I think the point of the song was about politics making strange bedfellows. Von Braun got a “get out of jail” card by being so important to our strategic goals. All the whitewash about him just being a decent guy who had to work for the enemy was propaganda to make him palatable to the american public. Now, it may have been true for all I know. But that wasn’t the reason for it.
I think Von Braun just wanted to make rockets for the joy of achievement. But his subject of interest immersed him in politics.
Now where do I put the line about “The Masochism Tango?”
That must be why Reinhard Gehlen’s Nazi intel outfit was incorporated directly into the CIA to get the jump on the Soviets. Next to Gehlen and his merry men, von Braun looks like a Boy Scout.
In German, or in English
I know how to “count down”
Und I’m learning Chinese
Says Werner von Braun.
I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard that the response to his songs, and this one especially, is what drove him from the pop culture scene. After “That Was the Week that Was” and his albums, he disappeared in the 1960s and didn’t seem to re-appear until he wrote some songs for Sesame Street.
I think a lot of scientists of his caliber don’t give a shit about government or politics. They just want to be left alone to do their work. There’s some very dedicated people out there who are non-political.
As long as we’re nitpicking, on the TWTYTW CD it sounds more like “German oder English” (For those like me who don’t know German, AltaVista translations says “oder” means “or”).