The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (German: Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung) is located in Bremerhaven, Germany, and a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

[2] The foundation of the AWI happened in a political environment that was characterized by system competition between East and West.

After the public tender, the hull of the first German polar research ship was laid by HDW Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in 1981.

On 24 February 1985, the Polar 3, a research airplane of the institute of the type Dornier 228, was shot down by members of Polisario Front over West Sahara.

In January 2005, Polar 4 was severely damaged during a rough landing at the British overwintering station Rothera on the Antarctic Peninsula.

At the beginning, the AWI focus was to set up the complex infrastructure for research in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

In addition to international prestige, the territorial claim to resources from terrestrial and maritime areas was one of the reasons for Germany for the cost-intensive work of Alfred Wegener Institute.

Climatologists and geophysicists at AWI recognized the fatal effects of global warming in the most affected geographical areas in the 1980s early on, but gained less attention outside the scientific community.

In the 1990s, the mainly geophysical-oceanographic research was expanded to include the biological aspects of polar and deep-sea habitats, among other things.

From the 2000s, the problem of climate change reached the consciousness of German society and the politics that funded the AWI.

Current projects had often also the aim to research special aspect of climate change and the effectes of global warming especially to the polar regions.

The new station (Webcam) is a futuristic-looking combined platform above the snow surface offering space for research, operations, and living since 2009.

Below the station PistenBully, Ski-Doos, sledges, and other equipment are stored in a garage built beneath the snow, with a ramp with a lid that seals the hole for the vehicles to enter.

The station is named after Eduard Dallmann, a German whaler, trader and Polar explorer who lived near Bremen.

The station was set up as a logistic base for joint Russian-German permafrost studies by the Lena Delta Reserve (LDR) and the AWI.

In 2022 the German Bundestag approved 2 million Euros budget for the contract award procedure for the construction of the new icebreaker Polarstern II.

The vessel is regularly on research tours in German Bight, but is also used to supply the AWI branch Biologische Anstalt Helgoland mentioned above.

[14] Another operation purpose are short term cruises of a few hours for up to 25 students to demonstrate oceanographic and biological sampling methods.

The ship is equipped with standard sampling devices: You may find on board a demersal trawl, a Van Veen Grab Sampler, Niskin bottles, and even deprecated reversing thermometers for teaching purposes.

The Alfred Wegener Institute operated five airplanes under the name of Polar, those being:[15] Homeport of AWI-fleet is Bremen Airport.

The planes are maintained by the company Kenn Borek Air located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The BMBF, the German Federal Minister of Education and Research funded the purchase and equipping of the plane with a total of 9.78 million euros.