• Polarstern back in home port

    Polarstern returned to her home port of Bremerhaven at high tide this morning. After a good 20 weeks in the Antarctic season, the research vessel moored at the pier in the overseas harbour at 5:00 am.

  • The new Polarstern features a high-tech heart

    The centrepiece of the new construction project for the Polarstern's successor is now taking shape: by the end of August, TKMS, Wärtsilä, Steerprop and Aker Arctic had inked the contracts for the entire

  • International training on board Polarstern completed

    international group of young marine scientists is arriving in Walvis Bai in Namibia on board the Polarstern. They have been taking part in a specialised training voyage aboard the German research icebreaker

  • Research icebreaker Polarstern sets sail for the Antarctic Weddell Sea

    An international research team led by the University of Rostock is investigating the impact of climate change on biodiversity in Antarctica.

  • New Polarstern vessel: Model Masters the Testing Phase

    Important milestones have been reached in the construction of the new Polarstern. A true-to-scale model of the future research icebreaker successfully completed tests in the ice channel. This marked the

  • Research Vessel and Icebreaker Polarstern

    available. A successor to the Polarstern is also planned. Polarstern App Polarstern Chronicle News Polarstern (Photo: Jan Rohde ) News from aboard will be available in the Polarstern app. Here you can download [...] Research ice breaker Polarstern An Icon of German Polar Research The Research Vessel Polarstern is the most important resource for German polar research and the flagship of the Alfred Wegener Institute [...] Scientific coordinator: Dr. Ingo Schewe Polarstern-App Project proposal Cruise planning Info for expedition participants Expedition programs Publications about Polarstern Raw data in Pangaea Well equipped

  • Chronicle

    crew of the Polarstern even frees a British research ship trapped in the pack ice. Polarstern in the waters off Greenland (Photo: Hannes Grobe) Operations 1982-1989 9 December 1982 – RV Polarstern is taken [...] amounted to 188 million marks (over 96 million euros). Contruction of Polarstern (Photo: Klaus von Bröckel) Construction of Polarstern II Data June 1979 – The invitation to tender for construction of the [...] in Kiel 25.01.1982 named „Polarstern“ 9. Dezember 1982 by German Federal Ministe r for Research Heinz Riesenhuber Construction period The new research icebreaker Polarstern’s first journeys take her to

  • Landmark in Antarctica named after AWI researcher

    During the last Antarctic season, British Polarstern expedition members Dr. Robert D. Larter and Dr. Claus-Dieter Hillenbrand from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) discovered a new landmark in the Southern [...] Southern Ocean with one of the Polarstern helicopters. This cape is named in honour of the late AWI geologist Christian Hass.

  • Oasis of life in the ice-covered central Arctic

    Polarstern Expedition
    Under the ice of the Arctic, unknown habitats conceal an unexpected variety of living beings. On October 23rd, 46 scientists are expected to return to the home port in Bremerhaven [...] Bremerhaven from an Arctic expedition with the research vessel Polarstern. Over the past six weeks, they had explored life in ice, ocean and seabed with new robots and camera systems.

  • Climate Research in the Southern Ocean

    Polarstern Expedition
    The Alfred Wegener Institute has risen to the challenge of undertaking an expedition to the Weddell Sea in the Antarctic under pandemic conditions. Consequently, the participants [...] participants in this year’s first Polarstern expedition will be able to resume their long-term measurements in the Southern Ocean, gathering data that forms the basis for our understanding of polar processes and