The German Fat Plan
The extent of the military development of our resources cannot be too large, nor its pace too swift
The rumors emerged immediately. On July 18, three months after the Fuhrer shot himself in a bunker beneath central Berlin, the Toronto Daily Star printed the headline, “Hitler’s on Ice in Antarctica.” Paranoid speculation arose when German U-boat, U-530 arrived at Argentina’s Mar del Plata naval base, piloted by Lieutenant Otto Wermut.
Hoping to avoid surrender after fighting ceased in Germany, a second submarine, U-977, emerged at the base in August. Ultimately, both crews gave up the fight, with the latter extradited to the United States over charges of torpedoing the Brazilian cruiser, Bahia.
In spite of rumors, Hitler was nowhere to be found on either craft.
Stories of an Antarctic Nazi base, however, persist to this day. Given the Third Reich’s penchant for secrecy and obsession with the occult, the phenomenon isn’t particularly surprising, fueled by Germany’s longstanding fixation with the great polar desert.
The country’s expeditions had been largely scientific in nature, dating back to late-19th century. It was, however, the Gauss expedition spanning 1901 to 1903 when true exploration began in earnest. German geographer, Erich von Drygalski, became the first Antarctic explorer to utilize a hot air balloon. After more than a year spent trapped in the ice, the team laid claim to a new slice of territory they christened, Kaiser Wilhelm II Land. Its extinct volcano was named Gaussberg, in honor of 19th century mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss.
In 1911, the Norwegian whaling ship, Deutschland, set out on Germany’s second Antarctic voyage, in hopes of determining that the continent was a single landmass. Trapped in ice and plied with alcohol, morale swiftly dropped among the crew. The expedition would end without stepping foot on the landmass.
A third expedition would ultimately cement the notion of secret Nazi bases on the inhospitable continent.
The seeds of the voyage were planted in 1936 as part of Hitler’s Four Year Plan, which sought to bolster the German economy ahead of an impending war. In clear violation of World War I’s Treaty of Versailles, the country began a process of rearmament. “[T]he extent of the military development of our resources cannot be too large, nor its pace too swift,” he wrote, noting, “the showdown with Russia is inevitable.”
A memo detailed measures that extended far beyond bolstering its military, into all aspects of the German economy. Reichstag President Hermann Göring was assigned the task of putting the plan into motion, in order to develop economic independence from fellow European nations. The government began building refineries and aluminum plants, while promoting increased domestic agriculture. Also central to the initiative was the “German Fat Plan.”
The nation, hooked on margarine and other fatty foodstuffs, had developed a dependence on Norway-produced whale fat. Breaking it would require increased domestic whaling. An explosion in the activity amid World War I butter shortages had led to the depletion of whale populations nearer to home. By the mid-1930s, there was only one place with a large enough population to maintaining steady fishing.
Planning for a third Antarctic expedition began in summer 1936, with eyes set on a swath of seemingly unclaimed land between British and Norwegian territories, spanning 20-degrees east to 10-degrees west. Naval commander Alfred Ritscher was selected to lead the expedition aboard the MS Schwabenland, a postal ship owned by Lufthansa that had been converted into an icebreaker.
Ritscher was joined by a crew of 82, boasting scientists and military men among their ranks, along with a single government-mandated Nazi official who demanded all on-board gather around to listen to broadcasts of Hitler’s speeches. The ship was outfitted with a pair of flying boats (seaplanes), which were set to be catapulted off the deck to survey the Antarctic terrain. A pair of cranes were there to help fish them out of the water after landing.
The ship left Hamburg on December 17, 1938, reaching the continent on January 19th. The crew began to survey a region of Queen Maud Land, which had recently been claimed by Norway. They named the region “Neu-Schwabenland,” after the ship that had brought them to the end of the Earth. Nazi flags were implanted on sea ice, while a ship filled with boxes of small metal swastikas were tossed out of a plane, to help lighten the load. They were never recovered.
Returning home, a several additional expeditions were planned, but ultimately abandoned following the outbreak of World War II. Germany would never make a formal claim on Neu-Schwabenland, and abandoned the project altogether in 1945 at the war’s end.
The country wouldn’t establish a formal presence in the territory until it opened a research base in the early 80s.
Sources:
Hitler Sent a Secret Expedition to Antarctica in a Hunt for Margarine Fat https://www.history.com/news/hitler-nazi-secret-expedition-antarctica-whale-oil
Hitler’s Antarctic base: the myth and the reality https://www.histarmar.com.ar/Antartida/Base-Hitler/LaBaseAntarticadeHitler.pdf