Werner von Braun began to develop rocketry for the needs of the Wehrmacht. After the war, he crossed the ocean and actively participated in American space projects. Since childhood, the designer dreamed of flying to distant planets. His name, once firmly connected with the creation of military equipment of Nazi Germany, is forever inscribed in the history of space exploration.
From the biography of Werner von Braun
The future designer of rocketry was born on March 23, 1912. His birthplace is the city of Vizritz (Germany). Now it is the Polish city of Wyrzysk. The eldest von Braun was from the clan of German aristocrats and had a baronial title. The mother of the future designer also came from a noble family.
Education Werner received at the Berlin Institute of Technology and the University of Berlin. In 1932, he became a bachelor, two years later received a doctorate.
From a young age, von Braun was fascinated by astronomy, he raved about the idea of flying to distant Mars. It all started with the fact that once the mother gave the boy a telescope. After that, he seriously took up astronomy. Werner actively participated in the work of the Berlin Society of interplanetary communications.
The formation of Werner's personality was influenced by the famous Herman Obert, who was the first who not only thought about creating a spacecraft, but with a slide rule in his hands made reasonable calculations of the design of such an aircraft.
Start of work on rocketry
In 1932, the scientist was brought to work in the German military department: he was admitted to the Artillery Directorate of the Armed Forces. Here he was engaged in the creation of ballistic shells that could fly on liquid fuel. In 1937, von Braun led the missile research center in Peenemuende, on an island in the Baltic Sea. Under the guidance of a German scientist, the V-2 rocket was created. With these shells, the Nazis subsequently fired on the territory of the Netherlands and Great Britain.
