tylerhudnall.weebly.com€¦ · web viewthe national socialist german workers party dominated the...

Hudnall

The National Socialist German Workers Party dominated the German peoples life

form 1933-1945 when their rule of tyranny ended in Europe. They affected and

controlled nearly every aspect of the public’s life from the oldest to the youngest, and

richest to the poorest. This included the lives of those elite scientists, scholars, etc. One of

these great scientists, Wernher von Braun, was just one of those people that the Nazi

party had an influence over and who succumbed to their ideology. For many years he

worked for the Nazi Party researching, building, and leading an ensemble of other

scientists who built bombs to further the Nazi Party’s goal of European domination. He

then found himself on the other side of the war after surrendering to American troops and

being brought to the states to further the space program here. Unexpectedly, Braun would

be the one who pushed the United States forward in the Space Race with Russia, and

being the deciding factor that placed us on the Moon.

Born Wernher Magnus Maximillian Freiherr von Braun on March 23, 1912 in the

Province of Posen, which was part of Prussian Germany, Braun was born into an

aristocratic family. His father Baron Magnus Alexander Maximillian von Braun was of

the noble rank in Germany. Even though a baron was of a low rank in the governmental

system, Braun and his siblings were taught to take the title seriously. His mother, Emmy

von Quistorp von Braun was of Swedish-German lineage, was raised in England, and was

said to posses a brilliant mind.1 His father Magnus served as a Minister of Agriculture in

the Federal Cabinet during the years of the Weimar Republic, and just the same he

assumed Braun would take on the farming life or something similar as his father had.

1

Hudnall

His would not be the case however as his parents began to see that their son had

an extreme talent for intelligence, and was not on the level of children his age. His father

reminisced, “When he was only four he could read the newspaper-upside down as well as

right side up. He was always asking teachers questions they could not answer, and he had

a remarkable ability to apply himself completely to whatever interested him.”2 His father

questioned about his sons talent and intelligence for many years, and wondered where it

had come form. His mother though had a huge part to play in it because of her own talent

and intelligence. His mother spoke six languages, was well traveled, compassionate,

loved great music and art, and was a serious amateur ornithologist and astronomer.3

Before Braun began an interest into the sciences, music called to him. He showed

an interest into music and began playing piano and composing his own musical pieces.

He made so much progress into the arts that he was accepted for piano lessons by the

composer Paul Hindemith.4 Braun had written three pieces for the piano and began taking

cello lessons which then in turn lead to him joining the schools orchestra. Soon after the

family moved to Berlin in 1920 when the baron, Braun’s father, was promoted from

different local jobs in a series of German cities to a national government position. By

1924 he was the Reichsminister of agriculture during the Weimar Republic under

President Friedrich Ebert, which was a position he held until 1932. 5

Naturally young twelve-year-old boys have a talent for doing things that cause

chaos and trouble for others, and this is where Braun’s first rocket experience ever

occurred. Braun and his brother Sigismund, who was recruited by the younger sibling,

2

Hudnall

got an idea to experiment with a rocket-powered vehicle. The two boys went out and

purchased six large skyrockets and strapped them to Braun’s coaster wagon. Naturally

this did not end well, even though the rocket-powered wagon was a success, and Braun

was arrested and taken to the police station until his father called for his release.6

Unfortunately, a young thickheaded Braun was not so keen on learning a lesson the first

time and of course attempted the same feet with the same results.

At the time Braun was attending a French Gymnasium school in Berlin, but was

not a star pupil at the time because he had a project of building an automobile with his

friend, which took away from his studying time.7 His father had him sent off to attend

one of the Hermann Lietz boarding schools which was located at the ancient Ettersburg

Castle near Weimer in central Germany. The schools combined strong academic

practices and hands-on activities to help the young boys learn different crafts. Under this

new system of education Braun prospered.

