On March 9, 1955, 42 million American viewers connected to the ABC channel discovered a captivating documentary, Man in Spacetaken from the anthology program “Le Monde marvelous de Disney”, presented and produced by Walt Disney. His subject? The future of spatial exploration. Handling a rocket model, a man in his forties details the operation of a shuttle. Attractive, the hair methodically divided on each side of his skull, the expert linger on some technical details. His chatter is weighed down by a strong German accent which weighs on the consonants.
All in jaw and serious eyebrows, the specialist continues his reasoning, imperturbable. At the start of the program, we presented it as the designer of the V2 missile, “Precursor of upcoming spaceships”by failing to mention his rank as an SS officer or his work for the Nazis. Because the person concerned is called Wernher von Braun and, a decade earlier, missiles of his design pounded the Allied metropolises.
Who is it? Since his childhood, Wernher von Braun (born in March 1912 in Prussia) has been interested in the cosmos, devours the science fiction novels of Jules Verne and Hg Wells, scrutinizes the distant worlds in the eye of his astronomical telescope. Barely major, he joins a scientific company – German association for space navigation – where we are taking care to prepare the future of space exploration. Two years later, in 1930, the organization bought land in the Berlin suburbs to test prototypes of rockets.
First at the service of the third Reich
In 1932, his engineering diploma in his pocket, Wernher von Braun dreamed of designing rockets. But the German army has other projects for him, such as the development of long -range ballistic missiles. Indeed, the arms policy of the third Reich is thwarted by the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. Turning to the rockets, which are not mentioned in the document signed in 1919, will allow it to arm without violating the conditions of the treaty.
In 1937, Wernher von Braun obtained his member card of the Nazi Party, then joined the SS hierarchy (in the rank of commander) in 1940. It has been almost three years in the Center for Research and Military Essays in Peenemünde, located in the northeast of Germany, on the facade of the Baltic Sea, to the design of a formidable weapon: of action is 300 kilometers. Produced thanks to the deadly work of the small hands of the Nazi concentration camp of Dora, the missiles end up getting out of the production chains during the year 1943. It is necessary to do quickly: war is turning in favor of the allies. Will this new weapon be able to change the situation?
Between August 1944 and March 1945, nearly 3,200 of these 13 -ton missiles targeted allied cities, mainly Antwerp and London – who received half of these warheads, launched from the north of France – but also Norwich, Lille, Paris, Tourcoing, Liège or Maastricht. When the first V2 missile hits the British capital in September 1944, its designer slipped to a colleague that “The rocket worked well, even if it landed on the bad planet”. It is estimated that the V2 ballistic missiles have caused 2,700 civilians just in the United Kingdom.
A Nazi at NASA
Recruited as part of Operation PaperClip, the purpose of which was to exfiltrate, bleach and “recycle” nearly 1,600 Nazi scientists at the end of the Second World War, Wernher von Braun puts himself at the service of the Americans after the war. His experience helps him to design the powerful spatial launcher Saturn V, which will serve as a launch ramp for the Apollo rockets. Indeed, only colossal power gear are able to tear a crew from earthly gravity and propel it into orbit.
Visionary, Wernher von Braun publishes several articles in the magazine Collier’s, which are spotted by Ward Kimball, animator-star of Disney studios. The latter talks about it to the big boss of the firm with ears, which approves without discussing. Wernher von Braun is hired as a technical advisor and became the co -presentary of three documentaries broadcast between 1955 and 1957. In the first part, Man in SpaceWernher von Braun assures that it will be possible to build a rocket capable of sending a human in space within ten years. America is impatient.
Of course, the broadcast of this documentary series is not disinterested. For Walt Disney, it involves promoting its first Disneyland park, the opening of which is scheduled for July 1955, while Wernher von Braun seeks to mobilize American public opinion in order to obtain government credits. The two men triumph: Disney’s Tomorrowland attraction will be a card, while the promises of the engineer will type in the eye of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961), who would require a copy of the documentary to broadcast him in the Pentagon.
A little closer to the stars
Naturalized in April 1955, the former Nazi continued his ascending trajectory. Boosted by the Disney documentary series, its popularity is soaring. In 1960, he rose to the rank of director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and even invited Walt Disney to visit the neuralgic points of the American space program. This does not prevent him from keeping his hands in the citch. “I want to see what my baby will look like”he jokes with his colleagues when he inspects a prototype.
Like 600 million viewers, Wernher von Braun attended, on July 21, 1969, at the first step of the human being on the moon, as part of the Apollo 11 mission. It was the objective of his life. What can he do better? No doubt not having the answer, the 60 -year -old engineer resigned from NASA three years later, in 1972. He died in June 1977, leaving behind a controversial heritage. Should we remember from him the pioneer of the aerospace … or the repentant Nazi whose work still caused the death of thousands of civilians (and that of 20,000 forced workers imprisoned in the concentration camps)?
Undoubtedly more pragmatic than cruel, the German-American engineer will have been able to play on the two tables, exploiting the funding of the third Reich to materialize his childhood dream. A moral worthy of a Disney cartoon, even if his career was not.
