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Felix König
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[[File:Felix Konig.jpg|thumb|Felix König]]
'''Felix König''' was an Austrian scientist, [[Mountaineering|Alpinist]] and [[Antarctic]] explorer. He was a member of [[Wilhelm Filchner]]'s Second German Antarctic Expedition, which explored the [[Weddell Sea]] area in 1911–13. On his return, König sought to continue Filchner's unfinished work, and organised an Austrian Antarctic Expedition, but his plans were thwarted by the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in August 1914. König subsequently served in the Austrian army, but was captured, and spent most of the conflict as a prisoner-of-war. He never returned to the Antarctic.
==Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–13==
[[File:Wilhelm Filchner.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Wilhelm Filchner]]
Felix König, born around 1880, |group= n}} was an experienced Alpinist from [[Graz]] in Austria, who had some experience of the Arctic in [[Greenland]]. In 1911 he was invited to join [[Wilhelm Filchner]]'s Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–13, the main geographical objective of which was to effect a crossing of Antarctica, from the largely unknown [[Weddell Sea]] quadrant to the relatively well-explored area of the [[Ross Sea]].|group= n}} By this means, Filchner sought to resolve the outstanding question of whether Antarctica was a single, unified entity or a combination of landmasses separated by water. The journey would involve travelling over terrain whose character was completely unknown, in which König's Alpine experiences might be a valuable asset; despite his training as a biologist, he was listed in the expedition's staff as a "mountaineer".
Initially, the expedition went well; the ship, ''Deutschland'', entered the Weddell Sea in January 1912, and penetrated further south than any other previous ship, beating [[James Weddell]]'s ninety-year-old record. New lands were discovered and named, and on 31 January, at 77°44'S, the ship reached an inlet which Filchner named [[Vahsel Bay]], after ''Deutschland'''s captain, Richard Vahsel. Here he set up his Weddell Sea base camp, on a flat iceberg that appeared to be firmly attached to the land. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case; within two days, changes in the winds and tides caused the berg to break free, carrying the camp with it. The camp was hurriedly dismantled and returned to the ship, which was by then itself caught in the ice and began a slow inexorable drift northwards. It was soon evident that a return to Vahsel Bay that season would be impossible, and that the ship faced the prospect of a long dark winter trapped in the Antarctic ice.
The frustrations following this setback highlighted what had been a troublesome feature of the expedition since its inception, the problem of a divided command. The principal issue was whether overall control lay with Filchner, a scientist with no previous Antarctic experience, or with Vahsel, who had been second officer on the [[Gauss Expedition]] of 1901–03, under [[Erich von Drygalski]]. Within the ''Deutschland'', factions formed behind these alternative leaders, leading to animosities and threats of violence. König, who was firmly aligned with Filchner, alleged that he had been shot at; Filchner slept behind locked doors with a loaded pistol by his side, for protection.
[[File:Weddell Sea Iceberg.jpg|thumb|upright|Weddell Sea iceberg in the region of supposed "New South Greenland"]]
During the course of the winter drift, König participated with Filchner in one of the few positive achievements of the expedition. Realising that the ship would drift close to the vicinity of the land reportedly sighted by the American sealer [[Benjamin Morrell]] in 1823, and named by him [[New South Greenland]], Filchner sought to prove once and for all whether this land really existed. This involved him, with König and Alfred Kling, in a dangerous trek over nearly 40 miles of treacherous sea ice to the supposed location of Morrell's land. They found no trace of it, and depth soundings confirmed that there was no land nearby. The three made an equally hazardous journey back to the ship.
When, finally, ''Deutschland'' escaped from the ice in late October 1912, it made its way to [[South Georgia]], reaching [[Grytviken]] on 19 December. From there, Filchner went with ''Deutschland'' to [[Buenos Aires]]. From the account he wrote of the expedition to that point (without mention of any of the internal disputes or turmoil) |group= n}} he states clearly his intention to return: "At the end of the year [1913] the second trip to the newly discovered land can be made again and the exploration of the Antarctic can be continued according to the original program". However, reports of his poor leadership had reached Germany, and he lost the support of his backers; soon, his heart went out of the enterprise. As he later wrote: "[M]any experiences had convinced me that truly great successes in the polar ice are granted only to members of those nations where polar research has tradition, namely the Scandinavians, the Russians, the British and the Canadians. I decided to return to my original field of work: Central and East Asia".
