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Wilhelm Filchner
1877 - 1957
Place of Birth: Bayreuth, Germany
Grave:
Biography
Born in Bayreuth, Germany, Wilhelm Filchner's first expedition was to Russia, at the age of 21. From 1903 to 1905 Filchner led an expedition to Tibet. Once he returned to Zurich, he made plans to cross Antarctica, and to find out if it was one piece of land. He chose a Norwegian ship, the "Deutschland", which was specially designed for rough seas. The expedition set off from Buenos Aires on 4 October 1911, and on 27 January 1912, a huge ice cliff appeared in front of the continent. Filchner named the region Prince Regent Luitpold Land (today it is known as the Luitpold Coast), and he named the ice cliff after Kaiser Wilhelm, but the name later changed to the Filchner Ice Shelf. Unfortunately, the expedition never managed to complete their main goal.
Filchner spent the time during and after World War II in India, and on 7 May 1957, at the age of 80, he died in Zurich.
Te Papa Whale exhibition in Washington, DC