Customer Reviews

Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (Vintage)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The career of Wernher von Braun has been a subject of investigation, and not a little controversy, almost from the time that the German rocketeer came to the United States after World War II. There is no question in my mind that "Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War" will be recognized as a seminal addition to the literature of space history and biography. In this book Michael J. Neufeld, the chair of the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and a longtime friend and colleague of mine (so I confess that I am not totally unbiased in my assessment), traces the career of one of the most important rocket developers and champions of space exploration during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. He went on to a stellar career (pun intended) in rocketry and spaceflight. Neufeld argues that von Braun should be remembered for four major accomplishments:
(1) Developing the world's first ballistic missile, the V-2, for Germany during World War II.
(2) Popularizing space exploration in the U.S. in the 1950s through a succession of articles, speeches, public appearances, and television broadcasts. The most important of these were the famed "Collier's" series of articles and the three Disney TV programs.
(3) Launching the first U.S. satellite to orbit the Earth, Explorer 1, in January 1958, a significant rejoinder to the Sputnik launches of the fall of 1957.
(4) Leading the technical development of the largest successful rocket ever built, the Saturn V launcher that took the Apollo astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

Neufeld's core thesis revolves around what he refers to as a "Faustian bargain" for von Braun; he was consumed with exploring space but to enable that goal he spent the majority of his career building sophisticated weapons of destruction. Not until 1960 did he work for NASA, an organization dedicated to the peaceful exploration of space. Previously, military organizations had employed von Braun to build missiles.

This thesis gets to the heart of a longstanding controversy over von Braun's motivations and a belief in his basic opportunism. Because he was willing to build a ballistic missile for Hitler's Germany, with all of connotations that implied in the devastation and terror of World War II, many of his ideals have been questioned and criticized. For some he was a visionary who foresaw the potential of human spaceflight, but for others he was little more than an arms merchant who developed brutal weapons of mass destruction. As Neufeld shows, in what will be viewed as a major benchmark in this historiographical debate, von Braun seems to have been something of both. The subtleties of this analysis are path breaking and will be significant for all interested in exploring seriously the history of spaceflight. This biography will be the starting point for all future investigation of the life and career of this fascinating, perplexing, and complex individual.

When I first learn about this book I thought to myself:"What else can be written about Von Braun that I don't know"? After reading everything that was published during the years on the topic, it must be an immense undertaking, to create yet another Von Braun book, but, as I got the book, I saw immediately that this is by no means "another Von Braun book".

There are many revelations, new stories and new interpretations on the deeds of Von Braun, especially in his NASA career. The amount of work and details is just stager ring, and the result is breathtaking. You can almost feel that you are in the meeting rooms at Marshal space flight center at the height of discussions on various Apollo and Saturn alternatives.

This book is with no doubt the best book ever to be published on the life and work of Wherner Von Braun, and will serve the space historians community as the definitive source for years to come.

The author does not make Von Braun any discounts, and when he has criticism on him or on his decisions at NASA (and of course on the WW2 period) we get to see a balanced account of the events.

A must have book and important addition to the history of spaceflight, on this jubilee year of the Sputnik launch.

Tal Inbar
Head
Space Research Center
Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies

A mob followed Dr. Wernher von Braun into the armored test chamber of the M. I. T. Rocket Research Society some time in 1962. We shook hands, and he picked up a static test rocket motor we had made for liquid propellants with an innovative plug nozzle. He said, having missed the words "static test": "You got to get some of ze meat off here, here and here!", pointing. He was one of those rare people with an aura that just radiated -- highly charismatic in manner. Then I understood how engineers and others could work for him in the foul conditions at Peenemünde that prevailed after the bombing of 17 Aug 43 (p153). And at Nordhausen.

Anyhow, the RRS visit was followed by a talk on Saturn booster development in M. I. T.'s Kresge Auditorium, which would have impressed any U. S. congresspeople who saw it. But neither author Neufeld nor I have any illusions about the V-2 program. As was quoted several times from Mort Sahl imitating von Braun: "Ve shoot for ze moon, but zometimes ve hit London." So Neufeld does not indulge in hero worship.

