In this German name, the surname is Freiherr von Braun, not Braun.
Wernher von Braun
Von Braun in 1960
Born
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun
(1912-03-23)23 March 1912
Wirsitz, Posen, Prussia, German Empire
Died
16 June 1977(1977-06-16) (aged 65)
Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.
Burial place
Ivy Hill Cemetery[1]
Nationality
German
Citizenship
United States
Education
Technical University of Berlin (diploma)
University of Berlin (PhD)
Occupation(s)
Rocket engineer and designer, aerospace project manager
Known for
NASA engineering program manager; chief architect of the Apollo Saturn V rocket; development of the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany
Political party
Nazi Party (1937–1945)
Spouse
Maria Luise von Quistorp
(m. 1947)
Children
3
Parent
Magnus von Braun (father)
Relatives
Sigismund von Braun (brother)
Magnus von Braun (brother)
Awards
President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service (1959)
Elliott Cresson Medal (1962)
Wilhelm Exner Medal (1969)[2]
National Medal of Science (1975)
Military career
Allegiance
Nazi Germany
Service/branch
Allgemeine SS
Years of service
1937–1945
Rank
SS-Sturmbannführer (major)
Awards
Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords (1944)
War Merit Cross, First Class with Swords (1943)
Scientific career
Fields
Rocket propulsion
Institutions
Wehrmacht
Army Ballistic Missile Agency
Redstone Arsenal
NASA
Fairchild Industries
Thesis
Konstruktive, theoretische und experimentelle Beiträge zu dem Problem der Flüssigkeitsrakete(1934)
Doctoral advisor
Erich Schumann
Signature
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (US: /ˌvɜːrnərvɒnˈbraʊn/VUR-nər von BROWN, German:[ˌvɛʁnheːɐ̯fɔnˈbʁaʊ̯n]; 23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977) was a German-American aerospace engineer[3] and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany, and later a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States.[4]
As a young man, von Braun worked in Nazi Germany's rocket development program. He helped design and co-developed the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II. The V-2 became the first artificial object to travel into space on 20 June 1944. Following the war, he was secretly moved to the United States, along with about 1,600 other German scientists, engineers, and technicians, as part of Operation Paperclip.[5] He worked for the United States Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile program, and he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1 in 1958. He worked with Walt Disney on a series of films, which popularized the idea of human space travel in the U.S. and beyond from 1955 to 1957.[6]
In 1960, his group was assimilated into NASA, where he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V super heavy-lift launch vehicle that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon.[7][8] In 1967, von Braun was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1975, he received the National Medal of Science.
Von Braun is a highly controversial figure widely seen as escaping justice for his Nazi war crimes due to the Americans' desire to beat the Soviets in the Cold War.[9][10][4] He is also sometimes described by others as the "father of space travel",[11] the "father of rocket science",[12] or the "father of the American lunar program".[9] He advocated a human mission to Mars.
^Ivy Hill Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia, Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 48952). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
^Neufeld, Michael. Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (First ed.). Vintage Books. p. xv. Although Wernher von Braun got a doctorate in physics in 1934, he never worked a day in his life thereafter as a scientist. He was an engineer and a manager of engineers, and he used that vocabulary when he was talking to his professional peers.
^ abTeitel, Amy Shira. "Wernher von Braun: History's most controversial figure?". aljazeera.com.
^Neufeld, Michael J. (20 May 2019). "Wernher von Braun and the Nazis". American Experience: Chasing the Moon. PBS. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
^Wright, Mike (18 February 2016). Harbaugh, Jennifer (ed.). "The Disney-Von Braun Collaboration and Its Influence on Space Exploration". NASA. Archived from the original on 2 November 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
^"SP-4206 Stages to Saturn, Chapter 9". history.nasa.gov. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
^"Biography of Wernher Von Braun". MSFC History Office. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Archived from the original on 11 June 2002.
^ ab"How Historians Are Reckoning With the Former Nazi Who Launched America's Space Program". Time. 18 July 2019.
^Neufeld, Michael J. (2002). "Wernher von Braun, the SS, and Concentration Camp Labor: Questions of Moral, Political, and Criminal Responsibility". German Studies Review. 25 (1): 57–78. doi:10.2307/1433245. JSTOR 1433245 – via JSTOR.
^"von Braun, Wernher: National Aviation Hall of Fame". Nationalaviation.org. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
^"A Guide to Wernher von Braun's Life". Apollo11space.com. December 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr vonBraun (US: /ˌvɜːrnər vɒn ˈbraʊn/ VUR-nər von BROWN, German: [ˌvɛʁnheːɐ̯ fɔn ˈbʁaʊ̯n]; 23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977)...
brother of Sigismund and WernhervonBraun. VonBraun was born in Greifswald, Pomerania, to Magnus Freiherr vonBraun and Emmy von Quistorp. After completing...
industrial processes. These recruits included notable figures such as WernhervonBraun, a leading scientist in rocket technology, and were instrumental in...
The vonBraun Interceptor was a VTOL rocket-powered interceptor designed by WernhervonBraun. This aircraft would have used the technology VonBraun had...
even suggested it be placed in a geostationary orbit. In the 1950s, WernhervonBraun and Willy Ley, writing in Colliers Magazine, updated the idea, in...
three vonBraun brothers Nicolaus vonBraun (1640–1718), Swedish military personnel Sigismund vonBraun (1911–1998), German diplomat, Wernher's brother...
VonBraun Ferry Rocket was a concept design for a shuttle spacecraft that was developed by WernhervonBraun in a seminal series of early-1950s Collier's...
space required the development of larger ballistic missiles such as WernhervonBraun's Aggregat-4 (A-4), which became known as the Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2)...
enthusiasts who joined the Society, which included persons such as WernhervonBraun, Rolf Engel, Rudolf Nebel or Paul Ehmayr. Oberth lacked the opportunities...
German-American) rocket physicist, astronautics engineer and space architect WernhervonBraun. It was translated from the original German by Henry J. White and...
model – the de Laval nozzle – and his autographed picture of Dr. WernhervonBraun. Homer makes an urgent phone call home to his mother Elsie, who implores...
first engineering analysis of a crewed mission to Mars was made by WernhervonBraun in 1948. It was originally published as Das Marsprojekt in West Germany...
Michael Collins, Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton, rocket scientist WernhervonBraun, NASA Administrator Thomas Paine, NASA flight director Gene Kranz...
film 2001: A Space Odyssey traces its design heritage to VonBraun's work. WernhervonBraun went on to devise mission schemes to the Moon and Mars, each...
centre run by WernhervonBraun, who later worked on the American space programme(10 June 2001 Germans at last learn truth about vonBraun's 'space research'...
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and WernhervonBraun to achieve flight beyond the atmosphere. World War II inspired WernhervonBraun to create the V1 and V2 rockets...
developed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s under the direction of WernhervonBraun. The first successful launch of a V-2 was on October 3, 1942, and...
House of Cards (2016–2017), Declan Gallard on 21 Thunder (2017), WernhervonBraun in For All Mankind (2019), and Sir Reginald Hargreeves on The Umbrella...
also harness their expertise in order to develop a space program. WernhervonBraun, technical director at the US Army's Ballistic Missile Agency would...
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