The rocket man - Wernher von Braun and the dream of the moon

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Movie
Original title The rocket man - Wernher von Braun and the dream of the moon
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2009
length 89 minutes
Rod
Director Peter Claridge
Dirk Kämper
script Stefan Brauburger
Dirk Kämper
production Michael Souvignier
Mark Horyna
music Sergios Roth
camera André Bohm
cut Lars Roland
occupation

The Rocket Man - Wernher von Braun and the Dream of the Moon is a German documentary from 2009 that deals with the life of the German rocket researcher Wernher von Braun . The ZDF broadcast the film on 14 July 2009 for the first time.

The documentary shows the career of space pioneer Wernher von Braun, who was the driving force behind the construction of the " Saturn V " lunar rocket and became the father of lunar flight in the USA .

action

The path of Wernher von Braun is illustrated with numerous photo comments from contemporary witnesses who are continuously integrated into the documentation. These statements show that von Braun's enthusiasm for the moon began in his earliest youth and that he experimented with self-made black powder rockets as a teenager . Even when he was sent to boarding school by his father, he sketched his first moon rockets. Later he sought contact with like-minded people and found the " Association for Space Shipping " in Berlin-Reinickendorf . There the members developed the first German rocket engine on German soil. At this time, the Reichswehr became aware of the group and invited them to the Reichswehr test site in 1932. Von Braun sensed his chance to realize his dreams of airworthy missiles with the support of the Army Weapons Office and placed himself in the care of the army. He was given the funds he needed and was allowed to continue experimenting as a civilian employee on the test site. He worked obsessively on a new rocket motor with a jet drive and on his doctoral thesis, which the army declared a secret in 1934. Von Braun paid little attention to the political changes in the country. He received millions from both the Army Weapons Office and the Air Force for his research; from 1937 he headed the Peenemünde Army Research Institute . Here he succeeded in developing the unit 4 , known as the V2 by National Socialist propaganda. In order to secure financial support for his work even after the outbreak of war, he agreed to join the SS . When Hitler’s war threatened to fail, von Braun’s rocket project was accelerated and supported by countless forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners as additional workers. At the end of the war, the “A4” was supposed to bring about victory as a “miracle weapon”. But the British Air Force prevented this by launching a massive bomb attack on Peenemünde . Risking his life, von Braun managed to save the documents from his research and then to build a new underground factory in Nordhausen . Here, too, concentration camp prisoners were deployed, who first had to expand the cave system with the simplest means and also had to live there. An estimated 3,000 prisoners were killed in the process, which von Braun accepted approvingly, even if he later denied having known about it. The eyewitnesses prove that he had requested the prisoners himself. Von Braun's rocket was not accurate and could only be used as a weapon of terrorism and retaliation. Targets in Paris and London claimed many civilian casualties in September 1944.

At the end of the war in 1945, special units of the victorious powers were on the move to secure German know-how for themselves. Von Braun had already thought about who he would entrust his knowledge to if the war were to be lost. It was clear to him that only the United States should have enough funds to continue his rocket research. He skilfully negotiated with the Americans and went to the USA with 150 of his employees from Peenemünde. At only 33 years of age, he continued his career here almost seamlessly. The US Army was so interested in the further development of the weapon that von Brauns and many of his employees' SS pasts were kept secret in the files. The efforts to build a moon rocket, however, were postponed by the Americans and it turned out that they too initially only had a military use in mind. Von Braun therefore initially built nuclear missiles for the USA. Nevertheless, with von Braun's collaboration, the idea of ​​a space station finally became a reality, as one would be able to act very precisely from there, even in the event of war. So he could continue to dream his dream of a moon landing and also work on it. When the United States discovered that the Soviet Union was ahead of them in conquering space and sending their Sputnik into orbit, Wernher von Braun and his research gained new attention. In eighty days, America took the Explorer 10 into space under his leadership . This brought the scientist nationwide attention and NASA was founded as a civil organization. Finally freed from purely military use, Wernher von Braun could now devote himself to his old goal of conquering the moon and a possible landing. He received a lot of media attention; In 1960 he traveled to Germany for the premiere of the film I Aim at the Stars . In 1961 Moscow triumphed again when they sent Gagarin, the first man into space. The USA responded promptly and pushed its space program under von Braun's direction. But the Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the Soviet Union stationed long-range missiles on the island, caused development to stagnate. All armed forces were placed on the second highest alert and the US was on the verge of nuclear war. The assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy ultimately led to the lunar program being accelerated. In six years, Wernher von Braun succeeded in developing the Saturn V and bringing it into space. His dream of decades became a reality. People set foot on the moon on July 21, 1969. A quantum leap in humanity that Wernher von Braun made possible; he now dreamed of a flight to Mars. But the Vietnam War and social unrest drew the country's attention. After winning the race against the Russians, America believed it had reached its goal and the space program and Wernher von Braun faded into the background. He then left NASA in 1972 and resignedly switched to industry. A few years later he developed cancer and died on June 16, 1977.

