At the end of World War II, the people of England were horrified and devastated by a new weapon: the flying bomb. These bombs fell on London day and night, seemingly from nowhere. The creator of this weapon was a young scientist who, at the time, was not well-known in the scientific community: Wernher Von Braun.
Later, in the 1960s, Von Braun’s achievements in intercontinental missiles and space exploration garnered global attention.
1/ Early Years.
Wernher Von Braun was born on March 23, 1912, in Wirsitz, Silesia, in eastern Germany, an area that now belongs to Poland. Wernher was the second of three sons born to Baron Magnus Von Braun. His father was a stern landowner involved in German politics during the Weimar Republic, while his mother, Emmy Von Quistorp, had a deep passion for astronomy. She often took her children to the rooftop in the evenings to point out the planets and twinkling stars in the sky. This instilled in young Wernher a dream of one day stepping onto those distant celestial bodies.
At just 13 years old, Wernher enjoyed playing with fireworks. He filled a toy car with gunpowder and set it alight. The car raced like a monster, terrifying passersby and frightening horses. He was taken home by the police. His father, Magnus, sternly reprimanded him, saying, “Wernher, you must not bring shame upon me like this. I will send you to a boarding school five kilometers away to put an end to your mischief.” Thus, in the new school year, Wernher left home to study at a remote school located on an island in Frisia. Here, he did not focus on his studies. To his teachers, he was a poor student, with the principal commenting, “A student lacking diligence, completely ignorant of mathematics, unlikely to succeed.”
In 1925, Wernher Von Braun fortuitously read a book about astronomy. This book depicted a rocket flying towards the moon, accompanied by an article written by Hermann Oberth. Oberth was one of the early theorists of rocketry and a disciple of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the Russian prophet of space exploration. Oberth’s book, “Rocket into Interplanetary Space,” astonished many and captivated young Von Braun. The over 100-page book was difficult for him to comprehend due to its many mysterious equations. He decided to ask his father for private lessons in mathematics and physics. Von Braun once said, “Mathematics is essential for understanding how to navigate in space, so I decided to seek education.” He made such progress in mathematics and physics that he could substitute for his professor in class whenever the professor was absent.
In 1928, the Space Travel Society (Verein für Raumschiffahrt) was founded by Oberth. The society published a monthly journal called “Rocket,” attracting several scientists and German youth fascinated by rocketry. Among the readers of “Rocket” was a tall, strong 16-year-old with blue eyes, brown hair, and a square jaw, Wernher Von Braun, who had just graduated from high school and enrolled at the Berlin Institute of Technology.
In the fall of 1929, Von Braun visited Willy Ley and shared his passion for space exploration. He expressed a desire to be introduced to the Space Travel Society, of which Ley was a founding member. Ley took Von Braun to meet Oberth, and from that day on, Von Braun proudly carried rockets that older members would launch.
At that time, famous filmmaker Fritz Lang planned to create a movie about space exploration. He invited Oberth as a technical advisor. Oberth agreed but insisted on a fee sufficient to construct a rocket, which he intended to launch on the opening day of the film.
That year, Fritz Lang’s film “Woman on the Moon” was a great success, while the rocket launch ended in bitter failure, contrary to the film’s glowing press coverage. However, members of the Space Travel Society were not too disappointed. They believed their rocket failure was due to the lack of a fuel that could generate the necessary pressure. They then enlisted chemists to invent a new propellant.
In Reinickendorf, a suburb of Berlin, there was an empty plot of land. The Space Travel Society signed a contract with the City Council on September 27, 1930, to lease the land for 1,500 marks for one year. This site was proudly named the “Rocket Airport.” Although rudimentary, this airport quickly gained international recognition for its unique nature. Many visitors came from countries like France, America, and England. Some volunteered to assist with the experimental work. The site was filled with well-meaning engineers, mechanics, chemists, pilots, and more. Despite its limited funding, the Space Travel Society successfully produced the small Mirak rockets. By 1932, Oberth, Ley, Von Braun, and other members had achieved 85 successful launches, and one rocket reached a height of one mile, setting a record for that time.
In the spring of 1932, Von Braun completed the engineering program at the Berlin Institute of Technology and two years later earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Berlin. However, his studies did not interrupt his pursuit of rocketry.
