7 April 2017:
Germany has a long and involved history in Antarctica from the expedition led by Eduard Dallman in 1873-74, through the Heroic Agewith expeditions into the Weddell Sea (Erich von Drygalski 1901-1903 and Filchner 1911-1912). During the last four decades, Germany developed a strong Antarctic programme and is now at the forefront of modern research in Antarctica.
Germany is a signatory nation to the Antarctic Treaty with the former East Germany (DDR) signing in 1974 and the former West Germany signing in 1979 and both joined SCAR in 1981 (BRD) and 1982 (DDR). The German national SCAR committee was established in 1978 by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which is the official member of SCAR.Within the Treaty, Germany is a consultative party with voting rights able to make decisions about Antarctica. Germany held the XVIII SCAR Delegates meeting in Bremerhaven in 1984 and twenty years later the XXVIII SCAR Delegates meeting and first Open Science Conference in the same location.