an expression of his deep interest in the expedition.
The funds had been vetoed on by parliament on 22 March and announced on the next day. On the 24th, the expedition's governing committee officially took up its duties, setting a departure date of 24 June 1906, a scant ninety days away. Mylius-Erichsen decided that he could get along with a geology student and settled on young Hakon Jarner, a Danish student at the Polytechnic Institut. Thus no need to bring the Russian geologist (Firicks) along.
Wegener, however, was the only expedition candidate with a PhD, and the only professionally employed scientist who had applied for any of the jobs. He was a German, true, but had a Danish-sounding name, and Prof. Paulsen, who had been unfailingly helpful to Mylius-Erichsen with advice and support, really wanted a meteorologist on the expedition. Alfred had been remarkably persistent and had expressed unfailing interest for five months.
Alfred, once again unable to stand the suspense, took a train the next day to Copenhagen, arriving on Mylius-Erichsen's doorstep. With money in hand and little time to waste, Mylius-Erichsen was now prepared to take Alfred's participation seriously. When they finally met face to face, he made a decision on the spot and formally offered Alfred the job of physicist and meteorlogist on the expedition, with the provision that he would also be expected to make geological observations and to take part in the cartographic and position-finding work. They signed a preliminary agreement and discussed salary. Mylius-Erichsen told Alfred that he should prepare his personal and scientific kit immediately, since the expedition would leave in less than three months.
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