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Wernher Freiherr von Braun was technical director at the Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde 1937 - 1945, where he was responsible for the development of the rocket A 4, which was the predecessor of the V 2. He later said, he was horrified, that the rocket was used as a weapon, because he wanted it to "open the gates to other worlds", but he got the money for the rocket from the military. And the military had specific goals for that rocket: to fly 300 km and have explosive power of 1t. About 10.000 prisoners of the concentration camp Dorau-Mittelbau died during their work building those rockets. Which means, that it was possibly the only weapon ever, where more people died building it, than getting killed by it.
Von Braun was a member of the NSDAP and Sturmbannführer in the SS.
12. May 1945 he and some of his colleagues gave themselves up to the U.S. Army, and the U.S. took them to the states (Operation Overcast).
BTW, the U.S. not only took scientists, they hired members of the Nazi secret service, and those people helped built the OSS, which later transformed into the CIA.
In the U.S. von Braun worked for the Redstone Rocket Program. He got the U.S. citizenship in 1955, and in 1960 - 1970 he was director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
He was chiefly responsible for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Projects. Because of his work concerning the development of the Apollo V rocket, he is in a great part responsible for the moon landing. |
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