As a young man, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. He helped design and co-developed theV-2 rocket atPeenemünde Army Research Center duringWorld War II. The V-2 became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing theKármán line on 20 June 1944. Following the war, he was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part ofOperation Paperclip.[6] He worked for theUnited States Army on anintermediate-range ballistic missile program, and he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satelliteExplorer 1 in 1958. He worked withWalt Disney on a series of films, which popularized the idea of human space travel in the US and beyond from 1955 to 1957.[7]
Von Braun is seen by some as escaping justice for his awareness of Nazi war crimes due to the Americans' desire to beat the Soviets in theCold War.[10][11][5] He is also sometimes described by others as the "father of space travel",[12] the "father of rocket science",[13] or the "father of the American lunar program".[10] Towards the end of his career, he also advocated ahuman mission to Mars.
The family moved to Berlin,Brandenburg, in 1915, where his father worked at the Ministry of the Interior. After hisConfirmation, his mother gave him atelescope, and he developed a passion forastronomy.[18] Von Braun learned to play both the cello and the piano at an early age and at one time wanted to become a composer. He took lessons from the composerPaul Hindemith. The few pieces of von Braun's youthful compositions that exist are reminiscent of Hindemith's style.[19]: 11 He could play piano pieces ofBeethoven andBach from memory. Beginning in 1925, he attended a boarding school atEttersburg Castle nearWeimar,Free State of Thuringia, where he did not do well in physics and mathematics. There he acquired a copy ofDie Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (1923,By Rocket into Planetary Space)[20] by rocket pioneerHermann Oberth. In 1928, his parents moved him to the Hermann-Lietz-Internat (also a residential school) on theEast FrisianNorth Sea island ofSpiekeroog. Space travel had always fascinated him, and from then on he applied himself tophysics and mathematics to pursue his interest in rocket engineering.[21][22]
In 1928 theRaketenrummel or "Rocket Rumble" fad initiated byFritz von Opel andMax Valier was highly influential on von Braun as a teenage space enthusiast. He was so enthusiastic after seeing one of the publicOpel-RAK rocket car demonstrations, that he constructed his own homemade toy rocket car and caused a disruption in a crowded sidewalk by launching the toy wagon, to which he had attached the largest firework rockets he could purchase. He was later taken in for questioning by the local police, until released to his father for disciplinary action. The incident highlighted the young von Braun's determination to "dedicate his life to space travel".[1]: 62-64
In 1930, von Braun attended theTechnische Hochschule Berlin, where he joined the Spaceflight Society (Verein für Raumschiffahrt or VfR), co-founded by Valier, and worked withWilly Ley in his liquid-fueled rocket motor tests in conjunction with others such asRolf Engel,Rudolf Nebel, Hermann Oberth orPaul Ehmayr.[23] In spring 1932, he graduated with a diploma in mechanical engineering.[24] His early exposure to rocketry convinced him that the exploration of space would require far more than applications of the current engineering technology. Wanting to learn more about physics, chemistry, and astronomy, von Braun entered theFriedrich-Wilhelm University of Berlin for doctoral studies and graduated with a doctorate in physics in 1934.[25] He also studied atETH Zürich for a term from June to October 1931.[25]
In 1930, von Braun attended a presentation given byAuguste Piccard. After the talk, the young student approached the famous pioneer of high-altitude balloon flight, and stated to him: "You know, I plan on traveling to the Moon at some time." Piccard is said to have responded with encouraging words.[26]
Von Braun was greatly influenced by Oberth, of whom he said:
Hermann Oberth was the first who, when thinking about the possibility of spaceships, grabbed a slide-rule and presented mathematically analyzed concepts and designs... I, myself, owe to him not only the guiding-star of my life, but also my first contact with the theoretical and practical aspects of rocketry and space travel. A place of honor should be reserved in the history of science and technology for his ground-breaking contributions in the field of astronautics.[27]
According to historianNorman Davies, von Braun was able to pursue a career as a rocket scientist in Germany due to a "curious oversight" in theTreaty of Versailles which did not include rocketry in its list of weapons forbidden to Germany.[28]
Von Braun was an opportunist who joined theNazi Party to continue his work on rockets forNazi Germany.[6] He applied for membership in the Party on 12 November 1937, and was issued membership number 5,738,692.[29]: 96
Michael J. Neufeld, an author of aerospace history and chief of the Space History Division at the Smithsonian'sNational Air and Space Museum, wrote that ten years after von Braun obtained his Nazi Party membership, he signed an affidavit for the U.S. Army, though he stated the incorrect year:[29]: 96
In 1939, I was officially demanded to join the National Socialist Party. At this time I was already Technical Director at the Army Rocket Center at Peenemünde (Baltic Sea). The technical work carried out there had, in the meantime, attracted more and more attention in higher levels. Thus, my refusal to join the party would have meant that I would have to abandon the work of my life. Therefore, I decided to join. My membership in the party did not involve any political activity.[29]: 96
It has not been ascertained whether von Braun's error with regard to the year was deliberate.[29]: 96 Neufeld wrote:
Von Braun, like other Peenemünders, was assigned to the local group in Karlshagen; there is no evidence that he did more than send in his monthly dues. But he is seen in some photographs with the party's swastika pin in his lapel – it was politically useful to demonstrate his membership.[29]: 96
Von Braun's later attitude toward the Nazi regime of the late 1930s and early 1940s was complex. He said that he had been so influenced by the early Nazi promise of release from thepost–World War I economic effects, that his patriotic feelings had increased.[30] In a 1952 memoir article he admitted that, at that time, he "fared relatively rather well undertotalitarianism".[29]: 96–97 Yet, he also wrote that "to us,Hitler was still only a pompous fool with aCharlie Chaplin moustache"[31] and that he perceived him as "anotherNapoleon" who was "wholly without scruples, a godless man who thought himself the only god".[32]
Later examination of von Braun's background, conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, suggests that his background check file contained no derogatory information pertaining to his involvement in the party, but it was found that he had numerous letters of commendation for outstanding performance of duties during his time working under the Nazi party.[33] Overall FBI conclusions point to von Braun's involvement in the Nazi Party to be purely for the advancement of his academic career, or out of fear of imprisonment or execution.[33]
Von Braun joined the SS horseback riding school on 1 November 1933 as anSS-Anwärter. He left the following year.[34]: 63 In 1940, von Braun joined the SS[35]: 47 [36] and was given the rank ofUntersturmführer in theAllgemeine-SS and issued membership number 185,068.: 121 In 1947, he gave the U.S. War Department this explanation:
In spring 1940, one SS-Standartenführer (SS-Colonel) Müller from Greifswald, a bigger town in the vicinity of Peenemünde, looked me up in my office...and told me thatReichsführer-SSHimmler had sent him with the order to urge me to join the SS. I told him I was so busy with my rocket work that I had no time to spare for any political activity. He then told me, that...the SS would cost me no time at all. I would be awarded the rank of a[n] "Untersturmfuehrer" (lieutenant) and it were [sic] a very definite desire of Himmler that I attend his invitation to join.
I asked Müller to give me some time for reflection. He agreed.
