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. Weather observations in the Arctic Since the beginning of World War II, the Kriegsmarine was endowed with the task of collecting meteorological data in support of the German war effort. That was accomplished mainly by weather-observation vessels (frequently refitted fishing boats). Motivated by repeated losses of such boats, beginning in 1941, and under direction of Hans-Robert Knoespel, the erection of meteorological stations on land was planned and executed. The first such station around the Arctic Ocean, Knospe, was established in the northwest of the main island of the Svalbard archipelago in October 1941. Weather troupe Schatzgräber To prepare members of the meteorological mission for the conditions in the deployment area, the Kriegsmarine's weather department was training candidates in a camp named Goldhöhe (Czech: Zlaté návrší) in the Krkonoše (German: Riesengebirge) mountain range in Silesia. As hardly any more alpine- or arctic-experienced personnel were available, inexperienced meteorologists were to prepare for arctic conditions in the alpine facility. Diverging from established practice, the mission was not named after its team leader, but after H. Schatz, who was heading training operations at Goldhöhe. Schatz would not join Schatzgräber station, as he was to command the Bassgeiger mission in northeast Greenland at that time. The meteorological station on Alexandraland Early in September 1943, the weather observation boat Kehdingen sailed for Alexandra Land from Kiel, via Narvik and Tromsø. Submarine U 387 was put on escort duty for the trip. Also, the U-boat's crew helped unpack supplies and equipment in the actual establishment of the station. Starting on November 17, Schatzgräber reported weather and temperature data. With the polar night ending,'Schatzgräber added measures of high-altitude / jet stream winds, that were conducted and reported by radio balloons. Resupplication was conducted by U 387 and by parachuting from a Focke-Wulf Condor aircraft. Mission failing On 30 May 1944 weather inspector Gerhard Wallik and Obergefreiter Werner Blankenburg hunted