During this time Braun went through his Lutheran confirmation and received the

most life-changing gift he had ever received, a telescope from his mother. This was the

factor that led Braun to his interest of astronomy and the universe, and he became an avid

astronomer at the 14. Soon after he discovered an article in a magazine for the book by

Hermann Oberth titled The Rocket to the Interplanetary Spaces, and he wrote for it

immediately.8 Once receiving the book he immediately realized the book was full of

mathematical equations that he did not understand. Braun who did not like math recalled

3

Hudnall

years later that he “decided that if I had to know about math to learn about space travel

and rocketry, the I’d have to learn math.”9

Wernher soon persuaded his father to have him transferred to a school in the

North Sea where he would be able to accelerate his efforts in his schoolwork, and

graduate a year early. Unfortunately this did not happen because the school headmaster

asked him to fill in for a math teacher who had fallen ill. Soon he was private tutoring

individuals in the classes he taught, determined to help them pass all their exams. During

this time at North Sea Braun developed his leadership and communication skills that

helped him later in life when leading Germanys rocket program.

In 1929 after graduating Braun made it his mission to meet his idol Hermann

Oberth, and offer his services to help the man achieve more in the field of rocketry.

Wernher decided to go to the home of the president of one of Oberth's following groups,

Willy Ley who headed up the group Verein fur Raumschiffahrt, or better knows as the

VfR that sponsored most of his work.10 The meeting was soon arranged, and before

Braun had enrolled in Berlin’s Charlottenberg Institute of Technology to study

mechanical and aircraft engineering he was in charge of raising money for Oberth to fund

more of his research projects. He would be in department stores pitching ideas for eight

hours a day trying to raise the money to build. Not only did Wernher’s work consist of

begging for money, there were actual rocket tests, which were very dangerous, that he

and Oberth constructed throughout his services. Later in 1930 Obeth returned to his

4

Hudnall

teaching position in Romania, and Braun was left to form a small company of rocketeers

that continued the research and testing on their own.

The year 1932 was an even more eventful year for Braun and his group. He

graduated from the Berlin Institute of Technology with a bachelor degree in aeronautical

engineering.11 As word began to spread the group received special visitors made an

appearance during one of their tests. A general, colonel, and two captains from the

German Army came to see what the group of rocketeers had been achieving. Braun

recalled, “In 1932, the idea of war seemed to us an absurdity. The Nazis were not yet in

full power. We felt no moral scruples about the possible future abuse of our brainchild.

We were interested in solely exploring outer space. It was simply a question with us of

how the golden cow could be milked most successfully.”12 Braun and his crew began

working and providing more data for the army so they could receive more financial

assistance. In July the group of scientists set out for the Kummersdorf Army Proving

Grounds to administer a rocket test with all of the army’s measuring equipment.

Unfortunately, the test failed miserably and the army lost their interest in Braun and his

cohorts intentions. Being the young vivacious twenty year old he was, Braun gathered up

data and testing information form all of his groups tests and presented the to the senior

army office. Colonel Karl Becker who was also a scientist, and was the chief army officer

of ballistics and ammunition heard Braun’s cries of serious financial assistance and

immediately became interested in the groups work. He agreed to help them financially

only on the condition that the group work within the secret restrictions of an army

5

Hudnall

arrangement. Naturally not everyone in the group wanted to take the offer because they

did not want to be restricted to a military agreement. Even so, Braun eventually got his

colleagues to see eye to eye with him and the agreement began.

Braun soon enrolled at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Berlin where he

pursued a doctorate degree in physics, and graduated in 1934 at the age of 22.

Throughout the rest of that year the group continued on their rocketry, which culminated

with the launching of two A-2 liquid filled rockets from the North Sea island of Borkum

to altitudes of more than one and a half miles.13 This caught the attention of the Luftwaffe

and they offered Braun and his team a 5 million reichsmarks agreement, but the army

would not allow it so they offered Braun a 6 million reichsmark contract. A young 23-

year-old German rocket engineer was know responsible for 11 million reichsmarksin

funding, and used this money over the next two years to build a location for the joint

army and air force center on the Baltic.