Realizing that the matter was of highly political significance for the relation between the SS and the Army, I called immediately on my military superior, Dr. Dornberger. He informed me that the SS had for a long time been trying to get their "finger in the pie" of the rocket work. I asked him what to do. He replied on the spot that if I wanted to continue our mutual work, I had no alternative but to join.[37]
When shown a picture of himself standing behind Himmler, von Braun said that he had only worn the SS uniform that one time,[38] but in 2002 a former SS officer at Peenemünde told the BBC that von Braun had regularly worn the SS uniform to official meetings. He began as anUntersturmführer (Second lieutenant) and was promoted three times by Himmler, the last time in June 1943 to SS-Sturmbannführer (Major). Von Braun later stated that these were simply technical promotions received each year regularly by mail.[38][39]
In 1932, von Braun received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Technische Hochschule Berlin (nowTechnische Universität Berlin), Germany. During a period in 1931, von Braun attended theETH Zürich in Switzerland. During this time in Switzerland, von Braun assisted Professor Hermann Oberth in writing a book concerning the possibilities of creating and manufacturing liquid-propellant rockets. Shortly after this, von Braun founded his own private rocket development business in Berlin, and through which he made the first rocket fired by gasoline and liquid oxygen.[33]
In 1932, having caught wind of von Braun's rocket business, the German Army connected with von Braun to pursue basic missile research and weather data experimentation.[33] Von Braun said that the German government financed the development of test stands and facilities for experimentation in Darmstadt, Germany. In 1939, von Braun was appointed a technical advisor atPeenemünde Army Research Center on the Baltic Sea.[33]
In 1933, von Braun was working on his creative doctorate when the Nazi Party came to power in a coalition government in Germany; rocketry was almost immediately moved onto the national agenda. An artillery captain,Walter Dornberger, arranged anOrdnance Department research grant for von Braun, who then worked next to Dornberger's existing solid-fuel rocket test site atKummersdorf.[40]
Von Braun received his doctorate in physics (aerospace engineering) on 27 July 1934, from the University of Berlin for a thesis titled "About Combustion Tests." His doctoral supervisor was Erich Schumann.[29]: 61 However, this thesis represented only the public aspect of von Braun's work. His actual thesis, entitled "Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket" (dated 16 April 1934), detailed the construction and design of the A2 rocket. It remained classified by the German army until its publication in 1960.[41][42] By the end of 1934, his group had successfully launchedtwo liquid fuel A2 rockets that rose to heights of 2.2 and 3.5 km (2 mi).[43]
Von Braun continued his guided missile work throughout World War Two, and met with Adolf Hitler on several occasions, being formally decorated by Hitler twice, including being awarded the Iron Cross.[44]
At the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicistRobert H. Goddard's research. Before 1939, German scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions. Von Braun used Goddard's plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of theAggregat (A) series of rockets. The first successful launch of an A-4 took place on 3 October 1942.[45] The A-4 rocket became well known as theV-2.[46] In 1963, von Braun reflected on the history of rocketry, and said of Goddard's work: "His rockets ... may have been rather crude by present-day standards, but they blazed the trail and incorporated many features used in our most modern rockets and space vehicles."[25]
Goddard confirmed his work was used by von Braun in 1944, shortly before the Nazis began firing V-2s at England. A V-2 crashed in Sweden and some parts were sent to an Annapolis lab where Goddard was doing research for the Navy. If this was the so-calledBäckebo Bomb, it had been procured by the British in exchange forSpitfires; Annapolis would have received some parts from them. Goddard is reported to have recognized components he had invented and inferred that his brainchild had been turned into a weapon.[47] Later, von Braun said: "I have very deep and sincere regret for the victims of the V-2 rockets, but there were victims on both sides...A war is a war, and when my country is at war, my duty is to help win that war."[1]: 351
The engineer who designed the V2, Wernher von Braun, came to be feted as a hero of thespace age. The Allies realised that the V-2 was a machine, unlike anything they had developed themselves.
—V-2: The Nazi rocket that launched the space age, BBC, September 2014.[48]
In response to Goddard's statements, von Braun said "at no time in Germany did I or any of my associates ever see a Goddard patent". This was independently confirmed. He wrote that statements that he had lifted Goddard's work were the furthest from the truth, noting that Goddard's paper "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes", which was studied by von Braun and Oberth, lacked the specificity of liquid-fuel experimentation with rockets. It was also confirmed that he was responsible for an estimated 20 patentable innovations related to rocketry, as well as receiving U.S. patents after the war concerning the advancement of rocketry. Documented accounts also stated he provided solutions to a host of aerospace engineering problems in the 1950s and 1960s.[49]
On 22 December 1942,Adolf Hitler ordered the production of the A-4 as a "vengeance weapon", and the Peenemünde group developed it to target London. Following von Braun's 7 July 1943 presentation of a color movie showing an A-4 taking off, Hitler was so enthusiastic that he personally made von Braun a professor shortly thereafter.[50]
By that time, the British andSoviet intelligence agencies were aware of the rocket program and von Braun's team at Peenemünde, based on the intelligence provided by the Polish undergroundHome Army. Over the nights of 17–18 August 1943,RAF Bomber Command'sOperation Hydra dispatched raids on the Peenemünde camp consisting of 596 aircraft, and dropped 1,800 tons of explosives.[51] The facility was salvaged and most of the engineering team remained unharmed; however, the raids killed von Braun's engine designerWalter Thiel and Chief Engineer Walther, and the rocket program was delayed.[52][53]
The V-2 became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing theKármán line with the vertical launch ofMW 18014 on 20 June 1944.[54]
The first combat A-4, renamed the V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe 2 "Retaliation/Vengeance Weapon 2") for propaganda purposes, was launched toward England on 7 September 1944, only 21 months after the project had been officially commissioned.[1]: 184 Doug Millard of theScience Museum, London states:
The V-2 was a quantum leap of technological change. We got to the Moon using V-2 technology but this was technology that was developed with massive resources, including some particularly grim ones. The V-2 programme was hugely expensive in terms of lives, with the Nazis using slave labour to manufacture these rockets.[48]
In 1936, von Braun's rocketry team working at Kummersdorf investigated installing liquid-fuelled rockets in aircraft.Ernst Heinkel enthusiastically supported their efforts, supplying aHe-72 and later twoHe-112s for the experiments. Later in 1936,Erich Warsitz was seconded by theRLM to von Braun and Heinkel, because he had been recognized as one of the most experienced test pilots of the time, and because he also had an extraordinary fund of technical knowledge.[55]: 30 After he familiarized Warsitz with a test-stand run, showing him the corresponding apparatus in the aircraft, he asked: "Are you with us and will you test the rocket in the air? Then, Warsitz, you will be a famous man. And later we will fly to the Moon – with you at the helm!"[55]: 35
A regular He 112
In June 1937, atNeuhardenberg (a large field about 70 km (43 mi) east of Berlin, listed as a reserve airfield in the event of war), one of these latter aircraft was flown with itspiston engine shut down during flight by Warsitz, at which time it was propelled by von Braun's rocket power alone. Despite awheels-up landing and the fuselage having been on fire, it proved to official circles that an aircraft could be flown satisfactorily with a back-thrust system through the rear.[55]: 51
At the same time,Hellmuth Walter's experiments intohydrogen peroxide based rockets were leading toward light and simple rockets that appeared well-suited for aircraft installation. Also, the firm of Hellmuth Walter at Kiel had been commissioned by the RLM to build a rocket engine for the He-112, so there were two different new rocket motor designs at Neuhardenberg: whereas von Braun's engines were powered by alcohol and liquid oxygen, Walter engines had hydrogen peroxide andcalcium permanganate as acatalyst. Von Braun's engines used direct combustion and created fire, while the Walter devices used hot vapors from a chemical reaction, but both created thrust and provided high speed.[55]: 41 The subsequent flights with the He-112 used the Walter-rocket instead of von Braun's; it was more reliable, simpler to operate, and safer for the test pilot, Warsitz.[55]: 55
SS GeneralHans Kammler, who as an engineer had constructed severalconcentration camps, includingAuschwitz, had a reputation for brutality and had conceived the idea of usingconcentration camp prisoners as slave laborers in the rocket program.Arthur Rudolph, chief engineer of the V-2 rocket factory at Peenemünde, endorsed this idea in April 1943 when a labor shortage developed. More people died building the V-2 rockets than were killed by it as a weapon.[56] Von Braun admitted visiting the plant atMittelwerk on many occasions,[6] and called conditions at the plant "repulsive", but stated that he had never personally witnessed any deaths or beatings, although it had become clear to him by 1944 that deaths had occurred.[57] He denied ever having visited theMittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where 20,000 died from illness, beatings, hangings, and intolerable working conditions.[58]