Neufeld's exhaustive research, backed up by 120 pages of notes, uses letters sent by von Braun, other letters, interviews with relatives, and any other imaginable sources, has helped produce what must be the definitive biography of von Braun. Good index. Two groups of black & white photos are provided. And it is a biography, contrary to another Amazon reviewer, who called this book a history of rocketry, which it certainly is not. The author stated he was able to read German, which surely helped.

So von Braun's ancestors, schooling, early work in the German Society for Space Travel, movement to work for the Wehrmacht before Hitler was in power, and remaining afterwards is all there. Coerced membership in the Nazi Party and the SS was duly noted. Von Braun's brilliant escape to the US Army is given in great detail, then his debriefing, slow years near White Sands, NM, then productive years at what became the Marshall Space Flight Center, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, AL, which I have toured, then 2 years with NASA HQ near DC, and finally some years with Fairchild Aircraft are all there.

Von Braun was a major contributor to the US Army's IRBM Redstone, the version called the Jupiter C which orbited the first US satellite, the Saturn series of boosters, including the V, without which there would not have been an Apollo program and men landing on the moon. Von Braun also helped with the Space Shuttle, and then with some of the first communication satellites. Neufeld is careful to write, many times, that von Braun was not an especially inventive engineer, but had one of the greatest talents ever to manage complex engineering programs, while also being great at public relations. And sticking with government work almost all of his career to carry out his dream of manned space travel.

My only disappointments were some vague technical details of certain rockets, and little effort to explain how fast fuel pumps or how the guidance systems worked.

Very highly recommended.

This is likely to be the authoritative book on the life of Wernher von Braun. Neufeld has clearly done his homework. At the same time, some readers might be disappointed at the scope of the book, and his handling of von Braun's Nazi past is certain to be controversial.

The book is certainly true to its title. This is the story of of Wernher von Braun, and Neufeld stays tightly focused on his subject. Wernher von Braun led a fascinating life. Born to aristocracy, he dreamed of going to space from an early age, and became an early pioneer of the rocket industry. During World War II he became head of one of Germany's most sophisticated weapons programs, eventually developing the V-2 rocket. At the end of World War II, von Braun and other German scientist were brought to the United States, where he became head of one of the United States' first space programs. Eventually he would play a leading role in launching the first US satellite, and in the Apollo lunar missions. Throughout, von Braun is a larger than life personality: appearing on TV and in movies; writing popular fiction and magazine articles; meeting with heads of state and celebrities; jetting to exotic locations; flying, big game hunting, and scuba diving.

The relentless focus on von Braun might be too much for some readers, and at times the book seems to be an endless parade of dates and facts. While well written, and easy to follow, it is inevitably tedious. While we are treated to a detailed account of von Braun's family tree there is little on the history of rocketry before von Braun. Even though von Braun's life was largely shaped by World War II and the Cold War, there is little background on these events. During his time in the US, mention of the Russian space program and other US programs is kept to an absolute minimum. Throughout the book, even knowledgeable readers will struggle to put event s into a meaningful context.

In previous biographies, many authors either didn't know of, or glossed over von Braun's Nazi ties during World War II. Neufeld makes it clear that he is out to redress this imbalance. While certainly not a hit job, at times the author seems obsessed, and overly critical. At two points in the book, when describing von Braun's plans for a "manned" mission to the Moon, Neufeld chastises von Braun for not considering women for these trips. A more balanced treatment, would have pointed out that "nobody", or "very few" would have considered women for this role at this time, but Neufeld singles out "von Braun" as if he was the only person on the planet standing between women and a place on the Apollo missions. Again, the book lacks context. Unfortunately this might lead some to call into question the much more serious allegations concerning von Braun's conduct during World War II. In the end, the book is well researched, and readers will have no problem drawing their own conclusions. Despite some minor flaws, for anybody interested in the life of Wernher von Braun, this is a must read.