2/ Rocket Manufacturing.
In 1931, the German military sought a new weapon with a long range that was not prohibited by the Versailles Treaty. Rockets seemed to fit this criterion perfectly. Captain Engineer Walter Dornberger was tasked with writing a report on the project. He visited the rocket testing site for three consecutive days, interviewing scientists and participating in rocket launches. During this time, Dornberger took a particular interest in Wernher von Braun due to the young man’s determination, insight, and intelligence. All plans for the rocket program were submitted to the German General Staff in the fall of 1932.
In August 1932, von Braun was invited to the military rocket testing center located in Kummersdorf, hidden within a pine forest south of Berlin. The 20-year-old von Braun became the Technical Director, while Captain Dornberger took on the role of Military Director, with funding provided by the German Army.
The era of rockets truly began on December 21, 1932, at Kummersdorf. This research center was not without its accidents. There was a time when von Braun narrowly escaped death, leaving his clothes in tatters. On May 17, 1933, the renowned engineer Max Valier died in a pool of blood when a control device exploded prematurely, sending a shard of steel into his chest. Shortly after, Dr. Warmke, a chemical engineer, also died in a horrific explosion caused by a newly invented explosive.
At this research center, von Braun was passionately dedicated to his work. He was often seen sleeping on unfinished blueprints, where he was planning two types of rockets: one measuring 1.40 meters and another at 3 meters tall.
Upon entering the rocket center, von Braun believed the German Ministry of Defense would allocate millions of marks for this weapons program. However, he was mistaken. The budget did not permit excessive spending, and materials were scarce. Despite these obstacles, both types of rockets were completed, achieving altitudes of over 2,200 meters, marking a significant success. The Kummersdorf center became increasingly cramped, prompting the German military to search for a larger location.
On a Christmas occasion, von Braun and his team celebrated on a remote island in the Baltic Sea. Peenemünde Island was quite desolate yet discreetly positioned, making it an ideal site for testing secret weapons.
Starting in August 1936, the German Ministry of Defense began construction on Peenemünde Island: roads, bridges, an airfield, rocket launch pads, residences, hotels, and bunkers were all built, yet from the air, these structures were hard to spot. Thousands of physicists, chemists, engineers, students, and specialists worked tirelessly here, their motto inscribed on the facade of the research center: “Physicists, engineers, and technicians are the pioneers of the New World.” Although accidents were not uncommon, scientists also solved many novel problems. Rockets continued to reach greater altitudes, but this did not earn the trust of Nazi generals. Hitler preferred heavy tanks over this innovative weaponry. At one point, Hitler visited the Peenemünde Rocket Center but left disheartened after speaking for no more than 10 minutes.
After World War II broke out, von Braun developed a rocket capable of reaching 7,000 meters. The rocket center sent footage to Hitler, but there was no response. High-ranking German generals mirrored Hitler’s silence and began drafting von Braun’s engineers into the military. The dwindling resources led to detrimental results. The German army began losing on all fronts, prompting Hitler to order the rapid production of rockets. However, after two invitations for military personnel to witness test launches, the rockets failed to fly. Von Braun’s official supporter in Berlin, General Becker, was summoned by Hitler and given the choice of going to a concentration camp or committing suicide. He chose the latter. Von Braun understood that if another rocket test failed, he would face execution or be tortured by the Gestapo. Fortunately, the third test succeeded.
On July 7, 1943, von Braun was appointed a professor, and Dornberger was promoted to brigadier general; the two were then summoned to Hitler’s office. The Nazi dictator expressed regret that had rockets been available since 1939, perhaps there would have been no war. Hitler then ordered an expedited development of a vengeance weapon to obliterate cities like London and New York in a short time.
Von Braun returned to Peenemünde, granted full authority to act. The island was bolstered militarily and secured. The head of the Gestapo personally monitored security on the island, with fortifications guarding it day and night, surrounded by automated minefields and high-voltage barbed wire, rendering the island nearly impregnable. Additionally, Peenemünde was erased from maps, and nearby Karlshagen was used as its cover name.