This center, Peenemunde, eventually became the centerpiece of Braun’s work for

the Nazi party during the years of the war, and would be the birthplace of the A-4, which

would later be named the V-2. All of the events involving the army, and Braun’s work

would lead him into the place where he would become a leading scientist and a member

of Hitler’s Nazi Party. The regime had taken complete power in 1933, and Hitler became

prioritized with building the army, which meant more weapons. Braun became an official

member of the Nazi Party in 1937, and whether it was forced because of his position at

Peenemunde or not is still a question up for debate.14

6

Hudnall

Wernher’s next affiliation with the Nazis happened around the time of April/may

of 1940 in which he received a letter from a local SS Colonel urging him to join. The

officer said Heinrich Himmler had sent him to urge Braun to join. When Braun answered

that he was only worried about building rockets, the man replied it would take no time

away from him and that he would immediately be awarded the rank of lieutenant. Braun

did not proceed to join but went to his military superior Col. Dornberger who insisted that

he join if only to protect the rocket program from being shut down.15 Not only for this

reason, but others had aid Braun joined because it would help him deal with the storm

troopers more authoritatively that were present at Peenemunde. So after two more

attempts by the Reichsfuhrer Himmler, Braun sent in the formal papers to join the

Schutzstaffel. Within two weeks, he found himself appointed a lieutenant. Thirty years

later, Braun said in an interview that he made a very difficult choice when joining the SS,

and that he believed it was either choosing to live or die so he chose to live.16 From then

on Braun received a promotion every year until he reached the rank of major at the end of

the was. Fortunately for him, he did not have to answer to any call and was never asked

to do anything specific with the SS except attend or conduct periodic meetings at

Peenemunde. Many historians have differed on Braun’s involvement in the SS for many

decades. Some say he was committed while others say he was just doing what he was

supposed to so he could continue on with his practices. There is an instance however tat

Braun actually wore the swastika symbol to a formal meeting with Heinrich Himmler.

Naturally, he would wear this at the time because it was with the leader of the

7

Hudnall

organization, and Braun did not wan to be seen as someone who was against the ideals of

the party.

During the time of Braun’s SS joining, war had totally broken out throughout the

European continent. The Nazi Party had basically wiped out whom they had seen as

threats to their cause of a perfect German race. Anyone who refused party membership,

or did not conform to the ideologies they represented were seen as the enemy and were

killed or eventually escaped into the United States and surrounding countries. Many

Germans took part in the SS and other Nazi organizations due to the propaganda

brainwashing that ensued during the years of Hitler’s rule. We must understand that the

predicament that Braun was faced with. His passion for rockets and science faired much

higher than the involvement in a political entity to which he had no other involvement in

besides what was forced on him. Rocket engineer Dieter Huzel, a drafted German

infantryman rescued from the Russian front by his reassignment in 1943 to Peenemunde

commented on the apolitical atmosphere of the missile center observing the “nearly

complete absence of Nazi party uniforms, party label buttons, and party activities in

general.”17

In January of 1943 the A-4 rocket was ready for production.18 Peenemunde

became Hitler’s highest war priority, and the prototype production of the A-4 rocket

began to go full force with the labor force of more than three thousand by April of that

year which included foreign workers and prisoners of war. Hitler met with Braun in July

of that year to gain updates on the A-4 rockets, and what Braun revealed floored Hitler.

8

Hudnall

The scientists at Peenemunde had developed a rocket that could not be intercepted or

detected in striking the heart of England.19 Hitler then amped up production of the rocket

Goebbles, Nazi propaganda minister, dubbed the V-2. Hitler also called for the

construction of more building facilities, and strengthened the already aimed launch sites

that were faced toward England. As fate would have it, the Allies discovered the secret

facility, that had been labeled as an experimental aircraft base, to be the home of

something that look to be warheads after sending out a British reconnaissance. The

intelligence agency figured out that London was the hotspot of where those bombs would

make their mark in the somewhat near future.

On August 17, 1943 a force of 600 Royal Air Force Lancaster, Halifax,

and Stirling heavy bombers made their way across the English channel with the missile

center as their target. The forces bombed the facility, their purpose to destroy both of the

facilities and the personnel, especially the scientists and engineers. The attack went on for

about an hour killing 735 on the island with only one of those being a key member of

Braun’s team with he other 734 being prisoners of war, civilian workers, family

members, engineers, and technicians.20 Two more attacks were tried against the facilities

until Hitler made the declaration to put the missile plan underground, which then gave

Himmler and the SS somewhat control, before gaining complete control, of the new

underground base called Mittelwerk.

