Felix König

Felix König (born c.1880) was an Austrian scientist, alpinist and Antarctic explorer. He was a member of Wilhelm Filchner's Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–1913, which failed in its attempt to determine the nature of the link, if any, between the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea, and thereby resolve the question as to whether the continent was a single landmass or a group of several elements. In the course of the expedition König, along with Filchner, was part of the group, that disproved the existence of the land known as New South Greenland, or "Morrell's Land", supposedly discovered in 1823 by the American sealer captain, Benjamin Morrell.

On his return to Austria, König sought to continue Filchner's unfinished work, and for this purpose organised an Austrian Antarctic Expedition, which he hoped would depart in the summer of 1914. However, he found that his plans conflicted with those of Ernest Shackleton, who was concurrently preparing the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition on similar lines. Attempts to reconcile the two ventures failed; in the event, König's expedition was abandoned in August 1914 on the outbreak of the First World War, in which he served as an officer in the Austrian army. He was captured, and spent most of the conflict as a prisoner-of-war in Siberia. He never returned to the Antarctic. Provided by Wikipedia