==Proposed Austrian Antarctic Expedition==
Back in Austria, and undiscouraged by Fichner's failures, König was ready to return to the Antarctic to continue the work. He began to organise the Austrian Antarctic Expedition, and with the backing of the influential [[Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek|Count Johann Wilczek]], president of the [[Austrian Geographical Society]], was able to buy ''Deutschland'', the name of which he changed to ''Osterreich''. His plans were supported by Filchner and, among others, [[Roald Amundsen]] and [[Otto Nordenskjöld]]. . They also had the blessing of the imperial family.
[[File:Ernest Shackleton before 1909.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Ernest Shackleton]]
However, he was not alone in this field. Since his return in ''[[Nimrod (ship)|Nimrod]]'' from [[Nimrod Expedition#Southern journey|his polar near-miss in 1909]], Ernest Shackleton had been considering a further journey south. In March 1912 he learned that Amundsen had reached the South Pole. With that goal removed, the idea of a trans-Antarctic crossing became his objective; he had previously discussed the matter with [[William Speirs Bruce]], leader of the erstwhile [[Scottish National Antarctic Expedition]], whose own plans for such a crossing had been stalled by lack of finance. When, in January 1913, Shackleton learned that Filchner had failed in his principal objective, he felt free to develop his own scheme, based on the establishment of winter quarters in Vahsel Bay.
König formally revealed his plans to a committee meeting of the Austrian Geographical Society in January 1914, although he had evidently provided an outline of his intentions some seven months earlier. The January 1914 meeting noted that Shackleton was proposing a similar plan. Thus, it seemed that two expeditions, with broadly similar objectives, would be launched at the same time, in the same area of the Antarctic. König's reaction to this news was to claim that Filchner had transferred to him his rights of priority in this area of the Weddell Sea, and that Shackleton should therefore go elsewhere. The former president of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], [[Clements Markham|Sir Clements Markham]], still an influential figure, concurred: "One has to leave the area to König where he has worked in former times". This stance echoed much of what Shackleton had experienced with [[Robert Falcon Scott|Captain Scott]], prior to the [[Nimrod Expedition|''Nimrod'' Expedition]] in 1907, when Scott had claimed priority in the [[McMurdo Sound]] area of the [[Ross Sea]] and demanded that Shackleton find another base. Shackleton then had reluctantly deferred to Scott only to be forced by circumstances, when in the Antarctic, to break his promise and establish his base within McMurdo Sound. Now, Shackleton was determined he would not yield, and informed the Royal Geographical Society: "I have as much right to use Vahsel bay as Dr. König ... I cannot alter plans I have long since formulated".
As the scheduled departure dates of both expeditions approached in June 1914, attempts were made to get the the two ventures to either combine or at least cooperate. Filchner invited Shackleton to Berlin, to discuss the situation, but Shackleton was too distracted by last-minute preparations for his expedition, and could not find the time. He suggested that König should come to London. Events were then overtaken by the war crisis developing in Europe; on 28 July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, on 1 August Russia declared war on Germany. The next day, Shackleton's ship [[Endurance (1912 ship)|''Endurance'']] was moored at [[Ramsgate]], awaiting instructions from the [[Admiralty]]. On 3 August, as Britain contemplated its declaration of war on Germany, Shackleton received from the [[First Lord of the Admiralty]], [[Winston Churchill]], the one-word instruction "Proceed".
As for König, waiting with his ship in [[Trieste]] harbour, he was ordered to abandon his expedition. He joined the Austrian army, fought in [[Galicia]], and in September 1915 was captured and sent to [[Krasnoyarsk]] in [[Siberia]] as a prisoner of war. During his long captivity, the scientific community made unavailing attempts to secure his release. König finally escaped in June 1918, but never returned to the Antarctic. His name, however, is perpetuated in the region by the [[König Glacier]] in South Georgia, named in 1929 by a German expedition to the island. ''Osterreich'' remained unused in Trieste until 1918, when it was sold to a shipyard. Its fate thereafter is unrecorded.
