Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 – June 16, 1977) was a German, later an American, aerospace engineer and space architect credited with inventing the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany and the Saturn V for the United States. He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany, where he was a member of the Nazi Party and the SS. Following World War II, he was moved to the United States, along with about 1,500 other scientists, technicians, and engineers, as part of Operation Paperclip, where he developed the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1, and the Apollo program manned lunar landings.

In his twenties and early thirties, von Braun worked in Germany's rocket development program, where he helped design and develop the V-2 rocket at Peenemünde during World War II. Following the war, von Braun worked for the United States Army on an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) program before his group was assimilated into NASA. Under NASA, he served as director of the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center and as the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. According to a NASA source, he is, "without doubt, the greatest rocket scientist in history", as well as the "Father of Rocket Science". In 1975, he received the National Medal of Science. He continued insisting on the human mission to Mars throughout his life.

Personal life

Von Braun had a charismatic personality and was known as a ladies' man. As a student in Berlin, he would often be seen in the evenings in the company of two girlfriends at once. He later had a succession of affairs within the secretarial and computer pool at Peenemünde. In January 1943, he became engaged to Dorothee Brill, a physical education teacher in Berlin, and sought permission from the SS Race and Settlement Office to marry. However, the engagement was broken due to his mother's opposition. Later in 1943, while preparing V-2 launch sites in northeastern France, von Braun had an affair in Paris with a Frenchwoman, who was imprisoned for collaboration after the War and became destitute.

During his stay at Fort Bliss, von Braun proposed marriage to Maria Luise von Quistorp (born June 10, 1928), his maternal first cousin, in a letter to his father. On March 1, 1947, having received permission to go back to Germany and return with his bride, he married her in a Lutheran church in Landshut, Germany. Shortly after he converted to Evangelical Christianity, his bride and he, as well as his father and mother, returned to New York on March 26, 1947. On December 9, 1948, the von Brauns' first daughter, Iris Careen, was born at Fort Bliss Army Hospital. The von Brauns had two more children, Margrit Cécile in 1952 and Peter Constantine in 1960.

On April 15, 1955, von Braun became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Death

On June 16, 1977, Wernher von Braun died of pancreatic cancer in Alexandria, Virginia, at the age of 65. He was buried at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia.

Von Braun's gravestone mentions Psalms 19:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (vault or dome) sheweth his handywork.(KJV)