World War I helped to bring about a technological revolution in Europe, particularly in Germany who bore the brunt of the economic sanctions and war reparations under the Treaty of Versailles. Over in America, the Smithsonian published A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes submitted by Robert Goddard in 1920 that included a proposal to send a rocket to the Moon. The media greeted the paper with so much ridicule and derision that Robert Goddard retreated into near seclusion and avoided publicizing his further work. Dr Goddard refused to join or encourage the new rocket clubs that sprung up around the country and the US government had little to no interest in his work. Europe had an almost opposite reaction to Herman Oberth's Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (By Rocket to Space) published as a book in 1923. His book generated widespread excitement and interest in space travel and led to the establishment of rocket clubs all over Europe. Hermann Oberth, himself, joined Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR) that became the premier rocket club in Germany and helped launch the career of Germany's most famous rocketeer Wernher von Braun.
(To read The Grand Troika of Space Travel, Part I click on this link.)
The VfR attracted the attention of the German military in the late 1920's who were becoming interested in rockets as a means of creating new military weaponry. While the Versailles treaty forbade Germany from rebuilding its military weapons capabilities or pursuing weapons development, rocket technology development was not specifically prohibited by the Versailles Treaty since the Allies had not consider the feasibility of rocketry at the time.
Of course, the German military, Reichsheer, could not afford to publicize their interest in rocketry so they did everything they could to keep rocket technology under wraps. When Hermann Oberth published his new book Wege zur Raumschiffahrt, Ways to Spaceflight, in 1929, the Reichsheer generals sought to have the book banned and to prevent publications of later editions. Once the Nazi rose to power in 1932, the military was able to not only censor the book but disband the private rocket club Vfr.
While World War II was a tragic, destructive global event, its advent was fortuituous in some ways. The war led to the downfall of the Nazi regime. Had the Nazis held off on starting the war and retained power for only a few more years, they would have had in their grasp the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Such weapon would have altered the balance of power for the Nazis and enabled them to have near invincible dominion over Europe and around the world. Hermann Oberth, despite his Romanian birth, was an ardent German rightwing nationalist who fully supported the rise of Nazi regime.
Hermann Oberth
Hermann Oberth was born in what was known as Hermannstadt, Transylvania to a Saxon family of German nationalists. Like many young boys at the time he became enthusiastic about space travel after reading Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and engaged in attempts to build model rockets.
However, after graduating from high school, Oberth chose to study medicine to become a doctor. At the advent of World War I, Oberth was drafted into the German Army medical corp as a field medic. He spent part of his time during the war conducting some informal rocket research. His war experience convinced him to change his major to physics after WWI ended to complete an undergraduate degree at the University of Munich. He then joined the doctoral program at University of Heidelberg to write a dissertation on rocketry in which he promoted the concept of a multistage rocket. He submitted his doctoral paper in 1922 and it was rejected by the review board as being too abstract.
Dismayed and chagrined, Hermann Oberth returned home to Romania and like Konstantin Tsiolkovsky took up teaching high school math and physics. In 1923, he decided to publish his dissertation as a book, something that was unheard of in scientific circles. Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen won widespread acclaim across Europe and America even though Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky had published similar books earlier. Oberth's name became a common household name overnight and German luminaries like Max Valier, a popular aviator and stuntman, sought him out. He travelled around Europe to defend his book and encourage rocket enthusiasts.
As a member of Vfr, he became a mentor for many young men including then teenager Wernher von Braun, Germany's master rocketeer. Fritz Lang, a German film director who produced the famous dystopian silent movie Metropolis, was inspired by Oberth to direct Frau im Mond, one of the first films in the science fiction genre. Oberth was hired as a technical consultant for the movie from 1928 to 1929. As part of the contract, Oberth agreed to build a liquid fuel rocket to be launched as part of the film premiere. He was assisted by students from the Technical University of Berlin, one of who was von Braun, in construction of the rocket. Kegeldüse, as the rocket was called, was not launched at the movie premiere, but it was eventually successfully static fired by the Vfr.
In 1929, he published his second book in which he proposed the feasibility of ion propulsion as well as utilizing rockets as missiles tipped with warheads. The book won him an award from the French Academy of Sciences sponsored by famous French pilot and rocketeer Robert Esnault-Pelterie who had also written similar papers. The German Army was nonplussed about the publication and had the book banned in 1932. In the meantime many of Oberth's disciples had been recruited by the German military to work on the rocket program and Vfr disbanded.
By 1938, Oberth had moved from Romania to Germany and became a naturalized German citizen. In 1941, Wernher von Braun hired him to consult on the V-2 rocket development at Peenemünde where Oberth earned a merit service award for his actions in saving research records during the Allied bombing. Oberth eventually moved on to work for WASAG developing solid propellent antiaircraft rockets near Wittenberg.
After WWII ended and Oberth was released by the Allies, his family settled in Feucht, Germany near Nuremberg where they were to remain for the rest of his life despite his frequent travels. In the postwar years, Oberth worked as a consultant for different companies across Europe. He even travelled overseas and worked with Wernher von Braun who was ensconced in Huntsville, Alabama for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. A famous photograph of him while at the ABMA can be seen below. Hermann Oberth retired from consulting and contract research in 1962 returning to Feucht to write more philosophical works.
Hermann Oberth is the longest lived of the first generation of rocketeers, even outliving virtually all of the second generation as well. He is the only one of the three orginal rocket scientists who lived to see humans land and take their first steps on the Moon. He is often referred to as the Godfather of Space Travel. He died in Nuremberg in 1989 at the age of 95.
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![title=](http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq345/NellaSelim/454px-AMBA_Pioneers.jpg)
Hermann Oberth is sitting at front center with Wernher von Braun on the right.
Note: I have revised the title to this series in order to make the subject matter more apparent.