Von Braun inspired me as a teenager to go into to engineering and even to become fluent in German; so I have read everything about him, and by him I could find. This is by far the most detailed accounting of his life I have seen. Dr. Neufeld is objective to a fault from my point of view in this book in reporting the facts and making few judgements. This book is sparse in terms of technical details; something that will probably be missed by few except engineers like me. It however also lacks any empathy for von Braun or the context of the times, or the subsequent uses to which the victors put von Braun's technology.

I recommend the book for anyone who is interested in an extensive examination of von Braun but not someone who wants to understand the times.

"Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War" was a very interesting and informative book. I have only now discovered how controversial von Braun's life was from these Amazon reviews as well as from this book. While this may be sad commentary on my narrow view as an engineer, I always admired von Braun despite knowing that he worked for the wrong side during the war. Before I really get into the fray let me just say that this book appeared scholarly, well written and should be read by admirers and critics of von Braun.

I felt this book contained almost too much detail, and often found myself "speed reading" over certain details of his family life but never those concerning his controversial life. I believe this fine book was the result of a fairly unbiased point of view and find myself agreeing with the book's closing remarks.

I was also very saddened to read that great efforts were made by his influential friends to convince federal authorities to award his life's work with some grand gesture. It was further saddening to learn that several figures in government circles having the power to influence this decision refused to do so because of his early work in Germany. It is only clear to me now that von Braun was never completely forgiven for developing the V-2, and only permitted to use his talent for our side during the cold war. Perhaps he should have been greatful for that alone, but I believe he wished for much more.

When he was finally awarded a great civilian medal for his technical and managerial accomplishments (by President Carter), the man who received this hard won gesture was a fragment of his former self. He was described by friends as a "skelton wrapped in skin" while enduring relentless pain under the equivalent of hospice care. Of course, camp workers were denied anything like hospital care, but I really feel he paid the ultimate price we all must, and with what I believe was a heavy heart. He must have understood full well that he was never forgiven for his early work and probably never would be. He ultimately suffered a painful and protracted death of cancer.

As an individual inspired by von Braun's accomplishments I think he made as great an impact on the history of space and rocket research as one person could possibly accomplish. He had a grand vision of man's future in space, and shared that vision with all of us brilliantly. We were made a part of his dream and I believe the country remembers how special those days were as we closed in on the moon. The price he was willing to pay to accomplish his personal goals for that future supported war efforts in two countries and pushed the barriers of technology. That, in part, is the reason the author calls him the Faust of 20th century. He is acknowledged by everyone to have been a compelling public speaker, a talented engineer and an excellent manager, but I think he was also a very great American.

You may have some pre-formed opinion of who Wernher von Braun was: American engineering hero who helped make man's first steps on another world a reality; amoral opportunist who would would work for any government willing to fund his dreams of space; or, as designer of the V-2 rocket, a Nazi villain guilty of crimes against humanity. Michael Neufeld's 470 page biography of Wernher von Braun is a clear-eyed contemporary examination of the life of the famous rocketry pioneer that benefits from meticulous and detailed research. In it, Neufeld conducts an unvarnished review of Von Braun's life, showing that he was none of these simple caricatures. What conclusions you draw about his life after reading this book will largely be your own.

Von Braun's entire life was motivated by one clear and powerful mission: to build the vehicles by which man could reach other worlds. This was a vision which took hold of his mind in his formative teen years and never faded. His work in the field of rocketry began as a hobby with a group of like-minded, star-struck colleagues known as the Raketenflugplatz. In time, the work of the group lead to technology advancements beyond what might have been considered hobbyist "toys" to machines which could have an actual use. As with many emergent technologies, the first practical applications of the group's work were recognized by the military. In 1932, the group accepted funding from the German Army...the only way that they could see to obtain the large sums of money necessary to further develop what they had begun. This was a fateful turning point in Von Braun's young career. He had the misfortune of being funded by what would eventually become the most despised regime in human history. The careful examination of this portion of Von Braun's life is what differentiates Neufeld's biography from previous sanitized versions which omit or dismiss his inconvenient Nazi affiliation.

