Continental drift under the Third Reich

Abstract

Contrary to what happened in many other countries in the 1930s and 1940s, Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift was not generally rejected in Nazi Germany, although several leading German geologists of the time did not accept it. It was actually presented as the modern view of Earth history in books and magazine articles aimed at the general public. Although outlandish geological theories such as Hörbiger's Welteislehre were favoured by some Nazi dignitaries, they were not widely accepted in scientific circles. On the other hand, continental drift received official support under the Third Reich, at a time when it was ignored or ridiculed by most earth scientists outside Germany.