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From Nazis to NASA, Part I

© Ralph Zuljan

Wernher Maximillian Magnus von Braun was a man possessed by visions of the future. The second of the three sons of Baron Magnus von Braun, Wernher was born on March 23, 1912 in what was then Wirsitz, in East Prussia (now Wyrzysk, Poland). His boyhood was characterized by pranks, low grades and a passion for rockets. Drawings of moon rockets and space stations decorated Wernher's school books.

Early experimentation landed Wernher in trouble more the once. His runaway rockets usually exploded, sometimes in shops or produce carts and occasionally started fires. What was perhaps the most spectacular incident involved a rocket propelled cart that shot out of control into the Berlin traffic, resulting in chaos and the arrest of thirteen year old Wernher. He was released to the custody of his father, then the Minister of Agriculture and Education for the Wiemar Republic.

The Baron held this post until Hitler came to power. Refusing to be part of the Nazi movement, he retired and went home. (His son was a member of the Nazi Party. While working as an assistant professor in Berlin he received a letter stating that the Party was pleased to accept him as a member, his membership fees were due on a certain date. As it was a case of join or lose everything, Wernher prudently paid up.)

Baron von Braun, tired of his son's pranks and abysmal academic performance, sent him to boarding school. It was there that Wernher realized he could not build rockets without mathematics, and he began to achieve spectacular success in math and engineering related sciences. His grades were so high Wernher graduated a year early.

While studying engineering at the Charlottenburg Institute of Technology Wernher joined the Verein fur Raumschiffahrt, the Society for Space Travel, a group of amateur rocket enthusiasts in Berlin. In 1930 he launched his first real rocket. It did not actually fly, but the engine worked and the members of the VfR kept on trying. In 1932 von Braun and his friends demonstrated the Mirak ll rocket to a group of army munitions men. The rocket was not a success but von Braun was identified as a man to watch. If he would obtain his doctoral degree the German army would fund all the rocket research von Braun could carry out. Wernher, rocket mad, took the bait.

Von Braun began building rocket engines for the German army. After some spectacular failures and a number of fires it was time to begin building complete rockets. In 1934 the "A" rocket series began. The A series was a very hit-and-miss proposition. The A-1 never got built, the A-2 worked, but not very well and the A-3 did not work at all. This last was designed to be a reusable rocket, it's major defect lay in the parachute landing gear. The A-4 was a very successful design, and was the first rocket to actually go into space. It later became known world wide as the V-2, precursor to the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) that followed.