Did German pirates reach America two decades before Columbus?

High up on the Glockenspiel House in Bremen, Germany, can be found a curious wood carving showing two sailors meeting a Native American. This is the story of how two German privateers - Didrik Pining and his partner-in-crime, Hans Pothorst - sailed to North America in 1473, two decades before Columbus had ‘discovered’ the continent. Other members of the expedition supposedly included the Portuguese João Vaz Corte-Real and Alvaro Martins, and the enigmatic Johannes Scolvus. Further reading: Did German pirates beat Columbus to America? https://mapmyths.com/blog/hvitsarc/ Hughes, T.L., 2004. “The German Discovery of America”: A Review of the Controversy over Pining’s 1473 Voyage of Exploration. German Studies Review 27, 503–526. https://doi.org/10.2307/4140980 Larson, L.M., 1922. Did John Scolvus Visit Labrador and New-Foundland in or About 1476? Scandinavian Studies and Notes 7, 81–89. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40915104 Larsen, S., 1925. The discovery of North America twenty years before Columbus. Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen. (US Public Domain) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i... Hvitserkr, 1937. The Geographical Journal 89, 552–556. https://doi.org/10.2307/1787914 High-resolution maps: Sebastian Münster, 1540 https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/serv... Hieronymus Gourmont, 1548 https://w.wiki/PDbS Jakob Ziegler, 1532 https://hdl.handle.net/10037.2/60 Behaim Globe (Erdapfel), 1492 https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/serv... Fernando Vaz Dourado, 1576 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.wdl/wdl.14159 Olaus Magnus, 1539 https://mapmyths.com/blog/carta-marina/ Photo credits: Angra: brett211 https://flic.kr/p/f8RK4B Terceira: José Luís Agapito https://flic.kr/p/agkmxz Hvalsey Church: jtstewart https://flic.kr/p/ohYjNf Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon (@BradJill) https://www.tripadvisor.pt/ShowUserRe... Papers: R Steinberger https://flic.kr/p/SaQriq Scolvus: M War https://w.wiki/PDdY Glacier: C Strässler https://flic.kr/p/RER3Bo L’Anse aux medows: D Kereluk https://w.wiki/PDZz 00:00 Intro 00:45 Pirates on a mission 02:09 The Hvitsarc letter 04:48 A Portuguese participant 06:35 A mystery navigator 07:27 20th-century scepticism 08:33 The expedition's legacy