Von Braun had 5,000 people under his command. All the technicians worked diligently to make up for lost time. However, von Braun’s secret weapon had caught the attention of Allied spies. Swedish fishermen often reported seeing strange objects flying quickly, emitting deafening noises. Some even collected debris containing electronic components.
London grew anxious. An order to bomb Peenemünde was issued at the end of July 1943. Allied bombers practiced before finally departing on August 17. That night, thousands of tons of bombs fell on the island, engulfing it in flames. Thousands perished, and the weapon workshops suffered severe damage. The next morning, as he flew over the island, von Braun wept for his destroyed work.
A second rocket center was established in Volkenrode in the Harz Mountains. The Germans continued to work hard. The flying bombs were mass-produced at both rocket centers. Von Braun spent his days researching intercontinental rockets and ones launched from submarines. However, in December 1943, von Braun was imprisoned for half a month; Himmler accused him of sabotage for prioritizing space conquest over plans to devastate London and New York. Only after General Dornberger personally appealed to Hitler was von Braun released.
Since 1942, von Braun’s specialists acknowledged that there was no weapon capable of countering flying bombs. Even redirecting the bombs was challenging. Admiral Canaris, head of German intelligence, foresaw the threat and dispatched ten spies to install short-wave radios hidden atop skyscrapers in New York City. These transmitters would guide bombs launched from German submarines offshore in the Atlantic.
The flying bombs were ready by early 1944, but Hitler had yet to authorize their use. After the Allied invasion in Normandy, the secret weapon finally came to light. The first V-1 flying bomb fell on England on June 16, 1944, marking the beginning of Operation Vergeltung (Retaliation). The Germans used the letter V to name their flying bombs.
Many recounted that at 4 a.m. on June 16, a British observer spotted a bright object approaching. As it got closer, the roar of the engine became clearer until it crashed into the suburbs of London with a thunderous explosion, devastating the surrounding area. On average, 200 V-1 bombs fell on England each day. It is estimated that within three weeks, London suffered over 3,000 bomb strikes. Prime Minister Churchill called for a revision of air defense strategies. However, it took three months before the British found an effective countermeasure.
On September 8, 1944, the V-2 flying bomb began its onslaught. This weapon could carry 800 kilograms of explosives to targets over 2,000 miles away, traveling at supersonic speeds—one mile per second—while no effective alert system existed at that time to warn of incoming bombs. Over 3,000 V-2 bombs ravaged London and the Netherlands day and night. This sophisticated weapon marked a significant advancement in the history of warfare. Years later, in an interview with The New Yorker, von Braun expressed regret over the weapon’s purpose: “I sincerely regret that our rockets were born of an ideal but were applied to killing. We designed rockets to pave the way to other planets, not to destroy our own Earth.”
Aside from the V-1 and V-2 flying bombs, there were still more secret weapons in development. The Germans aimed to create a bomb far more devastating: the atomic bomb. Indeed, as early as 1939, German physicist Otto Hahn succeeded in splitting the atomic nucleus. By 1942, Hahn had produced plutonium. The results of his research in 1944 led him to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1945. All these events convinced many that Germany was pursuing atomic bomb development.
In 1945, Allied forces advanced into German territory. Peenemünde was on the verge of falling into enemy hands. Von Braun and his rocket specialists faced a dilemma of choosing between the Democratic or Communist side. With the Red Army just 100 kilometers from Peenemünde, von Braun ordered an evacuation of the rocket center: they used an explosive known as anatol from the V-2 bombs to destroy all facilities. Von Braun and the majority of specialists decided to approach the U.S. Army. The convoy traveled toward Bavaria, crossing fields filled with refugees. Von Braun, Dornberger, and over 400 engineers hid in the Allgäu region, waiting. Along the way, five German engineers defected to the Soviet Red Army. Twelve years later, they became instrumental in launching the Sputnik satellite. During the evacuation journey, von Braun injured his arm and had it in a cast, yet he never parted with a crucial bundle of documents containing plans for intercontinental rockets and an artificial satellite.
3. The Space Program.
Starting in April 1945, General Eisenhower was ordered to collect, control, and preserve all documents, records, and plans related to German technology and science, along with other materials from German organizations for military purposes. In May of that year, this order was expanded to include German scientists, engineers, and missile technicians. As part of Operation Paperclip, the records of German scientists were examined and selected for relocation to the United States.
