New Swabia
From Freepedia
New Schwabenland or Neuschwabenland (New Swabia in English) is an area of Antarctica between 20°E and 10°W (overlapping a portion of Queen Maud Land) claimed by Germany between 1939 and 1945.
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History
Prior to World War II Germany displayed a keen interest in establishing bases in Antarctica, sending expeditions in 1910 and 1925 to investigate the area. Antarctica was already covered by a number of international treaties and Germany had interest in staking its own Antarctic claim. Having already pushed relationships with the Anglo-French allies to their limits the German government organised a semi-civilian expedition.
On December 17, 1938 the Schwabenland, a freighter capable of carrying and catapulting aircraft, departed Hamburg for Antarctica. The vessel arrived on January 1939 in an area already claimed in 1938 by Norway as Dronning Maud Land and began charting the region. In the following weeks fifteen flights were made by Dornier Wal aircraft over an area of roughly 600,000 square km. These missions resulted in more than 11,000 aerial photographs of the area (and said to represent about one fifth of the continent) which were used to update incorrect Norwegian charts from 1931. The aircraft also reportedly dropped thousands of German flags on metal poles bearing the expedition's insignia (which included a swastika) and teams walked the coastal area making claim reservations on hills and other significant positions. The expedition established a temporary base and reported the discovery of hot springs with vegetation in some areas of the (so-called) Schirmer Lakes. After the expedition left in February 1939 a second, fully civilian expedition using lighter airplanes with skis was planned but then canceled with the onset of World War II.
Legal standing
No country ever recognized Germany's claim and the post-war Antarctica treaty effectively suspended those made by all countries. Although a few observers have insisted that through a legal loophole the German Third Reich still exists judicially within the former borders of New Swabia, this is not supported by either German or international law, nor by the terms of the unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers signed by representatives of the German government on 8 May 1945, the date usually given for Germany's abandonment of the claim. The name Neuschwabenland (and sometimes New Swabia) is still used to describe the region on some maps and most features retain their German names.
New Swabia in popular culture
- Neuschwabenland is the title of a CD released by the Austrian group Allerseelen during the 1990s. They also sold a Neuschwabenland t-shirt.
Nazi mythology
- An esoteric Hitlerist legend recounts that Adolf Hitler did not commit suicide in 1945, but fled to Argentina, then to an SS base under the ice in New Swabia during the early 1950s where he either disappeared into the hollow earth or resumed his career as a painter (doing icy Antarctic landscapes) until the 1960s when he was taken by aliens to Aldebaran, where he is planning a campaign to conquer the planet earth (the aliens presumably have both life-extending and faster-than-lightspeed travel technologies). According to this account, Neu Schwabenland becomes the underground control center for a Nazi moon base.
For more about Nazi mythology see also
External links relating to Nazi mythology and New Swabia
External links
Former German colonies and territories