Some prisoners state that von Braun engaged in brutal treatment or approved of it. Guy Morand, a French resistance fighter who was a prisoner in Dora, testified in 1995 that, after an apparent sabotage attempt, von Braun ordered a prisoner to be flogged,[59] while Robert Cazabonne, another French prisoner, stated that von Braun stood by as prisoners were hanged by chains suspended by cranes.[59]: 123–124 However, these accounts may have been a case of mistaken identity.[60] FormerBuchenwald inmate Adam Cabala stated that von Braun went to the concentration camp to pick slave laborers:
... also the German scientists led by Prof. Wernher von Braun were aware of everything daily. As they went along the corridors, they saw the exhaustion of the inmates, their arduous work and their pain. Not one single time did Prof. Wernher von Braun protest against this cruelty during his frequent stays at Dora. Even the aspect of corpses did not touch him: On a small area near the ambulance shed, inmates tortured to death by slave labor and the terror of the overseers were piling up daily. But, Prof. Wernher von Braun passed them so close that he was almost touching the corpses.[61]
Von Braun later stated that he was aware of the treatment of prisoners, but felt helpless to change the situation.[62] When asked if von Braun could have protested against the brutal treatment of the slave laborers, von Braun team memberKonrad Dannenberg (a member of the Nazi party since 1932) toldThe Huntsville Times: "If he had done it, in my opinion, he would have been shot on the spot."[63]
According to André Sellier, a French historian and survivor of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp,Heinrich Himmler had von Braun come to his Feldkommandostelle Hochwald HQ inEast Prussia in February 1944.[64] To increase his power-base within the Nazi regime, Himmler was conspiring to use Kammler to gain control of all German armament programs, including the V-2 program at Peenemünde.[19]: 38–40 He therefore recommended that von Braun work more closely with Kammler to solve the problems of the V-2. Von Braun stated that he replied that the problems were merely technical and he was confident that they would be solved with Dornberger's assistance.[65]
Von Braun had been underSD surveillance since October 1943. A secret report stated that he and his colleaguesKlaus Riedel andHelmut Gröttrup were said to have expressed regret at an engineer's house one evening in early March 1944 that they were not working on a spaceship[6] and that they felt the war was not going well; this was considered a "defeatist" attitude. A young female dentist who was an SS spy reported their comments. Himmler's unfounded allegations branding von Braun and his colleagues as communist sympathizers and accusing them of sabotaging the V-2 program, coupled with von Braun's regular piloting of a government-provided airplane that could facilitate an escape to Britain, led to their arrest by theGestapo.[19]: 38–40
The unsuspecting von Braun was detained on 14 March (or 15 March),[66] 1944, and was taken to a Gestapo cell inStettin (now Szczecin, Poland).[19]: 38–40 where he was held for two weeks without knowing the charges against him.[67]
Through MajorHans Georg Klamroth, in charge of theAbwehr for Peenemünde, Dornberger obtained von Braun's conditional release andAlbert Speer, Reichsminister for Munitions and War Production, persuaded Hitler to reinstate von Braun so that the V-2 program could continue[6][19]: 38–40 [68] or turn into a "V-4 program" (theRheinbote as a short-range ballistic rocket) which in their view would be impossible without von Braun's leadership.[32] In his memoirs, Speer states Hitler had finally conceded that von Braun was to be "protected from all prosecution as long as he is indispensable, difficult though the general consequences arising from the situation."[69]
An investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation on 1 May 1961 advised that "there was no record of an arrest in their respective files"[70] suggesting that von Braun's imprisonment was wiped from German prison records at a point after his conditional release or after the Nazi regime had fallen.
Von Braun, with his arm in a cast,Walter Dornberger (on the left) andBernhard Tessmann (on the right) surrendered to the Americans just before this 3 May 1945 photo.
TheSoviet Army was about 160 km (100 mi) fromPeenemünde in early 1945 when von Braun assembled his planning staff and asked them to decide how and to whom they should surrender. Unwilling to go to the Soviets, von Braun and his staff decided to try to surrender to the Americans. Kammler had ordered the relocation of his team to central Germany; however, a conflicting order from an army chief ordered them to join the army and fight. Deciding that Kammler's order was their best bet to defect to the Americans, von Braun fabricated documents and transported 500 of his affiliates to the area around Mittelwerk, where they resumed their work inBleicherode and surrounding towns after the middle of February 1945. For fear of their documents being destroyed by the SS, von Braun ordered the blueprints to be hidden in an abandoned iron mine in theHarz mountain range nearGoslar.[71] The U.S. ArmyCounter Intelligence Corps managed to unveil the location after lengthy interrogations of von Braun, Walter Dornberger,Bernhard Tessmann and Dieter Huzel and recovered 14 tons of V-2 documents by 15 May 1945, from theBritish Occupation Zone.[29][72]
While on an official trip in March, von Braun suffered a complicated fracture of his left arm and shoulder in a car accident after his driver fell asleep at the wheel. His injuries were serious, but he insisted that his arm be set in a cast so that he could leave the hospital. Due to this neglect of the injury, he had to be hospitalized again a month later when his bones had to be rebroken and realigned.[71]
In early April, as the Allied forces advanced deeper into Germany, Kammler ordered the engineering team, around 450 specialists, to be moved by train into the town ofOberammergau in theBavarian Alps, where they were closely guarded by the SS with orders to execute the team if they were about to fall into enemy hands. However, von Braun managed to convince SS Major Kummer to order the dispersal of the group into nearby villages so that they would not be an easy target for U.S. bombers.[71] On 29 April 1945, Oberammergau was captured by the Allied forces who seized the majority of the engineering team.[73]
Nearing the end of the war, Hitler instructed SS troops to gas all technical men concerned with rocket development.[70] Upon hearing this, von Braun commandeered a train and fled with other "technical men" to a location in the mountains of South Germany. After some time, von Braun and many of the others who made it to the mountains left their location to flee to advancing American lines in Austria.[33]
Von Braun and several members of the engineering team, including Dornberger, made it toAustria.[74] On 2 May 1945, upon finding an American private from the U.S.44th Infantry Division, von Braun's brother and fellow rocket engineer, Magnus, approached the soldier on a bicycle, calling out in broken English: "My name is Magnus von Braun. My brother invented the V-2. We want to surrender."[17][75] After the surrender, Wernher von Braun spoke to the press:
I myself and everybody you see here decided to go west. And I think our decision was not one of expediency, but a moral decision. We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else. We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through, and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.[76]
The American high command was well aware of how important their catch was: von Braun had been at the top of theBlack List, the code name for the list of German scientists and engineers targeted for immediate interrogation by U.S. military experts. On 9 June 1945, two days before the originally scheduled handover of theNordhausen and Bleicherode area inThuringia to the Soviets, U.S. Army Major Robert B. Staver, Chief of the Jet Propulsion Section of the Research and Intelligence Branch of theU.S. Army Ordnance Corps in London, and Lieutenant Colonel R. L. Williams took von Braun and his department chiefs by Jeep from Garmisch to Munich, from where they were flown to Nordhausen. In the following days, a larger group of rocket engineers, among them Helmut Gröttrup, was evacuated from Bleicherode 40 miles (64 km) southwest toWitzenhausen, a small town in theAmerican Zone.[77]
According to Dornberger, there the Soviets tried to kidnap von Braun at night using English [sic] uniforms: Americans recognized this and did not let them in.[78]
Von Braun was briefly detained at the "Dustbin" interrogation center atKransberg Castle, where the elite of Nazi Germany's economic, scientific, and technological sectors were debriefed by U.S. and British intelligence officials.[79] Initially, he was recruited to the U.S. under a program calledOperation Overcast, subsequently known asOperation Paperclip. There is evidence, however, that British intelligence and scientists were the first to interview him in depth, eager to gain information that they knew U.S. officials would deny them.[80][81] The team included the young L.S. Snell, then the leading British rocket engineer, later chief designer ofRolls-Royce Limited and inventor of theConcorde's engines. The specific information the British gleaned remained top secret, both from the Americans and from the other allies.[82]
Wernher von Braun at a meeting ofNACA's Special Committee on Space Technology, 1958.