Fast forward to World War II. Over the past decade, the work of Von Braun and his colleagues had led to the development of the V-2 rocket, a weapon that by 1944 Nazi leadership was anxious to exploit as a fundamentally "game-changing" weapon that might turn the tide of the war. At this time, Von Braun was officially a member of the Nazi party and an officer in the dreaded SS. Because of the association of his group with the Army, this was, under the circumstances of the time, unavoidable -- at least if he wished to be allowed to continue his work as a rocketeer. Neufeld makes it clear that Von Braun was never an ardent believer in the National Socialist cause and was, like many German citizens of the time, a member of its ranks simply out of political expediency. Neufeld neither offers this as an excuse or a "free pass", nor does he openly condemn Von Braun for his actions. He leaves it to the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Other obvious and troubling moral issues arise from this period: Von Braun's rockets were used in service to an evil regime to attack civilian populations in London, and those same V-2s were manufactured by slave labor imprisoned in concentration camps under the most inhuman conditions imaginable. What does this mean if one is to evaluate Von Braun as a human being? It's a difficult question. Neufeld seems to hold Von Braun accountable while simultaneously showing that Von Braun was neither responsible for how his technology was used nor for the decision to use slave labor in its construction. What is clear is that Von Braun had full knowledge that slave labor was being used during this period despite later efforts to paper over this uncomfortable information.

Neufeld outlines further ambiguities in Von Braun's life as he chronicles his later work for the American military developing long-range missile systems. (The American army was just as eager to exploit his services as the Nazis had been before them.) Again, Von Braun and his German colleagues applied their talents to the development of instruments of war, primarily in the belief that if any world power was to have such technology, it should be the United States and not the Soviets, but also because it was the only practical way to reach their true long-term goal: building vehicles to carry man beyond the earth. This period of Von Braun's life is familiar to most. While continuing work on rockets like the Redstone (which would eventually loft America's first satellite into orbit as well as its first sub-orbital astronauts), he became an internationally recognized science popularizer -- a sort of Carl Sagan of his day promoting a fantastical future of rocket ships to Mars and orbiting space stations.

Only at the apex of his career, as the leader of the effort to develop the Saturn V, the gigantic vehicle that would launch astronauts to the moon, does Von Braun's life lead to territory that lacks moral ambiguity. Only during the Apollo program was he able to finally devote himself exclusively to a rocket project that had no purpose other than to achieve his childhood dream of helping man to reach the stars. Finally, a project which had no military applications and whose only dividend was scientific knowledge and national prestige for his adopted country.

Because of the national security value he represented, U.S. authorities were always eager to obscure the details of his past. This would be a shadow that would dog him for decades, always threatening his very prominent position with the American public as a trusted scientific genius. Through luck or circumstance he would always avoid public revelations about his past during his lifetime. It would only be in the years following his death that the full details of his past Nazi associations would become widely known.

Neufeld draws the conclusion that Von Braun was a talented engineer and manager of complex technological projects with a powerful vision that led him to make a bargain with the devil just as Goethe's Dr. Faust did, though "all evidence suggests that he was not even aware that he had made such a bargain until rather late in the war." He hails him as "the most influential rocket engineer and space advocate of the twentieth century" and cedes that "any portrayal of him as willing to do anything to advance his self-interest or ambition is simply incompatible with the fact that he regarded loyalty as more important than financial gain."

