Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) was a German rocket engineer and space architect. He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany during World War II and, subsequently, in the United States. He is credited as being the "Father of Rocket Science".
In his 20s and early 30s, von Braun was the central figure in the Nazis' rocket development program, responsible for the design and realization of the V-2 combat rocket during World War II. After the war, he and some select members of his rocket team were taken to the United States as part of the then-secret Operation Paperclip. Von Braun worked on the United States Armyintermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) program before his group was assimilated by NASA. Under NASA, he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.[1] According to one NASA source, he is "without doubt, the greatest rocket scientist in history".[2] His crowning achievement was to lead the development of the Saturn V booster rocket that helped land the first men on the Moon in July 1969.[3] In 1975 he received the National Medal of Science.
Early life
Wernher von Braun was born in Wirsitz, in the Province of Posen, then a part of the German Empire, and was the second of three sons. He belonged to an aristocratic family, inheriting the German title of Freiherr (equivalent to Baron). His father, conservative civil servant Magnus Freiherr von Braun (1878–1972), served as a Minister of Agriculture in the Federal Cabinet during the Weimar Republic. His mother, Emmy von Quistorp (1886–1959), could trace her ancestry through both parents to medieval European royalty, a descendant of Philip III of France,Valdemar I of Denmark, Robert III of Scotland, and Edward III of England.[4][5] Von Braun had an older brother Sigismund Freiherr von Braunand a younger brother, also named Magnus Freiherr von Braun.[6] After Wernher von Braun's Lutheran confirmation, his mother gave him atelescope, and he developed a passion for astronomy. The family moved to Berlin in 1915 where his father worked at the department of interior.[7] Here 12-year-old von Braun, inspired by speed records established by Max Valier and Fritz von Opel in rocket-propelled cars,[8]caused a major disruption in a crowded street by detonating a toy wagon to which he had attached a number of fireworks. He was taken into custody by the local police until his father came to collect him.
Wernher von Braun was an accomplished amateur pianist who could play Beethoven and Bach from memory. Von Braun learned to play the cello and the piano at an early age and originally wanted to become a composer. He took lessons from composer Paul Hindemith. The few pieces of von Braun’s youthful compositions that exist are reminiscent of Hindemith’s style.[9]:11
Beginning in 1925, von Braun attended a boarding school at Ettersburg Castle near Weimar where he did not do well in physics and mathematics. There he acquired a copy of Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (1923) (By Rocket into Interplanetary Space) (in German)[10]by rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth. In 1928, his parents moved him to the Hermann-Lietz-Internat (also a residential school) on the East Frisian North Sea island of Spiekeroog. Space travel had always fascinated von Braun, and from then on he applied himself to physics andmathematics to pursue his interest in rocket engineering.
In 1930, he attended the Technische Hochschule Berlin, where he joined the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR, the "Spaceflight Society") and assisted Willy Ley in his liquid-fueled rocket motor tests in conjunction with Hermann Oberth.[11] In spring 1932, he graduated from the Technische Hochschule Berlin, with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.[12] 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 the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität for post-graduate studies and was graduated with a Dr. Phil.degree in physics in 1934.[13] He also studied at ETH Zürich. Although he worked mainly on military rockets in his later years there, space travel remained his primary interest.
In 1930, von Braun attended a presentation given by Auguste 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.[14]
He 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.[15]
Party membership
Von Braun had an ambivalent and complex relationship with the regime of the Third Reich. He officially applied for membership in the NSDAP on November 12, 1937 and was issued membership number 5,738,692.[16]:96
Michael J. Neufeld, the widely published author of aerospace history and the chief of the Space History Division at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, wrote that ten years after Von Braun obtained his Nazi Party membership, the rocket scientist produced an affidavit for the U.S. Army misstating the year of his membership, saying falsely:[16]: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."
Whether von Braun's error with regard to the year was deliberate or a simple mistake has never been ascertained, although Neufeld stated he might have lied on the affidavit.[16]:96 Neufeld further 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."[16]:96
His attitude toward the National Socialist regime in the late 1930s and early 1940s is difficult to discern, although he admitted in a 1952 memoir article that he "fared relatively rather well under totalitarianism."[16]:96–97
Membership in the Allgemeine SS
Von Braun was offered and accepted an honorary[17]:47[18] rank in the Allgemeine SS. In 1947, he gave the U.S. War Department this explanation:
- "In spring 1940, one SS-Standartenfuehrer (SS-colonel) Mueller from Greifswald, a bigger town in the vicinity of Peenemuende, looked me up in my office ... and told me, that Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler 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 Mueller 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."
Von Braun joined the organization and was issued membership number 185,068.
Michael J. Neufeld writes:
- "As with von Braun's party membership, we have no truly independent account of what happened, but his story is plausible."[16]:121
Von Braun's feelings for the regime may have changed when he was arrested and accused of being a "communist sympathizer" who had attempted to sabotage or delay the weapons program. These charges could have led to the death penalty for treason. Not helping the matter was that von Braun had skills as a pilot and had access to an aircraft, which might have allowed him to escape to England. (See: Arrest and release by the Nazi regime).
When shown a picture of him behind Himmler, Braun claimed to have worn the SS uniform only that one time,[19] 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 an Untersturmführer(Second lieutenant) and was promoted three times by Himmler, the last time in June 1943 to SS-Sturmbannführer (major). Von Braun claimed this was a technical promotion received each year regularly by mail.[20]
Personal life
Von Braun had a charismatic personality and was known as a ladies' man. As a student in Berlin, he would often be seen in the evenings in the company of two girlfriends at once.[16]:63
He later had a succession of affairs within the secretarial and computer pool at Peenemünde.[16]:92–94 In January 1943, he became engaged to Dorothee Brill, a physical education teacher in Berlin, and sought permission from the SS Race and Settlement Office to marry. However, the engagement was broken due to his mother's opposition.[16]:146–147 Later in 1943, while preparing V-2 launch sites in northeastern France, von Braun had an affair in Paris with a Frenchwoman, who was imprisoned for collaboration after the War and became destitute.[16]:147–148
He later had a succession of affairs within the secretarial and computer pool at Peenemünde.[16]:92–94 In January 1943, he became engaged to Dorothee Brill, a physical education teacher in Berlin, and sought permission from the SS Race and Settlement Office to marry. However, the engagement was broken due to his mother's opposition.[16]:146–147 Later in 1943, while preparing V-2 launch sites in northeastern France, von Braun had an affair in Paris with a Frenchwoman, who was imprisoned for collaboration after the War and became destitute.[16]:147–148
During his stay at Fort Bliss, von Braun proposed marriage to Maria Luise von Quistorp (born June 10, 1928), his maternal first cousin, in a letter to his father. On March 1, 1947, having received permission to go back to Germany and return with his bride, he married her in a Lutheran church in Landshut, Germany. He and his bride, as well as his father and mother, returned to New York on March 26, 1947. On December 9, 1948, the von Brauns' first daughter, Iris Careen, was born at Fort Bliss Army Hospital.[49] The von Brauns had two more children, Margrit Cécile in 1952 and Peter Constantine in 1960.
On April 15, 1955, von Braun became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Death
On June 16, 1977, Wernher von Braun died, at the age of 65. He was buried at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in
Alexandria, Virginia.
Von Braun's gravestone directs readers to Psalm 19:1, which reads "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."...OP+
