In 1923 a huge iceberg drifted into the Baltic Sea and ran aground off the German port of Lübeck. The strength of the polar easterlies that year caused a number of bergs to drift unusually far south on the Spitsbergen current. Some German scientists postulated that the heat from factory smoke might have caused abnormally high break up of the arctic ice pack seen that year.
The burghers of Lübeck declared the iceberg to be a free trade area under the name “Eisbergfreistadt” (Iceberg Free State). It was hoped that the iceberg might become an offshore banking haven. Notgeld (emergency money) was introduced, but fared no better the mark during the height of hyperinflation.
Despite the failure of Eisbergfreistadt to take hold as a viable financial institution, it did nonetheless capture the public imagination of the time, coming to represent the lure of distant, more exotic lands. Many people traveled to Lübeck to view the berg – the wealthy traveled by zeppelin or private launch, while ordinary folk attempted to navigate the maze of waterways that led to the great berg in small boats and rafts. Others approached the berg by foot at low tide; not content to merely view the ice from afar, many brought ropes and ladders to try and scale its icy pinnacles and ridges.
To celebrate the founding of the Eisbergfreistadt, a masked ball was held on the iceberg in the autumn of 1923. Many attendees came dressed as polar animals and explorers. Under this weight, the iceberg without warning broke apart; the remaining pieces of the berg, now freed from the silt, drifted back out to sea. The stunned revelers were left to contemplate the passing stars as they drifted into the frozen expanse of the polar ocean. In a peculiar twist of fate, the castaways were not lacking in food; large amounts of provisions had been shipped to the iceberg for the masque. Neither were they lacking in entertainment – musicians continued to play their instruments in the remains of their costumes, while the survivors gambled away the remainder of their worthless Eisbergfreistadt currency in high stakes card games. After many futile rescue attempts, the survivors were eventually evacuated from the coast of Greenland the following summer.