Upon hearing the approach of U.S. tanks, Wernher von Braun stepped forward to negotiate. After a few days, von Braun and 125 staff members boarded a plane to America. The German scientists were transported to Fort Strong in Massachusetts on September 20, 1945, and were then secretly taken to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. By May 1948, the number of German and Austrian rocket specialists brought to the United States had reached 1,136. They worked under contracts with the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Commerce Department. Most of these scientists later became U.S. citizens, including von Braun (1955) and Dornberger.
Von Braun’s first task in the U.S. was to review and compare scientific documents collected from Germany, after which he was sent to White Sands, near El Paso, Texas. In this border region near Mexico, von Braun found all the workshops and observation stations similar to those in Peenemünde, but he felt disheartened because the U.S. government was not paying attention to the space exploration program using missiles. The V-2 rockets were improved, but they could not fly very high and were only used for meteorological research.
In 1947, von Braun was allowed to return briefly to Bavaria. There, he married his 18-year-old cousin, Marie Louise Von Quistorp. To prevent him from being kidnapped by the Soviets, detectives constantly monitored him, even during his honeymoon.
The Korean War broke out. In 1950, the German scientists were moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and were ordered to produce a long-range missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads for the Army. Von Braun became the Technical Director of the U.S. Army’s ballistic weapon program.
In 1953, von Braun’s Redstone rocket was launched at Cape Canaveral, raising hopes that the space exploration program could be realized. In the summer of 1954, von Braun and a team of engineers went to Washington to propose launching a satellite weighing 2 to 3 kilograms into space. However, the Naval Research Center assured that it would launch a satellite with a recorder into Earth’s orbit using only $88,000. It was decided to assign the project to the Navy because the Vanguard program appeared more theoretically appealing, and the satellite was to be launched into space during the International Geophysical Year (1957-58).
Von Braun and his team were indeed experts in rocketry, but they were only permitted to develop medium-range missiles. In September 1956, the Jupiter-C rocket flew 5,300 kilometers, surpassing all American autonomous missiles. Von Braun hoped to use this Jupiter-C rocket to launch a satellite. He waited.
Then on August 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched the Sputnik satellite, causing panic in the Free World. Von Braun knew the time had come. He went to Washington, D.C., and requested permission to launch a satellite into orbit within 60 days. The launch of the Navy’s Vanguard satellite had ended in failure. Now it was von Braun’s turn. On January 31, 1958, at Cape Canaveral, the four-stage Jupiter-C rocket placed the “Explorer I” satellite weighing 14 kilograms into Earth’s orbit. Another rocket developed by von Braun, the Redstone, launched Alan B. Shepard, Jr., the first U.S. astronaut, into Earth’s orbit in 1961.
In 1958, the U.S. Congress passed legislation to establish a new federal agency called the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The mission of this agency was to study flight techniques both within and beyond Earth’s atmosphere, to design, test, and operate spacecraft, to explore outer space with both unmanned and manned spacecraft, and to collaborate with other nations on various peaceful space projects. Among the first appointees to NASA was von Braun, a leading missile expert, who served as Director of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
In the following years, von Braun contributed to three major space programs: Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, the program that aimed to land on the Moon. Thanks to von Braun, the massive Saturn V rocket was developed. This three-stage rocket stood nearly 110 meters tall (over 360 feet) and weighed about 3,000 tons. Upon launch, this rocket generated a thrust of 7,500,000 pounds, burning over 10 tons of fuel each minute. In 1969, the Saturn V rocket successfully carried astronauts to the Moon. The technical achievements of the Saturn rockets set records for that era.
The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union propelled the field of planetary aviation forward. Humanity now had the hope of leaving the confines of Earth to seek out distant worlds.
In 1975, von Braun established the National Space Institute, a private organization aimed at studying and disseminating scientific activities related to space with public support. For his contributions to space technology, von Braun received numerous awards and honors. He passed away on June 16, 1977, in Alexandria, Virginia.
Von Braun firmly believed that in the near future, humanity would reach Mars, a planet that, during his youth, his mother often pointed out to him through a telescope on clear nights. He had faith in the order of the Universe and believed that humanity would reach distant yet beautiful and mysterious worlds.