On 20 June 1945,U.S. Secretary of StateEdward Stettinius Jr. approved the transfer of von Braun and his specialists to the United States as one of his last acts in office. This was announced to the public on 1 October 1945.[83]
In September 1945, von Braun and other members of the Peenemünde team signed a work contract with theUnited States Army Ordnance Corps.[84] On 20 September 1945, the first seven technicians arrived in the United States atNew Castle Army Air Field, just south of Wilmington, Delaware. They were then flown to Boston, Massachusetts, and taken by boat to theArmy Intelligence Service post atFort Strong in Boston Harbor. Later, with the exception of von Braun, the men were transferred toAberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland to sort out the Peenemünde documents, enabling the scientists to continue their rocketry experiments.[85]
Von Braun's badge at ABMA (1957).
Finally, von Braun and his remaining Peenemünde staff (seeList of German rocket scientists in the United States) were transferred to their new home atFort Bliss, a large Army installation just north of El Paso, Texas. Von Braun later wrote that he found it hard to develop a "genuine emotional attachment" to his new surroundings.[86] His chief design engineer Walther Reidel became the subject of a December 1946 article, "German Scientist Says American Cooking Tasteless; Dislikes Rubberized Chicken", exposing the presence of von Braun's team in the country and drawing criticism fromAlbert Einstein andJohn Dingell.[86] Requests to improve their living conditions such as laying linoleum over their cracked wood flooring were rejected.[86] Von Braun was hypercritical of the slowness of the United States' development of guided missiles. His lab was never able to get sufficient funds to go on with their programs.[33] Von Braun remarked "at Peenemünde we had been coddled, here you were counting pennies".[86] Whereas von Braun had thousands of engineers who answered to him at Peenemünde, he was now subordinate to "pimply" 26-year-old Jim Hamill, an Army major who possessed only an undergraduate degree in engineering.[86] His loyal Germans still addressed him as "Herr Professor", but Hamill addressed him as "Wernher" and never responded to von Braun's request for more materials. Every proposal for new rocket ideas was dismissed.[86]
While at Fort Bliss, they trained military, industrial, and university personnel in the intricacies of rockets and guided missiles. As part of theHermes project, they helped refurbish, assemble, and launch a number of V-2s that had been shipped fromAllied-occupied Germany to theWhite Sands Proving Ground inNew Mexico. They also continued to study the future potential of rockets for military and research applications. Since they were not permitted to leave Fort Bliss without military escort, von Braun and his colleagues began to refer to themselves only half-jokingly as "PoPs" – "Prisoners of Peace".[1]: 218
"V-2 Rocket Assembling and Launching" (1947) de-classified official United States War Department information film reel.
In 1950, at the start of theKorean War, von Braun and his team were transferred toHuntsville, Alabama, his home for the next 20 years. From 1952 to 1956,[87] von Braun led the Army's rocket development team atRedstone Arsenal, resulting in theRedstone rocket, which was used for the first livenuclear ballistic missile tests conducted by the United States. He personally witnessed this historic launch and detonation.[88] Work on the Redstone led to the development of the first high-precision inertial guidance system on the Redstone rocket.[89] By 1953 von Braun's title was, "Chief, Guided Missiles Development Division, Redstone Arsenal."[90]
As director of the Development Operations Division of theArmy Ballistic Missile Agency, von Braun, with his team, then developed theJupiter-C, a modified Redstone rocket.[91] The Jupiter-C was the basis for theJuno I rocket that successfully launched the West's first satellite,Explorer 1, on 31 January 1958. This event signaled the birth of America's space program.[92]
Repeating the pattern he had established during his earlier career in Germany, von Braun – while directing military rocket development in the real world – continued to entertain his engineer-scientist's dream of a future in which rockets would be used forspace exploration. However, he was no longer at risk of being fired. As American public opinion of Germans began to recover, von Braun found himself increasingly in a position to popularize his ideas. The 14 May 1950 headline ofThe Huntsville Times ("Dr. von Braun Says Rocket Flights Possible to Moon") might have marked the beginning of these efforts. Von Braun's ideas rode a publicity wave that was created by science fiction movies and stories.[7]
Von Braun with PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower, 1960; following theSputnik crisis in 1957, the American leadership agreed to von Braun's main role in the design of space rockets.
In 1952, von Braun first published his concept of a crewedspace station in aCollier's Weekly magazine series of articles titled "Man Will Conquer Space Soon!". These articles were illustrated by the space artistChesley Bonestell and were influential in spreading his ideas. Frequently, von Braun worked with fellow German-born space advocate and science writerWilly Ley to publish his concepts, which, unsurprisingly, were heavy on the engineering side and anticipated many technical aspects of space flight that later became reality.[93]
The space station (to be constructed using rockets with recoverable and reusable ascent stages) was atoroid structure, with a diameter of 250 feet (76 m); this built on the concept of arotating wheel-shaped station introduced in 1929 byHerman Potočnik in his bookThe Problem of Space Travel – The Rocket Motor. The space station spun around a central docking nave to provideartificial gravity, and was assembled in a 1,075-mile (1,730 km) two-hour, high-inclinationEarth orbit allowing observation of essentially every point on Earth on at least a daily basis. The ultimate purpose of the space station was to provide an assembly platform for crewedlunar expeditions. More than a decade later, the movie version of2001: A Space Odyssey drew heavily on the design concept in its visualization of an orbital space station.[94]
Von Braun envisioned these expeditions as very large-scale undertakings, with a total of 50 astronauts traveling in three huge spacecraft (two for crew, one primarily for cargo), each 49 m (160.76 ft) long and 33 m (108.27 ft) in diameter and driven by a rectangular array of 30 rocket propulsion engines.[95] Upon arrival, astronauts would establish apermanent lunar base in theSinus Roris region by using the emptied cargo holds of their craft as shelters, and would explore their surroundings for eight weeks. This would include a 400 km (249 mi) expedition in pressurized rovers to the craterHarpalus and theMare Imbrium foothills.[96]
Walt Disney and von Braun, seen in 1954 holding a model of his passenger ship, collaborated on a series of three educational films; among other things, this suggests that von Braun had enough free time to popularize astronautics due to the fact that priority in the design of a space rocket was given to other people.[7]
At this time, von Braun also worked out preliminary concepts for ahuman mission to Mars that used the space station as a staging point. His initial plans, published inThe Mars Project (1952), had envisaged a fleet of 10 spacecraft (each with a mass of 3,720 metric tonnes), three of them uncrewed and each carrying one 200-tonne winged lander[95] in addition to cargo, and nine crew vehicles transporting a total of 70 astronauts. The engineering and astronautical parameters of this gigantic mission were thoroughly calculated. A later project was much more modest, using only one purely orbital cargo ship and one crewed craft. In each case, the expedition used minimum-energyHohmann transfer orbits for its trips to Mars and back to Earth.[97]
Before technically formalizing his thoughts on humanspaceflight to Mars, von Braun had written a science fiction novel on the subject, set in the year 1980. However, 18 publishers rejected the manuscript.[98] Von Braun later published small portions of this opus in magazines, to illustrate selected aspects of his Mars project popularizations. The complete manuscript, titledProject Mars: A Technical Tale, did not appear as a printed book until December 2006.[99]
In the hope that its involvement would bring about greater public interest in the future of the space program, von Braun also began working withWalt Disney and theDisney studios as a technical director, initially for three television films about space exploration. The initial broadcast devoted to space exploration wasMan in Space, which first went on air on 9 March 1955, drawing 40 million viewers.[86][100][101]