background

Interviews with the following contemporary witnesses:

Surname Opinion on Wernher von Braun
Albert van Dijk Prisoner in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp
Dorette Schlidt Secretary von Brauns
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Astronaut Apollo 11
Ernst Stuhlinger † Co-worker and friend of Braun
Michael J. Neufeld von Braun biographer
Hedwig Oeste † School friend
Gerhard Reisig † Rocket engineer
Christoph von Braun nephew
Walter Jacobi † Employee
Rainer Frobe historian
Kurt Bornträger † Officer in Peenemünde
Konrad Dannenberg † Employee
Steven Dick NASA chief historian
Viktor Bitek US military intelligence
Brooks Moore US missile engineer
Frederick Ordway Braun biographer
Frank Williams Marshall Space Flight Center
J. Lee Thompson † Director "I Aim at the Stars"
Robert McNamara † US Secretary of State 1961
David L. Christensen US missile engineer
Ed Buckbee NASA press officer

The shooting took place in Germany, Poland and the USA.

The reconstruction of the light and dark sides of the eventful career of Wernher von Braun could be completed by previously unknown letters from the rocket man.

criticism

Tilmann P. Gangloff from Kino.de writes that this film is: “the usual mixture of contemporary documentary material and active reconstructions [...] in which the two main actors [...] stand out primarily by destroying many cigarettes. [...] But the combination of these two levels [the ingenious and charismatic visionary and on the other hand the naive or unscrupulous careerist] is quite impressive. This is especially true for the images created on the computer, which allow you to look inside the rocket and thus reveal the structure. And then there are gimmicks that do not help to establish the truth, but are fun. "

Christian Buß writes about this documentary at Spiegel Online : “Dreamer and careerist, space hawker and death constructor: In their docudrama 'Der Raketenmann', Stefan Brauburger and Dirk Kämper shed light on all facets of the researcher who understood how to realize his visions under Hitler as well as later under Kennedy. “The film illuminates Wernher von Braun's ambiguity. “It is precisely at this point that the filmmakers dismantle the image of Braun as a scientist who would have lost sight of the reality of his time through all his tinkering. To do this, they refer to the latest research that shows that he very deliberately incorporated economic components of Hitler's machinery of mass destruction into his own planning. [...] The will to progress and the power to destroy, they found a strange connection in the person of Wernher von Braun. Logically, the television portrait 'The Rocket Man' permeates the most beautiful and longing impressions of the Braun travel destination Mond with the realization: Innocence looks different. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Rocket Man - Wernher von Braun and the Dream of the Moon - Filming Locations at Internet Movie Database , accessed on January 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ Tilmann P. Gangloff : The rocket man - Wernher von Braun and the dream of the moon - film review on kino.de, accessed on January 10, 2015.
  3. ↑ Christian Buß : ZDF film "Der Raketenmann": High-flyer of the Nazis - film review on spiegel.de, accessed on January 10, 2015.