How Nazi weapons sent America to the moon

On the 16th of July, 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The mission put a man on the moon for the very first time, winning the Space Race for the United States.

The rocket that made it possible was Saturn V. As tall as a 36-story building, it was the most powerful that had ever flown, symbolising American technological dominance during the Cold War.

And yet, the man who designed it had a dark past. During the Second World War, he had been at the forefront of the Nazi Secret Weapons programme, designing weapons which cost thousands of lives. His name was Werner von Braun.

*Note* The shots used at 3:27 are from the German Science Fiction film “The woman in the moon” (Fritz Lang, 1927) This film - used for illustrative purposes in the video - was a source of inspiration for many early rocket scientists, and it’s technical director Herman Oberth would heavily influence von Braun and his work.

"Werner von Braun" Written and performed by Tom Lehrer - Public Domain

Attributions:
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1978-Anh.024-03 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

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[Keimzelle]

"Who cares where they come down - that's not my department, says Wernher von Braun"

Love the IWM for showing us Tom Lehrer, born in 1928 - and still alive as we speak.

[jonathan_careless]

"I aim at the stars, but I keep hitting London."

[rickv]

"Our Germans are better then their Germans" - The Right Stuff

[BulletSponge]

I was born in Huntsville, AL in 1968. Our next door neighbor came over with Von Braun in Operation Paperclip although I do not recall his name now. My Dad became friends with him and he would tell my dad war stories (mainly about his brothers time in North Africa as a Wehrmacht surgeon). Apparently the Italian forces they were with wanted to retreat every time there was a sandstorm because they thought it was the allies attacking. He NEVER spoke about what he did himself during the war though.

[Zun]

The same also happened with the Soviet Union with scientists and plane designs

[timgosling]

Your film of the V2 test launch being set up at 0:37 was of course post-war, as witnessed by the guy seen strolling about in puttees, battledress and beret. This was at Cuxhaven naval gunnery range, 2-15 Oct 45. Because the film of these tests is almost all that remains and because the German personnel were still in uniform these images are often thought to be of operational wartime launches.
The missile landing at 4:46 is also not an operational launch but rather a test failure. A successful V2 approached its target at at least 10 times that speed.

[chinmaykale]

In Werner Von Braun’s case it ended up being “You either die a villain or you live long enough to see yourself become the hero.”

[pauldembry]

WVB knew very well what was going on at the Dora concentration camp. I know this because my mother's cousin was a slave laborer at Dora building V2 rockets and reported seeing him many times. If you can read French, find 'La Planete Dora" by Yves Beon. There is an English translation however I don't know how well it compares with the original.

[jayrigger]

Take a read about Hubertus Strughold, he did a lot of the crewed space flight science, was a monster but not outted until 80s

[VolkerGoller]

A very smart and good looking definition of a mad Scientist

[kb]

‘Our Germans are better than their Germans’

[jonathan_careless]

Is it fair to say the moon program was also to develop the technology for ICBMs? So Braun was basically developing the ICBMs the U.S. needed to compete with the USSR?

[chuckh]

Peter Sellers made a very good doppelgänger to Herr Dr.

[sornord]

"Our Germans are better than their Germans." - The Right Stuff (1983)

[ronhudson]

He was a Nazi. He used slave labour to build his rockets, in service to the most heinous regime in human history. He was personally responsible for the deaths of thousands. He jumped ship to save his skin. He developed rockets that ultimately landed men on the moon. He was an opportunist who was there when the west needed him most. He is the classic example of pragmatic politics. Never a hero, always a villain- but he was our villain.

[Napoleon-lc]

I highly recommend Annie Jacobsen’s book, Operation Paperclip for more on this topic.

[geordiedog]

It’s not complicated. Not at all complicated. Pretty bloody straightforward, I reckon.
If those rockets had been coming down on New York or Baltimore then I very much doubt he’d have been recruited and lauded, somehow. It’s an insult to those in Europe who were killed by Brauns work.
I’m very much with Tom Lehrer on this one.

[kidmohair]

nothing says hypocrisy quite like having your brutal former enemies
crawl into bed with you so you can "continue to profit" from their work....

[egoneiermann-tnsc]

He was an alpha man who didn't care where and how he implemented his idea. That's not really a fascism and demorcracy thing when you look at the powers that be in the US today. The accusation of being a Nazi is no longer a problem, if you look at Trump and Musk, it's more of a compliment

[jakebocskovits]

Operation Paperclip.

That pretty much sums up the whole thing.