Knowledge of past climate change is essential to test our understanding of the rapidly changing Arctic. One of the longest Arctic temperature time series comes from observations in Svalbard that extend back more than 125 years but have a gap during World War II between 1941 and 1945. Observations from German military weather stations on Svalbard have now been retrieved from weather maps preserved at the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), which will help close much of the existing data gap.

Else, Alfred Wegener's wife, has created a lasting monument to the polar explorer by publishing her husband's diaries and letters, supplemented by her own memories. The German Society for Polar Research elected her an honorary member and introduced an Else Wegener Medal, which is awarded for merits in public relations, knowledge transfer and the promotion of young talent.

During World War II, the only acts of warfare in Antarctica took place due to the operations of the German Navy's auxiliary cruisers. These were armed merchant ships disguised as vessels of other nations to avoid detection by Allied patrols. Their mission was to sink or capture enemy ships. In Antarctica, they were responsible for the largest naval capture operation of the entire conflict, which led to the only war engagement between two nations on this continent.