==Notes and references==
===Notes===
===Citations===
===Sources===
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* }} The website contains a reprint of Raymond Howgego's article from ''Encyclopedia of Exploration 1850 to 1940: The Oceans, Islands & Polar Regions'' Volume 3, 2006. Published by Hordern House, Potts Point, Sydney, Australia. ISBN: 978-1-87556-741-6
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'''Felix König''' was an Austrian scientist, [[Mountaineering|Alpinist]] and [[Antarctic]] explorer. He was a member of [[Wilhelm Filchner]]'s Second German Antarctic Expedition, which explored the [[Weddell Sea]] area in 1911–13. On his return, König sought to continue Filchner's unfinished work, and organised an Austrian Antarctic Expedition, but his plans were thwarted by the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in August 1914. König subsequently served in the Austrian army, but was captured, and spent most of the conflict as a prisoner-of-war. He never returned to the Antarctic.
==Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–13==
[[File:Wilhelm Filchner.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Wilhelm Filchner]]
Felix König, born around 1880, |group= n}} was an experienced Alpinist from [[Graz]] in Austria, who had some experience of the Arctic in [[Greenland]]. In 1911 he was invited to join [[Wilhelm Filchner]]'s Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–13, the main geographical objective of which was to effect a crossing of Antarctica, from the largely unknown [[Weddell Sea]] quadrant to the relatively well-explored area of the [[Ross Sea]].|group= n}} By this means, Filchner sought to resolve the outstanding question of whether Antarctica was a single, unified entity or a combination of landmasses separated by water. The journey would involve travelling over terrain whose character was completely unknown, in which König's Alpine experiences might be a valuable asset; despite his training as a biologist, he was listed in the expedition's staff as a "mountaineer".
Initially, the expedition went well; the ship, ''Deutschland'', entered the Weddell Sea in January 1912, and penetrated further south than any other previous ship, beating [[James Weddell]]'s ninety-year-old record. New lands were discovered and named, and on 31 January, at 77°44'S, the ship reached an inlet which Filchner named [[Vahsel Bay]], after ''Deutschland'''s captain, Richard Vahsel. Here he set up his Weddell Sea base camp, on a flat iceberg that appeared to be firmly attached to the land. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case; within two days, changes in the winds and tides caused the berg to break free, carrying the camp with it. The camp was hurriedly dismantled and returned to the ship, which was by then itself caught in the ice and began a slow inexorable drift northwards. It was soon evident that a return to Vahsel Bay that season would be impossible, and that the ship faced the prospect of a long dark winter trapped in the Antarctic ice.
The frustrations following this setback highlighted what had been a troublesome feature of the expedition since its inception, the problem of a divided command. The principal issue was whether overall control lay with Filchner, a scientist with no previous Antarctic experience, or with Vahsel, who had been second officer on the [[Gauss Expedition]] of 1901–03, under [[Erich von Drygalski]]. Within the ''Deutschland'', factions formed behind these alternative leaders, leading to animosities and threats of violence. König, who was firmly aligned with Filchner, alleged that he had been shot at; Filchner slept behind locked doors with a loaded pistol by his side, for protection.
[[File:Weddell Sea Iceberg.jpg|thumb|upright|Weddell Sea iceberg in the region of supposed "New South Greenland"]]
During the course of the winter drift, König participated with Filchner in one of the few positive achievements of the expedition. Realising that the ship would drift close to the vicinity of the land reportedly sighted by the American sealer [[Benjamin Morrell]] in 1823, and named by him [[New South Greenland]], Filchner sought to prove once and for all whether this land really existed. This involved him, with König and Alfred Kling, in a dangerous trek over nearly 40 miles of treacherous sea ice to the supposed location of Morrell's land. They found no trace of it, and depth soundings confirmed that there was no land nearby. The three made an equally hazardous journey back to the ship.
When, finally, ''Deutschland'' escaped from the ice in late October 1912, it made its way to [[South Georgia]], reaching [[Grytviken]] on 19 December. From there, Filchner went with ''Deutschland'' to [[Buenos Aires]]. From the account he wrote of the expedition to that point (without mention of any of the internal disputes or turmoil) |group= n}} he states clearly his intention to return: "At the end of the year [1913] the second trip to the newly discovered land can be made again and the exploration of the Antarctic can be continued according to the original program". However, reports of his poor leadership had reached Germany, and he lost the support of his backers; soon, his heart went out of the enterprise. As he later wrote: "[M]any experiences had convinced me that truly great successes in the polar ice are granted only to members of those nations where polar research has tradition, namely the Scandinavians, the Russians, the British and the Canadians. I decided to return to my original field of work: Central and East Asia".
