Georg von Tiesenhausen

Georg Felix von Tiesenhausen (born May 18, 1914 in Riga , Russian Empire ; † June 3, 2018 in Huntsville , Alabama ) was a German-American engineer. During World War II he was involved in the development of the V2 rocket and later, as part of the Apollo program, in the construction of the Lunar Roving Vehicle .

Life

Georg von Tiesenhausen came from the German-Baltic noble family Tiesenhausen and was the middle of three children from the marriage of Felix von Tiesenhausen and his first wife, the Scottish Marion Cowan. He married Asta Esch on March 15, 1943 in Hamburg; there are three children from the marriage.

Von Tiesenhausen studied mechanical engineering at the engineering school in Hamburg (today HAW Hamburg ), was drafted into the Wehrmacht and deployed on the Eastern Front in 1941 . As a prospective engineer, he was allowed to continue his studies at short notice, among others with Heinrich Blasius . After his exams in 1943, he was assigned to the Peenemünde Army Research Center on Usedom , where Wernher von Braun was technical director at the time .

After the end of the Second World War, Tiesenhausen became a prisoner of war. After his release, he worked as a truck driver, auto mechanic, passport photographer, office worker and chauffeur. In 1949 he found employment as an engineer at Hatlapa ; there he constructed ship winches .

1953 Wernher von Braun brought him to Huntsville (Alabama) in his rocket development department ( Operation Paperclip ). Here he worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center , where, in addition to the Lunar Roving Vehicle, he developed components for the Saturn V rocket.

In 1986 he retired from engineering and became a visiting professor at the United States Space Camp , an educational facility at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville. After Oscar Holderer's death in 2015, von Tiesenhausen was considered the last living member of "Wernher von Braun's German lunar rocket team".

Awards

In 2007 von Tiesenhausen was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Space Camp and in 2011 received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Education for his life's work . The award was presented to him by Neil Armstrong .

Web links

• Jürgen Dankert: Georg von Tiesenhausen. In: graduates of the department. HAW Hamburg , Department of Mechanical Engineering and Production, accessed on May 8, 2015 . 
• Michael Jennings: Oral history interview with Georg von Tiesenhausen. Georg von Tiesenhausen, rocket scientist in Wernher von Braun's group at Peenemünde, Huntsville, and NASA, discusses his work with von Braun at Peenemünde, including his work on a rocket that would have been aimed at New York. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum , Retrieved May 8, 2015 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Lee Roop: “Dr. Georg von Tiesenhausen, last of German rocket team, dies in Alabama ” on AL.com from June 4, 2018
2. ^ Baron Heinrich von Tiesenhausen in the Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility, accessed on June 5, 2018
3. ↑ Dr. Heinrich Blasius (August 9, 1883 - April 24, 1970). Lecturer at Berliner Tor from 1912 to 1970 , accessed on June 6, 2018
4. ↑ 100th birthday ( memento from March 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: Mechanical engineering and production 2014–2015. Freundeskreis Maschinenbau und Produktion Berliner Tor e. V., HAW Hamburg (PDF, 3 MB).
5. ↑ What many do not know! In: Info sheet 305 , Förderverein-Peenemünde, 2005.
6. ↑ FAZ.net: The rise and fall of the "Paperclip Boys"
7. ^ Georg von Tiesenhausen. In: Space Camp, Hall of Fame
8. ^ William T. Martin: Von Braun team member Dr. von Tiesenhausen honored by US Space and Rocket Center. ( Memento of July 12, 2011 on the Internet Archive ) on: huntsvillenewswire.com February 3, 2011.
9. ↑ (ceh.): Brief reports In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Issue No. 30, February 5, 2011.