Schatzgräber (weather station)

Schatzgräber or “Treasure Hunter” was the name of a military weather station Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine established in the north of Alexandra Land in the Arctic Franz Josef Land archipelago in 1943. The construction of the secret complex codename “Treasure Hunter” began in 1942 at the command of Adolf Hitler but came into operation only in 1943. The mission of the station's crew started in September that year and lasted until July 1944, when they were summarily evacuated after most of them consumed raw polar bear meat and fell sick.