Later (in 1959) von Braun published a short booklet, condensed from episodes that had appeared inThis Week Magazine before – describing his updated concept of the first crewed lunar landing.[102] The scenario included only a single and relatively small spacecraft – a winged lander with a crew of only two experienced pilots who had already circumnavigated the Moon on an earlier mission. The brute-forcedirect ascent flight schedule used a rocket design with five sequential stages, loosely based on theNova designs that were under discussion at this time. After a night launch from a Pacific island, the first three stages brought the spacecraft (with the two remaining upper stages attached) to terrestrialescape velocity, with each burn creating an acceleration of 8–9 timesstandard gravity. The residual propellant in the third stage was used for the deceleration intended to commence only a few hundred kilometers above the landing site in a crater near the lunar north pole. The fourth stage provided acceleration to lunar escape velocity, and the fifth stage was responsible for a deceleration during return to the Earth to a residual speed that allowsaerocapture of the spacecraft ending in a runway landing, much in the way of theSpace Shuttle. One remarkable feature of this technical tale is that the engineer von Braun anticipated a medical phenomenon that became apparent only years later: being a veteran astronaut with no history of serious adverse reactions toweightlessness offers no protection against becoming unexpectedly and violentlyspacesick.[check quotation syntax][citation needed]
In the first half of his life, von Braun was a nonpracticing, perfunctoryLutheran.[1]: 4 : 230 As described byErnst Stuhlinger andFrederick I. Ordway III: "Throughout his younger years, von Braun did not show signs of religious devotion, or even an interest in things related to the church or to biblical teachings. In fact, he was known to his friends as a 'merry heathen' (fröhlicher Heide)."[103] Nevertheless, in 1945 he explained his decision to surrender to the Western Allies, rather than Russians, as being influenced by a desire to share rocket technology with people whom he felt followed the Bible. In 1946,[1]: 469 he attended church inEl Paso, El Paso County, Texas, and underwent a religious conversion to Evangelical Christianity.[104] In an unnamed religious magazine he stated:
One day in Fort Bliss, a neighbor called and asked if I would like to go to church with him. I accepted, because I wanted to see if the American church was just a country club as I'd been led to expect. Instead, I found a small, white frame building... in the hot Texas sun on a browned-grass lot... Together, these people make a live, vibrant community. This was the first time I really understood that religion was not a cathedral inherited from the past, or a quick prayer at the last minute. To be effective, a religion has to be backed up by discipline and effort.[1]: 229–230
On the motives behind this conversion, Michael J. Neufeld is of the opinion that he turned to religion "to pacify his own conscience",[105] and University of Southampton scholar Kendrick Oliver said that von Braun was presumably moved "by a desire to find a new direction for his life after the moral chaos of his service for the Third Reich".[106] Having "concluded one bad bargain with the Devil, perhaps now he felt a need to have God securely at his side".[107]
At aGideons conference in 2004, W. Albert Wilson, a former pilot and NASA employee, stated that he had talked with von Braun about the Christian faith while von Braun was working for NASA, and believed that conversation had been instrumental in von Braun's conversion.[108]
Later in life, he joined anEpiscopal congregation,[104] and became increasingly religious.[109] He publicly spoke and wrote about the complementarity of science and religion, the afterlife of the soul, and his belief in God.[110][111] He stated, "Through science man strives to learn more of the mysteries of creation. Through religion he seeks to know the Creator."[112] He was interviewed by theAssemblies of God pastor C. M. Ward and stated that "The farther we probe into space, the greater my faith."[113] In addition, he met privately with evangelistBilly Graham and with the civil rights leaderMartin Luther King Jr.[114]
Von Braun developed and published his space station concept during the time of theCold War when the U.S. government put the containment of the Soviet Union above everything else. The fact that his space station – if armed with missiles that could be easily adapted from those already available at this time – would give the United States space superiority in both orbital andorbit-to-ground warfare did not escape him. In his popular writings, von Braun elaborated on them in several of his books and articles, but he took care to qualify such military applications as "particularly dreadful". This much-less-peaceful aspect of von Braun's "drive for space" has been reviewed by Michael J. Neufeld from the Space History Division of theNational Air and Space Museum in Washington.[115]
Von Braun in his office at Marshall Space Flight Center, 1959
The U.S. Navy had been tasked with building a rocket to lift satellites into orbit, but the resultingVanguard rocket launch system was unreliable. In 1957, with the launch ofSputnik 1, a belief grew within the United States that it lagged behind the Soviet Union in the emergingSpace Race. American authorities then chose to use von Braun and his German team's experience with missiles to create an orbital launch vehicle. Von Braun had originally proposed such an idea in 1954, but it was denied at the time.[86]
NASA was established by law on 29 July 1958. One day later, the 50th Redstone rocket was successfully launched fromJohnston Atoll in the south Pacific as part ofOperation Hardtack I. Two years later, NASA opened the Marshall Space Flight Center at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA) development team led by von Braun was transferred to NASA. In a face-to-face meeting withHerb York at the Pentagon, von Braun made it clear he would go to NASA only if development of the Saturn were allowed to continue.[116] Von Braun became the center's first director on 1 July 1960 and held the position until 27 January 1970.[117]
Von Braun in front of the five F-1 Saturn V test engines, 1969. The engines were 19 feet tall, 12 feet wide at the exhaust, and burned 15 tons of liquid oxygen and kerosene per second.
Von Braun's early years at NASA included a failed "4 inch mission." On 21 November 1960 during which the first uncrewedMercury-Redstone rocket, the rocket only rose up a mere 4 inches before settling back down onto the launch pad. The unfortunate and untimely failure of the rocket launch created a "nadir of morale in Project Mercury." The launch failure was later determined to be the result of a "power plug with one prong shorter than the other because a worker failed it to make it fit."[citation needed] Because of the difference in the length of one prong, the launch system detected the difference in the power disconnection as a "cut-off signal to the engine." The safety system in fact stopped the launch.[118]
After the success of theMercury-Redstone 2 mission in January 1961, a mere 2 months after the failed "4 inch mission," NASA morale was improved. Still, a new string of problems emerged. Von Braun insisted on one more test before the Redstone could be deemed man-rated. His overly cautious nature brought about clashes with other people involved in the program, who argued that MR-2's technical issues were simple and had been resolved shortly after the flight. He overruled them, so a test mission involving a Redstone on a boilerplate capsule was flown successfully in March. Von Braun's stubbornness was blamed for the inability of the U.S. to launch a crewed space mission before the Soviet Union, which ended up putting the first man in space the following month.[119] Three weeks later on 5 May, von Braun's team successfully launchedAlan Shepard into space. He named hisMercury-Redstone 3 Freedom 7.[120]
The Marshall Center's first major program was the development ofSaturn rockets to carry heavypayloads into and beyond Earth orbit. From this, theApollo program for crewed Moon flights was developed. Von Braun initially pushed for a flight engineering concept that called for anEarth orbit rendezvous technique (the approach he had argued for building his space station), but in 1962, he converted to thelunar orbit rendezvous concept that was subsequently realized.[121][122] During Apollo, he worked closely with former Peenemünde teammate,Kurt H. Debus, the first director of theKennedy Space Center. His dream to help mankind set foot on the Moon became a reality on 16 July 1969, when a Marshall-developedSaturn V rocket launched the crew ofApollo 11 on its historic eight-day mission. Over the course of the program, Saturn V rockets enabled six teams of astronauts to reach the surface of the Moon.[123]
During the late 1960s, von Braun was instrumental in the development of theU.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. The desk from which he guided America's entry into the Space Race remains on display there. He also was instrumental in the launching of the experimentalApplications Technology Satellite. He traveled to India and hoped that the program would be helpful in bringing a massive educational television project to help the poorest people in that country.[124]
Von Braun withPresident Kennedy at Redstone Arsenal in 1963; President Kennedy was the initiator of the American lunar program in 1961, and von Braun was appointed its technical director.
