Alfred Lothar Wegener (1880-1930) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree (original) (raw)

Alfred Lothar (Alfred) Wegener

Born 1 Nov 1880 in Berlin, Brandenburg, Preußen, Deutsches Reich

Ancestors

Died Nov 1930 at about age 50in Clarinetania, Greenland

Profile last modified 15 Apr 2024| Created 9 Mar 2017

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Biography

Alfred Wegener is Notable.

Originator of the theory of continental drift.[1]

Alfred Lothar Wegener was born 1 Nov 1880 in Berlin, German Empire. He was the youngest of five to Richard Wegener, a clergyman, theologian, and teacher of classicial languages. One of his brothers was Kurt Wegener. They were cousins to expressionist movie pioneer Paul Wegener.

Alfred married Else Köppen, the daughter of his former teacher and mentor, the meteorologist Wladimir Köppen (of Köppen climate classification). They had three daughters:

Hilde Wegener (1914–1936)
Sophie "Käte" Wegener (1918–2012)
Hanna "Lotte" Charlotte (1920–1989)

His son-in-laws were Austrian mountaineer and adventurer Heinrich Harrer who married Lotte in 1938 and Siegfried Uiberreither who married his daughter Käte in 1939.

Wegener died during his fourth polar expedition at a locality named Clarinetania, Greenland, located halfway between the expedition site Eismitte ("mid-ice" or "ice-center") and West Camp located on the coast 250 miles to the west, both at 71 degrees N. They reached Eismitte and celebrated his 50th birthday there, but on the return trip to the base camp, Wegener and his counterpart Rasmus Villumsen ran out of food, and then dogs and then eventually were footing it on skis. It is believed that Wegener succumbed to a heart attack from overexertion while in his tent and passed away, 118 miles short of the coast. Villumsen buried him with care in his clothes lying on a reindeer skin and two sleeping bags stitched together. His friends left the body alone, constructed an ice block mausoleum around him and erected a 20-ft-tall iron cross at the gravesite.[2] His diary taken by Villumsen was also lost to the unforgiving terrain as Villumsen vanished trying to finish the trip to West Camp. Wegener's remains, his diary and his assistant are somewhere in the ice to this day.[3]

Sources

↑ "Solving the Puzzle of Plate Tectonics." It's Okay To Be Smart. 7 Mar 2017. Youtube. 9 Mar 2017.
↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23873654/alfred-lothar-wegener
↑ Alfred Wegener on Earth Observatory

The Britannica Guide to The 100 Most Influential Scientists (2007), pp. 259-261.
"5 Scientists with Ideas That Nobody Believed ... Who Were Right." SciShow (channel). 2 Dec 2018. Youtube.com. Accessed 3 Dec 2018.