Berthold Seliger (engineer)

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Berthold Seliger (born June 17, 1928 in Dauba , Bohemia , † January 13, 2020 in Sonthofen im Allgäu) was a German rocket designer.

biography

In 1942, at the age of 14, Seliger received a scholarship at the Mittweida University of Applied Sciences in Saxony and after completing his studies became assistant to the well-known aerospace pioneer Eugen Sänger . In 1956 he moved to Orsoy on the Lower Rhine, where he opened a moped workshop .

From 1960 Seliger was a member of the German Missile Society and in 1961 founded a company for rocket construction, the Berthold Seliger Research and Development Company.

In 1962/63 this company launched various rockets in the Cuxhaven Wadden area, including a three-stage rocket with a peak height of over 100 kilometers (first flight: May 2, 1963). This was the only rocket developed in post-war Germany that could advance to the edge of space. In December 1963, Seliger organized a demonstration of militarily usable missiles in front of military representatives from non- NATO countries. From June 1964, no more flight permits for rocket tests in the Cuxhaven Wadden area were granted due to a rocket accident that had occurred in Braunlage in the Harz Mountains in May 1964.

In 1966 Seliger's moped workshop went bankrupt and he moved. Seliger was married. In 1966 the couple separated. Both had their son Berthold Seliger (* 1960), who is a publicist and concert agency entrepreneur in Berlin.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary in the Allgäu de
  2. ^ NDR: When German researchers tested rockets in the mud flats . ( ndr.de [accessed on November 19, 2018]).
  3. ↑ WDR local time , broadcast on March 21, 2011, WDR media library, accessed on March 22, 2011
  4. ↑ Sassan Dastkutah: Rheinberg: When rockets were built in Orsoy . In: RP ONLINE . ( rp-online.de [accessed on November 19, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Blessed, Berthold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German missile designer
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Dauba , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2020
Place of death Sonthofen