Wernher Von Braun

Wernher Von Braun was the second of three sons born to Baron Magnus von Braun and Baroness Emmy von Quistorp. He was born on March 23, 1912 in Wirsitz, Posen. Wernher was always a visionary, and when he was ten years old he decided his goal in life would be to "help turn the wheel of time." His interests led him to do many things in his early life including composing several pieces of music and recycling old automobile parts to build a new car. Because of spending so much of his time building a car, he flunked in mathematics and physics. However, it was his decision to explore rocketry that led to his great impact on history.

Von Braun, at the age of 16, organized an observatory construction team. His volunteers built a complete observatory in their spare time, working as diggers, bricklayers, and carpenters. In 1930, when he was 20, he enrolled at the Berlin Institute of Technology. He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, and was offered a grant to conduct and develop scientific investigations on liquid-fueled rocket engines. A few years later Wernher received his PhD in physics from the University of Berlin. In the mid 1930's, rocket clubs sprang up all over Germany. One of these clubs, the Verein fur Raumschiffarht had engineer Wernher von Braun as a member.

By 1934 von Braun had a team of 80 engineers building rockets in Kummersdorf. With the launch of two rockets, Max and Moritz, in 1934, von Braun's proposal to work on a jet-assisted take-off device for heavy bombers and all-rocket fighters was granted, But Kummersdorf was too small for the work he needed to do, so a new facility had to be built. Peenemunde, on the Baltic coast, was picked as the new site. Peenemunde was large enough to launch and monitor rockets over ranges up to about 200 miles, with observing instruments, with no risk of harming people and property. He was then arrested by the SS and the Gestapo for crimes against the state because he kept on talking about building rockets which would go into orbit around the Earth and perhaps go to the Moon. His crime was indulging in frivolous dreams when he should have been concentrating on building bigger rocket bombs for the Nazi war machine. After arriving back, von Braun immediately assembled his planning staff and asked them to decide how and to who they should surrender to.