grönland (13. 197)

Via Miss Cellania, we learn about Adolf Hitler’s obsession with the acquisition of Greenland, corresponding to our own times and stemming from—ironically as their trajectory deviated very much ideologically—with the adventures of polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen. Already by April of 1934, the Nazi government undertook a survey of the polar island, inventorying the inhabitants, livestock and mineral resources—not rare earths, which whilst present remain inaccessible and have as yet never been mined—like cryolite, essential to aluminium production, as part of an overarching programme to turn-inward and make the Reich self-sufficient and not rely on outside sources and imposed restrictive bars on trade for any non-domestic staples, launching their own whaling fleets, staking claims on Antartica coinciding with territorial expansion in central Europe for the economic interests of Greater Germany. The US, however, had been monitoring these ambitions as well and in 1941, after the Nazi takeover of Denmark, the government-in-exile negotiated with the Americans, eager to protect their access and maintain wartime productions, allowing their presence as a deterrent and endowing the American ambassador in Godthaab (see previously here and here) with plenipotentiary powers as the representative of Free Denmark, a regimental fiction parallel to the one of Vichy France endorsed by Britain, with the arrangement reaffirmed after the war under the auspices of NATO. More from the Atlantic at the link above.