Production continued throughout the last two to three years of the war, and soon it

was determined that Germany would be losing the war. With American troops

approaching from the west, and Russian troops from the east, Braun and his team decided

9

Hudnall

in secret that to survive they must escape to America, and the only way to do that would

be surrendering. The team of Penemunders had orders from the SS to head south to the

Harz Mountains, which they did along with hundreds of documents, personnel,

equipment, and V-2 missile parts. Their goal was to eventually rendezvous with

American troops and escape the failing Third Reich. The team eventually reached a resort

hotel, Haus Ingeburg, in the village of Oberjoch where they stayed until they got news of

Hitler’s death, the war being over, and the armistice being signed over the radio.21 he

younger brother of Wernher, Magnus, was chosen to go to the nearby base of American

troops and surrender to them.

After surrendering Braun and 126 other key German rocket scienctists

accepted an offer to work on rocket developments in the United States in which they

greatly accepted.22 Wernher was sent to Fort Bliss, and was made technical director to

the White Sands Proving Grounds where they formed V-2 rockets out of what they had

brought from Germany. While stationed here Braun married Maria von Quistorp, and

soon after became director of guided missile development at Fort Bliss. Maria and Braun

had three children during their marriage. Iris Careen was the first daughter born in 1948,

Margaret Cecile in 1952, and their last child Peter Constantine in 1960. In the year 1955

von Braun became a full-fledged citizen of the United States, and was placed as head of

the ballistic missile development, and “Jupiter” intermediate range missile. 23

With the Soviets announcement of Sputnik, the United States finally was shaken

out of its apathy toward space travel. In 1958 NASA was established and in July 1960,

von Braun became director of NASA’s new George C. Marshall Space Flight Center at

10

Hudnall

Huntsville, and therefore becoming directly involved in charting America’s course in

landing men on the moon. A proud moment for von Braun was when he showed

President Eisenhower models of the Saturn rocket by which such a landing would be

achieved. Wernher’s historic Saturn-5 rocket made history with the Apollo 8 launching,

which orbited around the moon before returning.

His dream finally became a reality with the Apollo 11 mission when astronaut

Neil Armstrong was the first man to ever set foot on the Moon. This was a historic time

for the United States and a dream come true for Wernher. This was a dream he had spent

the previous 40 years trying to achieve, and finally he saw it come to fruition. Braun

helped establish America’s mission into space, and made his dreams a reality thru his

years of working in the United States. Wernher von Braun died on June 16, 1977 at the

age of 65.

11

Hudnall

Notes

1. Bob Ward. Dr. Space: the life of Wernher von Braun. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005. Kindle Edition.

2. Ward, Kindle Edition





7. "Recollections of Childhood/Early Experiences in Rocketry." Recollections of Childhood/Early Experiences in Rocketry. http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/recollect-childhood.html

8. “Recollections of Childhood/Early Experiences”



11. “Recollections of Childhood/Early Experiences”



14. Michael Neufeld . "Wernher von Braun, the SS, and Concentration Camp Labor: Questions of Moral, Political, and Criminal Responsibility." German Studies Review 25 (): 58-77. Page 60

15. Neufeld, 61



18. "Wernher von Braun." National Aviation Hall of Fame. http://nationalaviation.org/von-braun-wernher/ (accessed April 2014).

12

http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/recollect-childhood.html

Hudnall

19. “Wernher…” National Aviation Hall of Fame





13

Hudnall

Bibliography

Michael Neufeld . "Wernher von Braun, the SS, and Concentration Camp Labor: Questions of Moral, Political, and Criminal Responsibility." German Studies Review 25 (): 58-77. Page 60

Bob Ward. Dr. Space: the life of Wernher von Braun. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005. Kindle Edition.

"Wernher von Braun." National Aviation Hall of Fame. http://nationalaviation.org/von-braun-wernher/ (accessed April 2014).

"Recollections of Childhood/Early Experiences in Rocketry." Recollections of Childhood/Early Experiences in Rocketry. http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/recollect-childhood.html

14

tylerhudnall.weebly.com€¦ · web viewthe national socialist german workers party dominated the...

Documents