During the local summer of 1966–67, von Braun participated in a field trip to Antarctica, organized for him and several other members of top NASA management.[125] The goal of the field trip was to determine whether the experience gained by the U.S. scientific and technological community during the exploration of Antarctic wastelands would be useful for the crewed exploration of space. Von Braun was mainly interested in the management of the scientific effort on Antarctic research stations, logistics, habitation, and life support, and in using the barren Antarctic terrain like the glacial dry valleys to test the equipment that one day was used to look for signs of life on Mars and other worlds.[126]
In an internal memo dated 16 January 1969,[127] von Braun had confirmed to his staff that he would stay on as a center director at Huntsville to head theApollo Applications Program. He referred to this time as a moment in his life when he felt the strong need to pray, stating "I certainly prayed a lot before and during the crucial Apollo flights".[128] A few months later, on the occasion of the first Moon landing, he publicly expressed his optimism that the Saturn V carrier system would continue to be developed, advocating human missions to Mars in the 1980s.[129]
Nonetheless, on 1 March 1970, von Braun and his family relocated toWashington, D.C., when he was assigned the post of NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning at NASA Headquarters. After a series of conflicts associated with the truncation of the Apollo program, and facing severe budget constraints, von Braun retired from NASA on 26 May 1972. Not only had it become evident by this time that NASA and his visions for future U.S. space flight projects were incompatible, but also it was perhaps even more frustrating for him to see popular support for a continued presence of man in space wane dramatically once the goal to reach the Moon had been accomplished.[130]
Von Braun also developed the idea of aSpace Camp that would train children in fields of science and space technologies, as well as help their mental development much the same way sports camps aim at improving physical development.[29]: 354–355 [131]
"Civil Defense Emergency Preparedness at Marshall Space Flight Center" information film reel, foreword by Wernher von Braun.
After leaving NASA, von Braun moved to the Washington, D.C. area and became vice president for Engineering and Development at the aerospace companyFairchild Industries in Germantown, Maryland on 1 July 1972.[131]
In 1973, during a routine physical examination, von Braun was diagnosed withkidney cancer, which could not be controlled with the medical techniques available at the time.[132]
Von Braun helped establish and promote theNational Space Institute, a precursor of the present-dayNational Space Society, in 1975, and became its first president and chairman. In 1976, he became a scientific consultant toLutz Kayser, the CEO ofOTRAG, and a member of theDaimler-Benz board of directors. However, his deteriorating health forced him to retire from Fairchild on 31 December 1976. When the 1975National Medal of Science was awarded to him in early 1977, he had been hospitalized, and was unable to attend the White House ceremony.[133]
Von Braun's insistence on more tests after Mercury-Redstone 2 flew higher than planned has been identified as contributing to the Soviet Union's success in launching the first human in space.[134] The successfulMercury-Redstone BD flight took the launch slot that might have put Alan Shepard into space, three weeks ahead ofYuri Gagarin. His Soviet counterpartSergei Korolev insisted on two successful flights with dogs before risking Gagarin's life on a crewed attempt. The second test flight took place one day after the Mercury-Redstone BD mission.[29]
Von Braun took a conservative approach to engineering, designing with amplesafety factors andredundant structure. This became a point of contention with other engineers, who struggled to keep vehicle weight down so that payload could be maximized. As noted above, his caution likely led to the U.S. losing the race to put a man into space before the Soviets.Krafft Ehricke likened von Braun's approach to building theBrooklyn Bridge.[135]: 208 Many at NASA headquarters jokingly referred toMarshall as the "Chicago Bridge and Iron Works", but acknowledged that the designs worked.[136] The conservative approach paid off when a fifth engine was added to theSaturn C-4, producing the Saturn V. The C-4 design had a large crossbeam that could easily absorb the thrust of an additional engine.[29]: 371
Von Braun did not indicate interest in politics or political philosophy during his onboarding working for the U.S. Army. He was primarily focused on his work in guided missiles for the purpose of advancing science and technology. According to FBI background checks, "any political activity he may have engaged in was a means to an end to provide him with the necessary freedom to conduct his experiments."[33] This included time spent in the Nazi party during World War 2.
During his time in NASA, he opposed racial segregation which brought him into conflict withGeorge Wallace, who advocated racial discrimination inAlabama and wanted to continue segregation.[137] Von Braun accused segregationist policies of obstructing the development of Alabama. His statements were considered "unusual for a space scientist, particularly in the south, but well within agency and national policy.[138]
Von Braun had a charismatic personality and was known as a ladies' man. As a student in Berlin, he often was seen in the evenings in the company of two girlfriends at once.[29]: 63 He later had a succession of affairs within the secretarial and computer pool at Peenemünde.[29]: 92–94
In January 1943, von Braun became engaged to Dorothee Brill, a physical education teacher in Berlin, and he sought permission to marry from theSS Race and Settlement Main Office. However, the engagement was broken due to his mother's opposition.[29]: 146–147 Later in 1943, he had an affair with a French woman while in Paris preparing V-2 launch sites in northeastern France. She was imprisoned for collaboration after the war and became destitute.[29]: 147–148
During his stay at Fort Bliss, von Braun proposed marriage to Maria Luise von Quistorp (10 June 1928 – 20 January 2025),[139] his maternalfirst cousin, in a letter to his father. He married her in a Lutheran church inLandshut, Bavaria, on 1 March 1947, having received permission to go back to Germany and return with his wife. He was 35, and his new bride was 18.[140] Shortly after, he converted to Evangelicalism.[141] He returned to Manhattan on 26 March 1947, with his wife, father, and mother. On 8 December 1948, the von Brauns' first daughter together, Iris Careen, was born at Fort Bliss Army Hospital.[45] The couple had two more children:Margrit Cécile, born in 1952,[142] and Peter Constantine, born in 1960.[142]
On 15 April 1955, von Braun became a naturalized citizen of the United States.[143]
Grave of Wernher von Braun inIvy Hill Cemetery (Alexandria, Virginia), 2008
In 1973, von Braun was diagnosed with kidney cancer during a routine medical examination. However, he continued to work for a couple of years. In 1975, PresidentGerald R. Ford awarded him the country's highest science honor, the National Medal of Science in Engineering. He was too ill to attend theWhite House ceremony.[144] In January 1977, then very ill, he resigned from Fairchild Industries.
Von Braun died on 16 June 1977 of pancreatic cancer in Alexandria, Virginia, at age 65.[145][146] He is buried on Valley Road at theIvy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria. His gravestone cites Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork" (KJV).[147]
In 1970, Huntsville, Alabama, honored von Braun's years of service with a series of events including the unveiling of a plaque in his honor. Pictured (l–r), his daughter Iris, wifeMaria, U.S. Sen.John Sparkman, Alabama Gov.Albert Brewer, von Braun, son Peter, and daughter Margrit.
