Von S.M. Aviso Pommerania zum Reichsforschungsdampfer Poseidon: ein Beitrag zur deutschen Ostseeforschung

Abstract

The article provides an overview of military, commercial and research ships used by Germany for the exploration of oceanographic conditions in the Baltic Sea at the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth century. The transition from warships for oceanographic research to the first research steamer represents an important step in the history of German Baltic Sea research. This article traces the development of German research into the hydrographical conditions in the Baltic Sea in the second half of the nine-teenth century with examples of navy ships (gunboat Comet, S.M. Aviso Pommerania, S.M.S. Rhein, lightship Adlergrund, S.M.S. Niobe, S.M.S. Nautilus, S.M.S. Pelikan), chartered merchant ships (Kiel harbour steamer, freighter Holsatia) up to the first German research steamer (the imperial research steamer Poseidon). The ships are described briefly, the measurement instruments used on them are explained, and the results achieved are assessed in terms of their contribution to the advancement of knowledge in Baltic Sea oceanography. A major contribution to research in hydrography was made by the chemist Oscar Jacobsen (1840-1889) and the geographer Otto Krümmel (1854-1912). Jacobsen was responsible for the hydrographic and chemical observations during the Pommerania expedition, whose measurements were the first ever to provide an overview of the thermohaline conditions in the open Baltic Sea between the Kattegat and the central Baltic Sea, and of the currents in the Danish straits and the Baltic Sea. Krümmel made important contributions towards international collaboration in the Baltic Sea, coordinated the hydro-graphic research projects on the imperial research steamer Poseidon, and was director of the hydrographic laboratory of the "Kommission zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung der deutschen Meere" (Commission for Scientific Research of the German Seas) in Kiel from 1902 to 1911. His special interest lay in the field of physical oceanography. Here he devoted himself mainly to the evaluation of all measurements available at the time to investigate the fundamental mechanism of saltwater flows into the Baltic Sea.