Werner von Braun

[the_diego]

@Ludovic

I wonder if it wasn’t sort of like one of those philosophlical conundrums where you can either not act, and have the train run into and kill 100 people, or act and have the train veer off and kill 10 people. If the rocket program had not been in place, who knows if there would not have been more Nazi emphasis on research of something more effective such as jet fighters or cheap and reliable main battle tanks. So perhaps by succeeding, WvB prevented those programs from receiving as much research as they needed, perhaps saving lives in the balance.

the vengeance project used up nearly half of germany’s annual potato crop because of its need for alcohol. that’s almost sabotage.

what i can’t explain well enough is viewing guys like WVB as basic forces of nature: they’re always there, easily identified, waiting to be tapped, and as easy to replace as a hydra’s head.

[Floater]

@Senegoid

He is clearly quoting that song from imprecise memory – several other lines are not quite right either.

E.g.

“In German oder English I know how to count down
Und I’m learning Chinese”, says Wernher von Braun.

[Tristan]

Keep in mind that while he was essential to the early space race, his later career in rocketry was stunted due to his Nazi history.

[Gagundathar]

As a young man, I learned that Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Werner von Braun and Robert Goddard were the three men that created modern rocketry. One of those men was Russian, one German and one American.

Long after anyone remembers Nazism or even the USA, the efforts of those men will be respected.