Wilhelm Filchner (1877-1957), a Bavarian First Lieutenant, formulated the next Antarctic challenge. The goal of the two German Antarctic expeditions led by him was to cross the ice waste from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. A crazy idea, whereby they wanted to establish whether the continent was a single land mass or split by a channel of ice. Filchner had little experience on ice. He had ridden alone through the Pamirs and had led an expedition across the Tibetan plateau. For training he took himself and his men off to Spitzbergen. Everything was ardently practised: skiing, management of the huskies, tent life. Nansen and Nordenskjold helped with the choice of ship, and Shackleton advised Filchner about the strengthening of the stern. So much prominent support gave self-confidence. A Norwegian ship, built for polar travel, was renamed the Deutschland and was equipped for the ice sea.

The Weddell Sea is notorious for its miserable weather conditions. The drift ice along the coastline is treacherous. But bravely, from 10 December 1912 to 27 January 1913, the Deutschland fought her way through a labyrinth of icebergs and floes.

When at last Filchner sighted the coastline, which is fronted by the shelf ice later to be named after him and until then unknown, he believed he had success on his side. But scarcely had the men erected a wooden hut from prefabricated parts as base camp at the beginning of February, than the ice under them broke into gigantic floes. Dogs, hut and men drifted northwards towards catastrophe; yet they were successfully rescued. However, they were no longer in time to reach the open sea. Filchner had originally wanted to sail the Deutschland to South Georgia, so as to be able to overwinter at the whaling station there. Too late - already by the beginning of March the sea froze over surprisingly quickly. The ship became shut in by ice and did not free herself again.