Alfred Ritscher [SEP] place of death
Alfred Ritscher
Alfred Ritscher (23 May 1879 in Bad Lauterberg – 30 March 1963 in Hamburg) was a German polar explorer. A "Kapitän zur See" in the "Kriegsmarine", he led the third German Antarctic Expedition in 1938-39, which mapped the New Swabia () area of Queen Maud Land. Ritscher Peak and Ritscher Upland there are named for him.
Biography.
In 1897 Alfred Ritscher made his first trip as a cabin boy on the Bremen ship "Emily". In 1903 he
passed his helmsman exams and earned his master's certificate in 1907. At the beginning of 1912, Ritscher gained a place in the newly created Seehandbuchwerk of the Navy Office.
Alfred Ritscher was skipper of the "German Arctic Expedition" of 1912-1913, under the command of Herbert Schröder-Stranz, which departed from Tromsø in the motor vessel "Herzog Ernst" for a preliminary reconnaissance of a planned navigation of the Northeast Passage. He also took over the leadership of the airborne survey of the expedition and obtained a