Carl Koldewey
| Carl Christian Koldewey | |
|---|---|
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Carl Christian Koldewey
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| Born |
October 26, 1837 Bücken, German Confederation |
| Died | May 17, 1908 (aged 70) Hamburg, German Empire |
| Occupation | Explorer |
| Parent(s) | Johann Christian Koldewey, Wilhelmine Meyer |
Carl Christian Koldewey (October 26, 1837 – May 17, 1908) was a German Arctic explorer. He led both German North Polar Expeditions.
Koldewey was the son of merchant Johann Christian Koldewey and his wife Wilhelmine Meyer. Koldewey enrolled as a sailor in 1853 immediately after Grammar school at Clausthal. At age 22, he attended the Naval school in Bremen, where he was among Arthur Breusing's best pupils. Later he went to sea again but returned to Naval school in 1861. After becoming a captain, Koldewey studied mathematics, physics, and astronomy at the universities of Hanover and Göttingen between 1866 and 1867.
Through his teacher Breusing and encouraged by August Petermann Koldewey was given the leadership of the first Arctic expedition as captain of ship Grönland. He had the choice of either advancing northwards as far as possible along Greenland's east coast or to reach so-called Gillis-Land by travelling around Spitsbergen. But adverse conditions and strong ice floes prevented him from reaching both destinations. Finally he reached his northmost latitude of 81°5' near Spitsbergen and returned.
From 1869 to 1870 he was captain of the Germania and the leader of another expedition to Greenland and to the Arctic Sea which intended to penetrate into the Arctic central region. It was equipped with the propeller steamboat Germania and the sailing ship Hansa under captain Paul Friedrich Hegemann. Six scientists joined the expedition: astronomers and physicists Karl Nikolai Jensen Börgen and Ralph Copeland, zoologist, botanist and physician Adolf Pansch, and surveyor Julius von Payer. On the Hansa travelled physician and zoologist R. Buchholz and geologist Gustav Carl Laube.
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