From the DW:
“Wernher von Braun - the rocket
engineer of the powerful”
The moon landing in 1969 would
not have been possible without this German rocket pioneer. In his past,
however, von Braun had built a "miracle weapon" for Hitler's Germany
that led to thousands of deaths. Finally it's done! On July 16, 1969, the 110
meter high "Saturn V" majestically climbs into the bright morning sky
of Cape Canaveral, with a take-off weight of about 3000 tons. On board are
three astronauts. Destination: the moon. The world holds its breath. The
mission must work. And indeed, it succeeds - thanks to rocket designerWernher
von Braun. Four days later, for the first time in history, a man steps onto the
moon. In the middle of the Cold War, the United States managed to shift the
balance of power. With the Apollo 11 mission, von Braun made his very personal
dream come true. The Americans celebrate their "Missile Man," without
whom, at the time, the mission would not have been possible.
Race into space
The successful moon landing
should show everyone that the . Before, the Soviet Union had always been a few
months earlier to achieve the next milestone of this "Space Race." In
1957, the Soviets had shocked the West with their first Sputnik satellite. In
1961, with Yuri Gagarin, they had sent the first man into space. This time,
however, thanks to massive political and financial support, von Braun and his
team guaranteed the historic triumph: the US was the first to reach the moon.
Wernher von Braun was at the height of his career and had reached his biggest
goals: "Anything man can imagine is feasible," the German said later.
Superstar with a brown past
After the moon landing, Wernher
von Braun was a celebrated researcher, a legendary superstar. His knowledge and
skills were obviously too valuable for the Americans to risk irritating the
scientist with uncomfortable questions about his past. The space pioneer had
also built rockets for Hitler. He developed the desired "miracle
weapon" for Nazi Germany without ethical reservations and without
consideration for losses. Ultimately, the acclaimed moon rocket was only a
further development of the V2 rocket that von Braun had developed for Hitler's
Germany in Peenemünde.
A life for the rocket
Already as a child Wernher von
Braun had been obsessed with rockets. He observed the moon with the telescope
and shot the first rockets into the Berlin sky at the age of 17. Later, he
studied engineering at the Technical University in Berlin and dreamed of flying
to the stars himself at some point. In April 1932, even before Hitler seized
power, his "Verein für Raumschifffahrt" surprisingly received a visit
of three interested gentlemen in civilian clothes during a missile test. The
Army Weapons Office searched for ways to circumvent the Versailles Treaty. After
the First World War was lost, Germany was no longer allowed to use airplanes
and artillery projectiles. But the Versailles Treaty did not mention rockets,
i.e. self-flying cannonballs.
Von Braun's "miracle
weapon" to avert defeat
The young designer took up the
challenge, got excellent opportunities to conduct technical experiments, became
a member of the Nazi party NSDAP and the SS, and from 1937 headed a large
rocket test site in Peenemünde in northern Germany. There his task was to build
a "miracle weapon" for the Nazis. From 1941 on, Braun's V-2 rocket
was produced in series. Following a British bombing on Peenemünde in 1943, the
production had to be relocated to the extensive mining tunnels of the
Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in the Harz region in central Germany. Braun's
new technology ended thousands of lives - where it hit, but also where it was
produced. His "weapon of destruction" killed between 8,000 and 12,000
people, especially in London and Antwerp. When it was built, an estimated
10,000 to 20,000 forced laborers died in the underground tunnels under
miserable conditions. The rocket designer von Braun did not want to hear about
any of this, and he rejected any guilt for the crimes committed during the
Second World War.
Opportunist with big space plans
But von Braun did not lose sight
of his original space plans even in times of war. On October 3, 1942, a V-2
with a flight altitude of 84.5 kilometers reached the limit of the atmosphere.
A milestone in the history of space travel had been reached. As the defeat of
Nazi Germany approached, von Braun decided to change sides. On May 2 1945,
together with some scientists from his team, he met the US forces in Tyrol.