Apollo program directorSam Phillips was quoted as saying he did not think that the United States would have reached the Moon as quickly as it did without von Braun's help. Later, after discussing it with colleagues, he amended this to say he did not believe the United States would have reached the Moon at all.[19]: 167
In a TV interview on the occasion of the U.S. Moon landing in July 1969,Helmut Gröttrup, a staff member in Peenemünde and later head of the German collective in theSoviet rocketry program, set up the thesis that automatic space probes can get the same amount of scientific data with an effort of only 10 or 20 percent of the costs, and that the money should be better spent on other purposes. Von Braun justified the expenses for crewed operations with the following argument: "I think somehow space flights for the first time give mankind a chance to become immortal. Once this earth will no longer be able to support life we can emigrate to other places which are better suited for our life."[148]
Scrutiny of von Braun's use of forced labor atMittelwerk intensified again in 1984 whenArthur Rudolph, one of his top affiliates from the A-4/V2 through the Apollo projects, agreed to renounce his U.S. citizenship and emigrate in exchange for not being tried for war crimes.[6][149]
A science- and engineering-orientedgymnasium in Friedberg, Bavaria was named after von Braun in 1979. In response to rising criticism, a school committee decided in 1995, after lengthy deliberations, to keep the name but "to address von Braun's ambiguity in the advanced history classes". In 2012,Nazi concentration camp survivor David Salz gave a speech in Friedberg, calling out to the public to "Do everything to make this name disappear from this school!".[150][151] The gymnasium was renamed "Staatliches Gymnasium Friedberg" in February 2014.[152]
I Aim at the Stars (1960) – also titledWernher von Braun andIch greife nach den Sternen ("I Reach for the Stars"); von Braun played byCurd Jürgens, his wife Maria played byVictoria Shaw.[165] Although it was said that satiristMort Sahl suggested the subtitle "But Sometimes I Hit London", the line appears in the film, spoken by actorJames Daly who plays the cynical American press officer.
"The Search for Truth" (1962) – a film produced by Brigham Young University and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes a clip of von Braun discussing the relationship between science and a divine creator.
Frozen Flashes (1967) – based onJulius Mader's documentary report "The Secret of Huntsville"; von Braun (only referred to as the "rocket baron") played by Dietrich Körner.[166]
Perfumed Nightmare (1977) – the main character, a Filipino who dreams of spaceflight, established a Wernher von Braun fan club in Laguna, Philippines.[167]
October Sky – a 1999 biographical film on the life of Homer Hickam and his fascination with rockets, who is inspired by von Braun (played by Joe Digaetran)
The Lost Von Braun – a documentary by Aron Ranen. Interviews with Ernst Stuhlinger, Konrad Dannenberg, Karl Sendler, Alex Baum, Eli Rosenbaum (DOJ) and von Braun's NASA secretary Bonnie Holmes.
For All Mankind television series (2019): "Red Moon" (Season 1, episode 1), "He Built the Saturn V" (Season 1, episode 2), "Home Again" (Season 1, episode 6) – von Braun played byColm Feore.
Hunters (fictional web television series on Amazon Prime Video, 2020): "The Jewish Question" (Season 1, episode 8) – von Braun played byVictor Slezak.
Several fictional characters have been modeled on von Braun:
InWarren Ellis's graphic novelMinistry of Space, von Braun is a supporting character, settling in Britain after World War II, and being essential for the realization of the British space program.
SatiristMort Sahl has been credited with mocking von Braun by suggesting Braun's book "I aim at the stars", needed a subtitle: "But sometimes I hit London."[174]
Literature:
The Good German by Joseph Kanon. Von Braun and other scientists are said to have been implicated in the use of slave labor at Peenemünde; their transfer to the U.S. forms part of the narrative.
Space byJames Michener. Von Braun and other German scientists are brought to the U.S. and form a vital part of the U.S. efforts to reach space.[175]
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. The novel involves British intelligence attempting to predict and avert V-2 rocket attacks. The work even includes a gyroscopic equation for the V2. The first portion of the novel, "Beyond The Zero", begins with a quotation from von Braun: "Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death."
Moonglow byMichael Chabon (2016) includes a fictionalized description of the search for and capture of von Braun by the U.S. Army, and his role in the Nazi V-2 program and subsequently in the U.S. space program.
V2 byRobert Harris (2019) covers 5 days of von Braun's group in Peenemünde in November 1944.[176]
Theatre:
Rocket City, Alabam', a stage play byMark Saltzman, weaves von Braun's real life with a fictional plot in which a young Jewish woman inHuntsville, Alabama becomes aware of his Nazi past and tries to inspire awareness and outrage. Von Braun is a character in the play.[177]
"Wernher von Braun" (1965):[179] A song written and performed byTom Lehrer for an episode of NBC's American version of the BBC TV showThat Was The Week That Was; the song was later included in Lehrer's albumsThat Was The Year That Was andThe Remains of Tom Lehrer. It was a satire on what Lehrer saw as von Braun's cavalier attitude toward the consequences of his work in Nazi Germany.[180] For example, one line in the song states: "A man whose allegiance/ Is ruled by expedience/ Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown/ 'Nazi, Schmazi!' says Wernher von Braun."[181] There was a widespread rumour that von Braun had sued Lehrer for the song, but this is untrue.[180][182]
The Last Days of Pompeii (1991): A rock opera byGrant Hart's post-Hüsker Dü alternative rock groupNova Mob, in which von Braun features as a character. The album includes a song called "Wernher von Braun".
Von Braun at Nuremberg (for Mort Sahl) (2009 - from the album “20009”): A song by the indie-folk duoDrakkar Sauna, which features a paraphrasing of von Braun’s book title “I aim at the stars” andMort Sahl’s satirical elaboration “but sometimes I hit London.”
Constructive, theoretical and experimental contributions to the problem of liquid rockets, July 27, 1934. PhD Thesis at the University of Berlin. Title in German isKonstruktive, theoretische und experimentelle Beiträge zu dem Problem der Flüssigkeitsrakete[184]: 161
Proposal for a Workable Fighter with Rocket Drive. 6 July 1939.
'Survey' of Previous Liquid Rocket Development in Germany and Future Prospects. May 1945.[186]
Wernher von Braun, Willey Ley, Fred Whipple, Joseph Kaplan, Heinz Haber, Oscar Schachter. Edited by Cornelius Ryan,Across the Space Frontier, Viking Press, 1952.[187]
A Minimum Satellite Vehicle Based on Components Available from Developments of the Army Ordnance Corps. 15 September 1954.It would be a blow to U.S. prestige if we did not [launch a satellite] first.[186]
The Mars Project, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, (1953). With Henry J. White, translator.
Willy Ley; Wernher Von Braun; Chesley Bonestell (1956).The Exploration of Mars. Viking.
Saturn Rockets for Space Exploration, New Mexico 1963
Arthur C. Clarke, ed. (1967).German Rocketry, The Coming of the Space Age. New York: Meredith Press.
First Men to the Moon, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York (1960). Portions of work first appeared inThis Week Magazine.
Daily Journals of Wernher von Braun, May 1958 – March 1970. March 1970.[186]
History of Rocketry & Space Travel, New York, Crowell (1975). With Frederick I. Ordway III.
Estate of Wernher von Braun;Ordway III, Frederick I & Dooling, David Jr. (1985) [1975].Space Travel: A History (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.ISBN978-0061818981.
The Rocket's Red Glare, Garden City, New York: Anchor Press, (1976). With Frederick I. Ordway III.
New Worlds, Discoveries From Our Solar System, Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, (1979). With Frederick I. Ordway III. Von Braun's final work, completed posthumously.
