Kaiser Wilhelm II Land as discovered and mapped during the very first German South Polar expedition, the Gauss Expedition (19001-1903) using the data compiled by geographer, scientist and explorer and leader of the expedition, Dr. Erich von Drygalski.




Erich von Drygalski (1865-1949) had experience of Arctic exploration and study in geoscience in Greenland and Scandinavia. The objective of the Antarctic expedition was to explore the unknown area south of the Kerguelen Islands. Making their claim for Germany, they named the land they encountered Kaiser Wilhelm II Land after the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, whom had provided a large sum of money to fund the expedition. Drygalski carried out extremely thorough surveys and scientific experiments, eventually publishing his findings in 20 volumes and 2 atlases between 1905 and 1935 - which led to him winning a Royal Geographical Society's Patron's Gold Medal.. During the expedition, Drygalski also became the first person to use a hot-air balloon in Antarctic, using the vantage point to take aerial photographs of the surrounding terrain.





The route of the SS Gauss is marked in red on both maps with key to the water and terrain Drygalski and his crew faced along the way and marking their winter quarters by Mount Gauss - a 370 metre tall extinct volcano, after mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who also was the inspiration behind the name of their ship, Gauss.


Printed colour. [POLAR501]