It is really an understatement to call this book a biography of Wernher von Braun. It not only tells the life of the greatest rocket scientist of all times but it simultaneously critiques the memoirs of von Braun himself and the remembrances of many others. But Neufeld has decided that the story of von Braun is the story of Faust, a man who sold his soul to the devil, Hitler in this case, in order to further his ambition for space flight. The comparison is actually rather slight. Faust was led by the devil; von Braun was arrested by the Gestapo - the relevant experiences in rocketry were led by von Braun. The best correlation between the two is that the devil followed Faust all the time while von Braun's cooperation with the Nazis keeps cropping up from time to time in his life. Neufeld reports on these incidents to a fault. Many of these incidents occurred but didn't directly affect von Braun but certainly they were often on his mind.
This book will not satisfy any real rocket scientists. There are virtually no technical details in here. The V-2 used vanes in the rocket exhaust to steer the rocket but early in his U.S. career these had to be abandoned and replaced with gimbaled engines. How did these work? How did gyroscopes and accelerometers work together? You won't find out here. I'm not considering this omission in this review.
So far I've mentioned a couple of negatives on this book but these are quibbles compared to the strength of the work. It is meticulously researched and the author balances criticism and praise throughout. Is the eventual balance correct? I'm not sure. Certainly von Braun did not start out being a big fan of Hitler or any other politician. But by late 1943 he knew that missile production was being done by slave labor from the Dora concentration camp and that conditions there were inhuman. But that means that his worst behavior was during a 2 year period. Not only that, but it was during this time that he was arrested because he was too interested in space flight and not enough in weapons of mass destruction. But people who lived in London during V-2 attacks would never forgive him. Neufeld reports presidential advisor David Gergen saying that von Braun gave a lot to America but he got a lot too. That's probably true but can't that be said of many people in American history? Don't we honor them regardless?
This book gives a lot of detail on the most important parts of von Braun's life: how he came to be part of the SS, how he was apprehended by the Americans at the end of the war, how it happened that he launched the first U.S. satellite, how the shuttle came to have the configuration that it did. And this book gives von Braun credit for the greatest accomplishment in rocketry to this very day, the creation of the Saturn 5, a rocket that never failed. And he did this just a few years after the multiple failures of Vanguard and many other projects. In fact, the biggest rocket-related revelation to me was just how early the Saturn rocket and the Apollo design commenced. Both were well into the planning stage before John Kennedy in 1961 announced that we would land a man on the moon by the end of the 60's.
After completing this book I find myself grateful to the author for delivering such a detailed work on a man who I was aware of for almost my entire life. If you only want to know about the space race, consider "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin or "This New Ocean" by William Burrows. But if the life of Wernher von Braun is your interest, this book is the ultimate choice. So this 5 star review makes the assumption that the reader wants all of this detail including the information on the war years and the multiple ways it affected von Braun's life.

I was certainly interested in the moral dilemmas at the heart of Von Braun's career (someone who gets medals from both Adolf Hitler and an American president has had a pretty interesting ride!), but was just as interested in the technological breakthroughs and hard work that led to man's landing on the moon.

This book is weighted far too heavily towards the moral dilemmas for my taste. And the author takes it as a given that you want to know ever detail of political infighting, from Nazi Germany to NASA.

Maybe this is the best there is on Von Braun, but for my money I would have preferred more technical detail - some diagrams even would have been welcome - and less emphasis on who was in what meeting, who sent which memo, who was in charge of which department, who wanted who's job, etc. A recent book that shows it's possible to tell a life story while not shortchanging the technical side is Einstein: His Life and Universe.

One section that did live up to my expectation was the debate over which configuration of spacecraft would be used to land on the moon.

Overall an okay book, but overly dry and skewed in its emphasis.

When German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun came to the U.S. after World War II to build rockets for the Americans, he became famous as a brilliant visionary engineer, as a manager of complex technology projects and as a charismatic, handsome genius in his field. Walt Disney made memorable TV shows about von Braun's contribution to science, and Collier's magazine spotlighted him and his plans for manned spaceflights. Neither Disney nor Collier's included details of von Braun's past - and his Faustian bargain with the Nazis - but aeronautics historian Michael J. Neufeld's biography covers it all. He captures von Braun's entire story, from child prodigy obsessed with rockets to SS major developing deadly V-2 rockets for Germany to science celebrity living large in America. getAbstract recommends this book to anyone who wants to learn about von Braun's remarkable intellectual gifts, his singular accomplishments, his Nazi past, his contributions to the U.S. space program and, due to his televised teaching, the country's overall acceptance of the wonder of science.