Project Mars: A Technical Tale, Apogee Books, Toronto (2006). A previously unpublished science fiction story by von Braun. Accompanied by paintings fromChesley Bonestell and von Braun's own technical papers on the proposed project.[188]
Willhite, Irene E. (2007).The Voice of Dr. Wernher von Braun: An Anthology. Apogee Books Space Series. Collector's Guide Publishing.ISBN978-1894959643. A collection of speeches delivered by von Braun over the course of his career.[189]
^Ivy Hill Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia, Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 48952). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
^"How to Pronounce Von Braun". 27 July 2014. Archived fromthe original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved23 September 2024.During the time he was in Huntsville, Dr. Braun told everyone that his name was pronounced like the color Brown.
^abSpires, Shelby G. (27 June 2003). "Von Braun's brother dies; aided surrender".The Huntsville Times. p. 1A.Magnus von Braun, the brother of rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun who worked in Huntsville from 1950–1955, died Saturday in Phoenix, Ariz. He was 84. Though not as famous as his older brother, who died in 1977, Magnus von Braun made the first contact with U.S. Army troops to arrange the German rocket team's surrender at the end of World War II.
^Magnus Freiherr von Braun,Von Ostpreußen bis Texas. Erlebnisse und zeitgeschichtliche Betrachtungen eines Ostdeutschen. Stollhamm 1955
^Various sources such asThe Nazi Rocketeers: Dreams of Space and Crimes of War (ISBN0811733874 pp. 5–8) list the young Wernher von Braun as joining the VfR as an apprentice to Willy Ley, one of the three founders. Later when Ley fled Germany because he was a Jew, von Braun took over the leadership of theVerein and changed its activity to military development.
^As related by Auguste's sonJacques Piccard to fellow deep-sea explorer Hans Fricke, cited in: Fricke H.Der Fisch, der aus der Urzeit kam, pp. 23–24. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, 2010.ISBN978-3423346160 (in German)
^Leo Nutz; Elmar Wild (28 December 1989)."Oberth-museum.org". Oberth-museum.org. Archived fromthe original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved15 August 2013.
^Neufeld, Michael J. (20 May 2019)."Wernher von Braun and the Nazis". PBS.Von Braun was a right-wing nationalist by upbringing but seems to have taken little interest in Nazi ideology or anti-Semitism. As money began flowing into rearmament and eventually into the rocket program, he became more enthusiastic about the regime. In 1933–34, he was a member of an SS riding group in Berlin, but National Socialist organizations were then pressing non-member students to participate in paramilitary activities. In 1937, now the technical director at age 25 of the new Army rocket center at Peenemünde on the Baltic, he received a letter asking him to join the Party. Since it required little commitment, and it might damage his career to say no, he went along.
^Konstruktive, theoretische und experimentelle Beiträge zu dem Problem der Flüssigkeitsrakete.Raketentechnik und Raumfahrtforschung, Sonderheft 1 (1960), Stuttgart, Germany.
^Sellier, André (2003).A History of the Dora Camp: The Untold Story of the Nazi Slave Labor Camp That Secretly Manufactured V-2 Rockets. Chicago: Ivan R Dee.ISBN978-1566635110.
^Saurma, Ruth G. von; Wiesman, Walter (1996)."The German Rocket Team".Huntsville Historical Review.23 (1). Huntsville, Alabama: University of Alabama in Huntsville: 22. Retrieved14 February 2024.
^Dunar, Andrew J; Waring, Stephen P (1999).Power to Explore. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 12.ISBN0160589924.
^Bucher, G. C.; Mc Call, J. C.; Ordway, F. I. III; Stuhlinger, E. (23 March 1962). "From Peenemuende to Outer Space. Commemorating the Fiftieth Birthday of Wernher von Braun".NASA Technical Reports Server.hdl:2060/19630006100.
^von Braun, Wernher; Ryan, Cornelius (27 June 1953). "Baby Space Station".Collier's. pp. 33–35.
^Braun, Wernher Von; Whipple, Fred Lawrence; Ley, Willy (2009) [1953].Conquest of the Moon. New York: Viking Press. pp. 107,109–110.ISBN978-0598825162. Retrieved10 January 2022.
^Stuhlinger, Ernst & Ira Ordway, Frederick. 1994.Wernher von Braun, crusader for space: a biographical memoir. Krieger Pub, p. 270: "Those who knew him through the 1960s and 1970s noticed during these years that a new element began to surface in his conversations, and also in his speeches and his writings: a growing interest in religious thought."
^von Braun, Wernher (1963) "My Faith: A Space-Age Scientist Tells Why He Must Believe in God", (10 February 1963)The American Weekly, p. 2, New York: The Hearst Corporation.
^See von Braun's speeches inThe voice of Dr. Wernher Von Brain: An Anthology. Apogee Books Publication; ed. by Irene E. Powell-Willhite: These touch "a variety of topics, including education, the cold war, religion, and the space program".
^See the same article by von Braun, Wernher, published as "Science and religion", inRome Daily American, 13 September 1966. Available inNew Age Frontiersn (Oct. 1966)United Family, Volume II, Number 10.
^Siddiqi, Asif A (2000).Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974. Washington, DC: NASA. p. 283.ISBN978-1780393018.LCCN00038684.OCLC48909645. SP-2000-4408.
^Bergaust, Erik. 1976.Wernher von Braun: The Authoritative and Definitive Biographical Profile of the Father of Modern Space Flight. National Space Institute. p. 117
^German sources mostly specify the cancer as renal, while American biographies unanimously just mention cancer. The time when von Braun learned about the disease is generally given as from 1973 to 1976. The characteristics of renal cell carcinoma, which has a bad prognosis even today, do not rule out either time limit.
^"Von Braun, Who Helped Put Men on Moon, Dies at 65: German-Born Scientist Succumbs to Pancreatic Cancer; Was Pioneer in Space Rocket Technology".Los Angeles Times. 17 June 1977. p. A2.
^"Wernher von Braun, Rocket Pioneer, Dies; Wernher von Braun, Pioneer in Space Travel and Rocketry, Dies at 65".The New York Times. 18 June 1977.
^Winterstein, William E. Sr. (2005).Secrets Of The Space Age. Robert D. Reed Publishers.ISBN978-1931741491.
^Rother, Marcel (22 March 2012)."Gymnasium Friedberg: Ein Ort, der das Herz zittern lässt" [Friedberg Gymnasium: A place that can make the heart tremble].Augsburger Allgemeine (in German). Augsburg: Presse-Druck- und Verlags-GmbH. Retrieved1 December 2015.
^Neufield,Von Braun, p. 406. Dr Strangelove was widely held to be a composite ofEdward Teller,Herman Kahn, and von Braun; but only von Braun shared Strangelove's Nazi past.
^Zaganescu, N. F., Zaganescu, R., & Gheorghe, C. M. (2022). Wernher Von Braun's Pioneering Work in Modelling and Testing Liquid-Propellant Rockets. INCAS Bulletin, 14(2), 153-161.
^Klee, Ernst; Merk, Otto (1963).The Birth of the Missile: The Secrets of Peenemünde. Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling Verlag (English translation 1965). pp. 89, 95.
^Jackson, A. A. "The Mars Project 1948 to 1956."Fifty-Third Symposium of the International Academy of Astronautics,October 21–25, 2019, Washington, DC, United States. Paper IAC-19-E4.2.03.
Petersen, Michael B. (2009).Missiles for the Fatherland: Peenemuende, National Socialism and the V-2 missile. Cambridge Centennial of Flight. New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521882705.OCLC644940362.
Tompkins, Phillip K. (1993).Organizational Communication Imperatives: Lessons of the Space Program. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0195329667.
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