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Koch Johan Peter (15.01.1870 - 13.01.1928)
Born in Vestenskove. Koch participated in the Amdrup expedition to eastern Greenland in 1900 and was one of the main participants in expeditions to Iceland in the years 1903-1904. In the years 1906-1908. He was a member of the tragic Danish expedition led by Ludwig Mulius-Eriksen, who explored the last undiscovered parts of the northeast coast of Greenland. On March 28, 1907, Muli-Erickson, accompanied by nine people, set off from the base camp of the expedition, located on the Djemani-Land Peninsula (Land of Germany), to the north to study still uncharted to the map of the north-east coast of Greenland. At 80°N Four participants of the campaign were sent back, the remaining six moved on. At 81° 30'N and 18° W. the party split into two triples: one of them, headed by Koch, went further north with the task of filming the last stretch of the northeast coast of Greenland, which was not mapped by previous expeditions, and the second as part of Mülius-Eriksen, Niels Heg-Hagen and Jørgen Brenlund went west to Independence Fjord. The Koch party reached Piri Land at Cape Euler-Rasmussen, and five days later reached the guri on Cape Vikof - the most eastern point reached by Robert Peary in 1900, thereby finally proving that Greenland is an island.
The group Mülius-Eriksen did not return from the route before the onset of winter. Serious searches in 1907 failed to organize due to adverse weather conditions. The following year, on March 10, the party headed by Johann Koch went in search. Less than 200 miles from base camp, search engines found an uncovered depot, and a hundred meters from it was a small snow cave, inside which was the body of Jørgen Brenlund. Under him was his diary notes and Heg-Hagen cards. Koch’s discoveries made it possible to preserve the scientific results of this tragic campaign and the details of the death of its participants. In 1912-1913 Koch led an expedition in a sleigh on the inner ice of Greenland, which included an eminent German geophysicist and meteorologist, creator of continental drift theory Alfred Wegener. Among the awards of Koch is the second most important knightly order of Denmark, Danenbrog, the "Vega" medal of the Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geography. He also became a member of the International Polar Commission. He died in Copenhagen. He was buried in the Vestre Kirkegard cemetery.
Fjord in the west of Piri Land in Greenland. Opened by the second Tulesian expedition of K. Rasmussen. |