"My country lost two world wars. This time I want to be on the side of the
winners," von Braun has said when explaining why he defected to his former
enemy.
Friendly welcome in the new
homeland
The US military quickly
recognized the talent that had jumped into its lap. A short time later, the
Secret Service brought Wernher von Braun and his 100-strong team to the US.
"Our admission to Texas was surprisingly friendly," von Braun later
recalled. The team explained the function and construction of the V-2 rocket to
American experts; then, von Braun started to construct the
"Redstone," the world's first nuclear medium-range rocket. The past
is history; the future is what counts - that was the motto. Accordingly,
Braun's new home was quite prepared to let his ominous work for Hitler's
Germany fall into oblivion - as long as the US could profit from his knowledge
and his abilities. Wernher von Braun claimed he was never aware of the
conditions at Mittelbau Dora Already in 1955, von Braun received US
citizenship, although he had been a member of the NSDAP and the SS and although
under US laws this is actually forbidden. In the same year, together with Walt
Disney, he developed the television series "Man in Space," which made
manned space flight popular to the American public. Von Braun had visions and
the talent to inspire others to follow these visions. "Even before the
year 2000, there will be fully air-conditioned cities on the moon where you can
live much more comfortably than on Earth. First for the scientists, later also
for their families. The children can attend school there. They will only have
to return to Earth for the time being to attend university. There, however,
they will soon long for the sterile air and the low lunar heaviness," von
Braun believed.
Dwindling enthusiasm and
questions of responsibility
In 1970, one year after the moon
landing, von Braun became planning director at NASA. But after the Space Race
had been won, the initial enthusiasm and financial support gradually waned. The
ongoing Vietnam War also devoured many resources. But von Braun continued to
promote space travel: "Apollo was [...] not - as many people think - an
insane waste of taxpayers' money, but in my firm opinion one of the most
sensible, wise and farsighted investments a country has ever made," he
said. "Apollo has advanced research and technology in American industry
like no program ever before." Nevertheless, legislators did not support
his plans for a manned Mars mission due to funding problems. Disappointed by
the budget cuts of the US Congress, von Braun left NASA in 1972 and moved to a
private aerospace company. In 1977, Wernher von Braun died of cancer in
Alexandria, Virginia. Only much later, when Apollo's fame gradually faded and
Germany took a deeper look at its inglorious past, did von Braun's work for
Hitler's Germany and the rocket pioneer's responsibility also become known to a
wider public. Although he distanced himself from National Socialism after the
war and, in 1966, still denied that he had known of the suffering of the forced
laborers in the Mittelbau-Dora rocket factory, he was not aware of the fact
that he had been a slave laborer of the German National Socialists himself.
"Science in itself has no moral dimension," von Braun justified
argued. But his biographer, the Canadian Michael J. Neufeld, unmasks von
Braun's self-portrait of the unsuspecting, apolitical scientist as a mere claim
to protection. By working for the Nazi regime, von Braun had entered into a
"pact with the devil" that would cast a long, gloomy shadow on the
space pioneer.
^ Both the Americans and the
Soviets used German Nazis in their Space Programs. With that said von Braun was
a Nazi who used 10,000 to 20,000 forced slave laborers to create the V-2 rocket
that killed 8,000-12,000 people. That is something that will always stain any
achievement he made to the US Space Program. Of course von Braun, like most
Germans alive during the World War 2, claim they “knew nothing” about the
Holocaust or the atrocities committed, but that is just a lie the Germans use
to make themselves feel better. I would have more respect for von Braun and any
other German if he/they just admitted their guilt, acknowledged their role and apologized.
Instead all we get are excuses and stories of how they suffered. This is the 50th
Anniversary of the US winning the Space Race and putting a man on the Moon.
While it is a great accomplishment for the United States we can not overlook
this dark stain on the Space Program. ^
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