In 1906, he went on his first expedition to Greenland as a member of the
Denmark expedition. Between 1910 and 1924, he undertook several expeditions, often with the noted Polar explorer
Knud Rasmussen. He worked with Rasmussen in crossing the
Greenland ice sheet. He spent many years in
North Star Bay,
Greenland, living with the Polar Inuit. In 1935, Freuchen visited
South Africa, and by the end of the decade, he had travelled to
Siberia. In 1910, Rasmussen and Freuchen established the Thule Trading Station at North Star Bay in the
Cape York district of Greenland, as a trading base. The name Thule was chosen because it was the most northerly trading post in the world, literally the "
Ultima Thule". Thule Trading Station became the home base for a series of seven expeditions, known as the
Thule Expeditions, between 1912 and 1933. The First Thule Expedition (1912, Rasmussen, Freuchen, Inukitsork, and Uvdloriark) aimed to test
Robert Peary's claim that a channel divided
Peary Land from Greenland. They proved this was not the case in a journey across the inland ice that almost killed them.
Clements Markham, president of the
Royal Geographical Society, called the journey the "finest ever performed by dogs." Freuchen wrote personal accounts of this journey (and others) in
Vagrant Viking (1953) and
I Sailed with Rasmussen (1958). He states in
Vagrant Viking that only one other
dogsled trip across Greenland was ever successful. When he got stuck under an
avalanche, he claims to have used his own
feces to fashion a dagger with which he freed himself. While in Denmark, Freuchen and Rasmussen held a series of lectures about their expeditions and the
Inuit culture. Freuchen's first wife, Mequpaluk, who took the name Navarana, accompanied him on several expeditions. When she died he wanted her buried in the old church graveyard in
Upernavik. The church refused to perform the burial, because Navarana was not baptized, so Freuchen buried her himself. Knud Rasmussen later used the name Navarana for the lead role in the movie
Palos Brudefærd which was filmed in East Greenland in 1933. Freuchen strongly criticized the Christian church which sent
missionaries among the Inuit without understanding their culture and traditions. When Freuchen returned to Denmark in the 1920s, he joined the
Social Democrats and contributed with articles in the newspaper
Politiken. From 1926 to 1932, he served as the
editor-in-chief of a magazine,
Ude og Hjemme ('Out and At Home'), owned by the family of his second wife. He was also the leader of a movie company. In 1932, Freuchen returned to Greenland. This time the expedition was financed by the American
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studios. He was also employed by the
film industry as a consultant and scriptwriter, specializing in
Arctic-related scripts, most notably MGM's
Oscar-winning
Eskimo/Mala The Magnificent starring
Ray Mala, and featuring Freuchen as Ship Captain. The film is based on Freuchen's novels
Der Eskimo and
Die Flucht ins weisse Land. In 1938, he founded The Adventurer's Club of Denmark (Danish:
Eventyrernes Klub), which still exists. They later honored his memory by planting an oak tree and creating an
Inuksuk (a type of stone landmark or cairn) near the place where he left Denmark for Greenland in 1906. It is situated east of Langeliniebroen in central
Copenhagen and not far from
the statue of
The Little Mermaid. During
World War II, Freuchen was actively involved with the
Danish resistance movement against the occupation by
Nazi Germany despite having lost his left foot to
frostbite in 1926. He openly claimed to be
Jewish whenever he witnessed anti-semitism. Freuchen was imprisoned by the Germans and sentenced to death, but he managed to escape and flee to Sweden. In 1945 he married Danish-Jewish designer
Dagmar Freuchen-Gale. In 1956, he won the main prize on
The $64,000 Question, an American TV quiz-show, on the subject "The Seven Seas"; it made him instantly better known in the United States due to the popularity of the show. As he related in
Vagrant Viking, he was friends with the royal families of Scandinavia and other countries, and his movie work in
New York City and Hollywood brought him into the 'royalty' of moving pictures and the political world of
Washington, D.C. == Personal life ==