Between 1882 and 1887, Drygalski studied mathematics and natural science at the University of Königsberg, Bonn, Berlin and Leipzig.

Despite being trapped by ice for nearly fourteen months until February 1903, the expedition discovered new territory in Antarctica, the Kaiser Wilhelm II Land with the Gaussberg.

Between 1905 and 1931, he published twenty volumes and two atlases documenting the expedition and was awarded the 1933 Royal Geographical Society's Patron's Medal.

[1] From October 1906 until his retirement, Drygalski was a professor in Munich, where he also presided the Geographic Institute, founded by him, until his death.

He also has a South African spider named after him, Araneus drygalskii (Strand, 1909), based on material collected on the Gauss expedition.