Exploring Patagonia: the travels of Gunther Plüschow

Gunther Plüschow was a German Navy pilot and sailor at the time of World War I.

After the war, he decides to dedicate himself to other things and leaves the Navy. Thus began the adventure of recording the southern coasts of Chile.

Along with his friend and mechanic Ernst Dreblow, they arrived in Punta Arenas in 1928. He flew over to the town of Ushuaia, Argentina.

Plüschow achieves the first audiovisual documentation of the area, capturing Punta Arenas, Ushuaia and the Darwin mountain range.

Gunther returns to Germany to show his explorations and get more funds for his research. He is going to make a silent film of the place and a book with the images, which will later be translated into Spanish.

In the mid-1930s, he returned to Punta Arenas, where he found his seaplane in a terrible state, and although they tried to leave it impeccable together with Dreblow, they knew that if they flew over Chile they could lose their permit to fly, so they decided to explore part of Argentine Patagonia. .

They fly over the Continental Ice Region, Perito Moreno and Lake Viedma.

On January 25, 1931, due to a strong air current, they had to descend abruptly on some glaciers.
For days, Plüschow and Dreblow try to fix the plane, but they couldn't find the exact flaw.

His last record written in his travel diary was on January 28 of the same year, where he writes that they are going to make one last attempt to get out.

However, the plane ends up crashing into Lake Rico, 70 km from Calafate in Argentina, ending the lives of Plüschow and Dreblow.

Both in Chile and Argentina, monoliths have been installed in commemoration of the first man to make an audiovisual record of Tierra del Fuego and show it to the whole world.

At Mappin we also want you to enjoy our Patagonia, we leave you our special collection for you.