Wernher von Braun- Nazi or not? [spelling corrected]

[Lars_Aruns]

@DrDeth

Pretty much everyone in any position of any power, Officer to Mayor, was a Member of the Nazi Party. Later in the war, it had as many as 8.5 million members. Every single office- Postmasters, Aldermen, likely even dogcatchers. Something like 10% of the total population, which means maybe 25% of the adult males.

Exactly. In 1937 the Nazis had pretty much total control of the country, and to achieve anything you’d have to become a party member. I remember reading how there were only a few generals who were not members of the Nazi party, for example. Von Braun might just not have had any choice if he wanted to do anything more than selling produce in a stall at the marketplace. Although personally I’d have found the marketplace stall much more appealing, normal people did not make plans for when the Nazis were gone; they dealt with the regime day to day.

[ftg]

@Lars_Aruns

I remember reading how there were only a few generals who were not members of the Nazi party, for example.

You couldn’t be in the Wehrmacht and belong to any party although a few times exceptions were made.

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Speer (add usual grain of salt) said he persuaded people to increase rations and conditions of the slave rocket workers to limit production-reducing “turnover”. Presumably this was from a request from the managers but I don’t know if von Braun was part of this request.

[Sailboat]

@Captain_Amazing

Like 633 Squadron said, Wernher von Braun wanted to develop and build rockets. If that meant joining the Nazi party and the SS, then he’d join them. If that meant building military rockets to launch at Britain, he did that. If that meant using slave labor to put them together, hey, the rockets were being made, and that was what he cared about. If the Nazis were oppressing Europe, it wasn’t von Braun’s concern. Except for having to spend a week in prison, they didn’t oppress him. In fact, they gave him money to build his rockets. So why should he concern himself with their actions as long as his life was comfortable and he could build his rockets?

Then at the end of the war, he was picked up by Paperclip, and the Americans wanted to give him money to build rockets, and so he became a loyal American. Why not? The important thing was the rockets, after all, not who he was building them for.

Indeed. Tom Lehrer summarized this view of von Braun with an admirable economy of words (previously quoted, but it completes my point):

Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department, says Wernher von Braun.

[Captain_Amazing]

@Sailboat

Indeed. Tom Lehrer summarized this view of von Braun with an admirable economy of words (previously quoted, but it completes my point):

Mort Sahl suggested that the biographical movie, “I Aim at the Stars” should have been subtitled “but sometimes I hit London”.

[Voyager]

I’m getting a feeling of deja vu in this thread.

He did have an alternative, which was to leave Germany like Willy Ley, another member of the Rocket Club, did.

[DrDeth]

@ftg

You couldn’t be in the Wehrmacht and belong to any party although a few times exceptions were made.

wiki: Nazi Party - Wikipedia
"*Military membership

Nazi members with military ambitions were encouraged to join the Waffen SS, but a great number enlisted in the Wehrmacht and even more were drafted for service after World War II began. Early regulations required that all Wehrmacht members be non-political, and therefore any Nazi member joining in the 1930s was required to resign from the Nazi Party.

This regulation was soon waived, however, and there is ample evidence that full Nazi Party members served in the Wehrmacht in particular after the outbreak of World War II. The Wehrmacht Reserves also saw a high number of senior Nazis enlisting, with Reinhard Heydrich and Fritz Todt joining the Luftwaffe, and Major Ronald von Brysonstofen of the Waffen SS, as well as Karl Hanke who served in the Army.*

[Captain_Amazing]

@Voyager

He did have an alternative, which was to leave Germany like Willy Ley, another member of the Rocket Club, did.

Sure, Herbert Schaefer too. But there was a difference. Ley was a pacifist who had moral objections to developing weapons. So, he had a reason to leave Germany.

[Gfactor]

Changed original thread title, which was “Wehner Von Braun- Nazi or not?” to the current one.

Gfactor
General Questions Moderator

[Chronos]

The more interesting question, I think, was Heisenberg, who was in charge of the Nazi atomic weapon project, and may or may not have been sabotaging it from within. But that’s probably one for GD.