==Proposed Austrian Antarctic Expedition==
Back in Austria, and undiscouraged by Fichner's failures, König was ready to return to the Antarctic to continue the work. He began to organise the Austrian Antarctic Expedition, and with the backing of the influential [[Count Johann Nepomuk Wilczek|Count Johann Wilczek]], president of the [[Austrian Geographical Society]], was able to buy ''Deutschland'', the name of which he changed to ''Osterreich''. His plans were supported by Filchner and, among others, [[Roald Amundsen]] and [[Otto Nordenskjöld]]. . They also had the blessing of the imperial family.
[[File:Ernest Shackleton before 1909.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Ernest Shackleton]]
However, he was not alone in this field. Since his return in ''[[Nimrod (ship)|Nimrod]]'' from [[Nimrod Expedition#Southern journey|his polar near-miss in 1909]], Ernest Shackleton had been considering a further journey south. In March 1912 he learned that Amundsen had reached the South Pole. With that goal removed, the idea of a trans-Antarctic crossing became his objective; he had previously discussed the matter with [[William Speirs Bruce]], leader of the erstwhile [[Scottish National Antarctic Expedition]], whose own plans for such a crossing had been stalled by lack of finance. When, in January 1913, Shackleton learned that Filchner had failed in his principal objective, he felt free to develop his own scheme, based on the establishment of winter quarters in Vahsel Bay.
König formally revealed his plans to a committee meeting of the Austrian Geographical Society in January 1914, although he had evidently provided an outline of his intentions some seven months earlier. The January 1914 meeting noted that Shackleton was proposing a similar plan. Thus, it seemed that two expeditions, with broadly similar objectives, would be launched at the same time, in the same area of the Antarctic. König's reaction to this news was to claim that Filchner had transferred to him his rights of priority in this area of the Weddell Sea, and that Shackleton should therefore go elsewhere. The former president of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], [[Clements Markham|Sir Clements Markham]], still an influential figure, concurred: "One has to leave the area to König where he has worked in former times". This stance echoed much of what Shackleton had experienced with [[Robert Falcon Scott|Captain Scott]], prior to the [[Nimrod Expedition|''Nimrod'' Expedition]] in 1907, when Scott had claimed priority in the [[McMurdo Sound]] area of the [[Ross Sea]] and demanded that Shackleton find another base. Shackleton then had reluctantly deferred to Scott only to be forced by circumstances, when in the Antarctic, to break his promise and establish his base within McMurdo Sound. Now, Shackleton was determined he would not yield, and informed the Royal Geographical Society: "I have as much right to use Vahsel bay as Dr. König ... I cannot alter plans I have long since formulated".
As the scheduled departure dates of both expeditions approached in June 1914, attempts were made to get the the two ventures to either combine or at least cooperate. Filchner invited Shackleton to Berlin, to discuss the situation, but Shackleton was too distracted by last-minute preparations for his expedition, and could not find the time. He suggested that König should come to London. Events were then overtaken by the war crisis developing in Europe; on 28 July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, on 1 August Russia declared war on Germany. The next day, Shackleton's ship [[Endurance (1912 ship)|''Endurance'']] was moored at [[Ramsgate]], awaiting instructions from the [[Admiralty]]. On 3 August, as Britain contemplated its declaration of war on Germany, Shackleton received from the [[First Lord of the Admiralty]], [[Winston Churchill]], the one-word instruction "Proceed".
As for König, waiting with his ship in [[Trieste]] harbour, he was ordered to abandon his expedition. He joined the Austrian army, fought in [[Galicia]], and in September 1915 was captured and sent to [[Krasnoyarsk]] in [[Siberia]] as a prisoner of war. During his long captivity, the scientific community made unavailing attempts to secure his release. König finally escaped in June 1918, but never returned to the Antarctic. His name, however, is perpetuated in the region by the [[König Glacier]] in South Georgia, named in 1929 by a German expedition to the island. ''Osterreich'' remained unused in Trieste until 1918, when it was sold to a shipyard. Its fate thereafter is unrecorded.
==Notes and references==
===Notes===
===Citations===
===Sources===
* }}
* }}
*
*
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* }}
*
*
* }}
* }}
*
* }}
* }} The website contains a reprint of Raymond Howgego's article from ''Encyclopedia of Exploration 1850 to 1940: The Oceans, Islands & Polar Regions'' Volume 3, 2006. Published by Hordern House, Potts Point, Sydney, Australia. ISBN: 978-1-87556-741-6
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September 11, 2019 at 05:33AM
