This is Christof Friedrich's amazing book Germany's Antarctic Claim - Secret Nazi Polar Expeditions (1977) which reveals for the first time a little known expedition of several dozens Germans which eventually discovered a vast area of Antarctic that was very different as previously assumed. This rare book reveals a little known, but very important historical phenomenon: Germany's and in particular, Adolf Hitler's intense interest and personal fascination with the polar regions. Out of the millions upon millions of words written and spoken to inform and misinform, to reveal, conceal, report and distort the minutest aspects of Hitler's public and private life, apparently nothing has been written outside of Germany regarding this area of Hitler's interest. Such an omission is at first surprising until one discovers that only parts of the story have come to light and that even these incomplete fragments are known to a very few widely scattered and virtually isolated experts. Though easily overlooked, the investigators of National Socialist history have been able to perceive the many references to this ice-ridden facet of the Third Reich among Hitler's myriad, far-ranging interests, even during his early years as an unknown, starving artist. By years of patient research, painstaking sifting of articles, books, pictures, manuscripts and eyewitness accounts, these investigators determined that Adolf Hitler, many years prior to his ascension to the Chancellorship of Greater Germany, had been keenly interested in the mysterious, last frontiers of this planet, the frozen immensities of the Arctic and Antarctica. Why Hitler was so interested in the polar regions is not immediately clear to the casual researcher, but it becomes so when one observes the recurrent convergence and congruence of two main themes. Decades before the advent of the present massive Soviet and Japanese exploitation of this precious resource, Hitler understood the importance of the whaling industry for the provision of protein and raw materials to the cramped population of Germany, always dependent upon its none-too-friendly neighbors for its food requirements above the subsistence level. The titanic drama of the polar wastes, where Nature's forces clash unabated - blizzards, hurricanes, jagged icebergs, volcanic fire and eternal ice, gigantic beasts; where brave and hardy men survived and more than this, overcame these obstacles in the quest for knowledge, risking their lives in frail boats or trekking determinedly across the glittering howling wilderness - this drama, with all its color, sound, fury and heroism appealed greatly to Hitler, the artist, the romantic disciple of Wagner and not least, to Hitler the anthropologist, who wished to rediscover the cultural heritage of his Nordic, Aryan ancestors. Was it possible, he wondered, that the frozen wastes demanded a race of heroes and so produced one, or was a race of heroes already in existence which found the harsh demands of this environment in keeping with its own virtues? To answer these questions of existence, to rediscover his racial, hence, cosmic roots, the young, maturing Hitler studied the remnants of his ancient Aryan forefathers, the robust wisdom which may be found, for example, in the Nordic Sagas, untarnished by the fetid breath of Judeo-Christianity. Along this path of forgotten knowledge, Hitler encountered a radically different theory concerning the creation of the world: Paul Hoerbiger's "Welteislehre" theory, widely discussed in German intellectual circles. With Lufthansa catapult aircraft - fired off the expedition ship "Schwabenland" - did 83 members of German expedition in february 1939 under constantly lifethreatening conditions fly over a gigantic area of Antarctic - a part noone has ever seen before - which was also photographed and cartographed. From endless white plains there suddenly arose 4000 m high mountains, frozen sweet water lakes and enormous oasis that provided the material for the spectacular photos that are included in this fascinating book. Under the command of Alfred Ritscher, hundreds of steel arrows with swastika on them were thrown from the air to the land to assure the territorial right for the German Reich. Many rare photographs allow the reader to experience the most distant part of Germany - an area that most Germans have never heard of - which carries the name of "Neu Schwabenland" or "New Germany". The story of this unique expedition is not known in general public due to mostly ideological reasons. There were also rumors that before the 2nd world war ended another series of secret "expeditions" took place that created a German high-tech military colony there and a deep submarine base entirely under the ice. This was probably the reason that another military operation was started a couple of years after by the Allies - with disastrous results - someone surely was there. 130 pages, many pictures. A must read for everyone.