Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War

by Michael J. Neufeld, Fritz von Opel (Contributor)

The first authoritative biography of Wernher von Braun, chief rocket engineer of the Third Reich—creator of the infamous V-2 rocket—who became one of the fathers of the U.S. space program. In this meticulously researched and vividly written life, Michael J. Neufeld gives us a man of profound moral complexities, glorified as a visionary and vilified as a war criminal, a man whose brilliance and charisma were coupled with an enormous and, some would say, blinding ambition.

As one of the leading developers of rocket technology for the German army, von Braun yielded to pressure to join the Nazi Party in 1937 and reluctantly became an SS officer in 1940. During the war, he supervised work on the V-2s, which were assembled by starving slave laborers in a secret underground plant and then fired against London and Antwerp. Thousands of prisoners died—a fact he well knew and kept silent about for as long as possible.

When the Allies overran Germany, von Braun and his team surrendered to the Americans. The U.S. Army immediately recognized his skills and brought him and his colleagues to America to work on the development of guided missiles, in a covert operation that became known as Project Paperclip. He helped launch the first American satellite in 1958 and headed NASA’s launch-vehicle development for the Apollo Moon landing.

Handsome and likable, von Braun dedicated himself to selling the American public on interplanetary travel and became a household name in the 1950s, appearing on Disney TV shows and writing for popular magazines. But he never fully escaped his past, and in later years he faced increasing questions as his wartime actions slowly came to light.

Based on new sources, Von Braun is a brilliantly nuanced portrait of a man caught between morality and progress, between his dreams of the heavens and the earthbound realities of his life.

Genres: Biography, History, Space, Nonfiction, Science, Technology, American History

608 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2007

About the author

Michael J. Neufeld is Senior Curator in the Space History Department of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He has appeared on History Channel, PBS, NPR, and BBC programs, and is the author of the award-winning The Rocket and the Reich, Von Braun, and other books.

Reviews

[Brett C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an engaging and interesting read about the scientist who pioneered rocket science and space travel. Michael J. Neufeld told his entire story that was very intriguing from start to finish. Born in 1912, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun showed aptitude for mechanical and creativity at a young age. At age 12 his parents gave him a telescope as a confirmation gift and that started it all

The year 1925 would prove to be a critical turning point in Wernher von Braun's life, and not only because the telescope launched a newfound fascination with the Moon, the planets, and the stars...Around the end of the year his discovery of a pioneering treatise would direct his astronomical interests toward building things that might actually allow people to travel into space. By 1932 [age 20] von Braun had matured into an immensely charming, talented, and driven individual with one seemingly utopian ambition: to pioneer human spaceflight, even to land on the Moon himself. pg 21

He read and consumed as much as possible about physics and mechanics as he could obtain while in boarding school. At age 16 he built a rocket wagon experiment that high-speed propelled down the street in front of his house "wholly out of control and trailing a comet's tail of fire" (pg 31). Eventually his aptitude brought the attention of the Nationalist Socialist Party of Germany in the early 1930s. He landed the job as director of rocket science in the German war effort. He envisioned all the theoretical into tangible mathematics, honed propulsion systems, and flight & trajectory to create the V-2 rocket for the German military.

The author detailed how this was a Faustian bargain: his drive for exploration and adventure for space, like Goethe's Dr. Faust, he made a bargain with the devil to carry out vast engineering projects, rationalizing them as being for the greater good of mankind.

All evidence suggests, however, that he was not even aware that he had made such a bargain until rather late in the war. His conservative nationalist upbringing and inclination toward apolitical opportunism made it easy to work for the Nazi regime, which asked for little at first beyond keeping quiet. Gradually through seduction and pressure, he was drawn deeper into the system. In the end he had to accept the brutal exploitation of concentration camp laborers, and he had to play his part in administering that exploitation, implicating him in crimes against humanity. However much, like Goethe's Faust, he divorced himself from personal responsibility, after he toured the Mittelwerk tunnels in late 1943 he could have had no illusions about what that meant for prisoners. His Gestapo arrest a few months later was the final straw; he finally and belatedly understood that he was "aiding an evil regime." pg 476

He was brought to the US by the American government and immediately started work on the American space program, becoming the director of NASA. He helped with the various flight programs and is credited with space launch and landing on the Moon in 1969.

Overall this was a well-written and intense read. It read quickly and was not boring by any means; I was learning a lot as I continue to read. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in modern history that impacts us still today. Thanks!

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m reviewing Michael Neufeld’s biography of Wernher von Braun for The Common Review, and reading this book, I’m struck by how flabbergasting it is to discover what others find interesting and the questions I have that they don’t even begin to answer. Neufeld is an academic mucky-muck at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (to whatever degree that designation still stands — the Smithsonian has turned away from its academic potential to a great degree in the last twenty years). And, oh my good sweet Jesus, that man loves his rocket technology. I probably shouldn’t write this in such a public place where God and the world (and my editor) can find it, but I found myself skipping past dozens of pages of technical minutiae.

And oh my holy shit could this author use some more exposure to twentieth-century German historiography. The degree to which von Braun is given the benefit of the doubt about whether he was aware of the use of slave labor at Dora-Mittelwerk is astonishing — and more than that, the author doesn’t seem particularly interested in the moral implications of his knowing. Nor does he have anything to say about what it means that the United States scooped up Nazi rocket engineers after the war, or about the enormous scientific shortcuts that NASA took for the sake of beating the USSR to a manned spaceflight to the moon. I think that this sort of lay-it-all-out tech fetishism is exactly what Lehrer is getting at in his AMAZING song (look it up on youtube) — our blithe acceptance of the idea that science has its own trajectory that has nothing to do with our aims as a society.

Neufeld depicts von Braun as a romantic figure, someone entranced by the promise of human travel to distant stars who was far too enamored with this dream to pay too much attention to who was funding his projects or of the uses of his technologies. Isn’t this the same kind of thinking that allows the machine of “big science” to roll forward in the first place? Further, Neufeld isn’t making any serious argument for… anything… when von Braun’s story could easily be a cautionary tale against the subversion of science and engineering to state goals.

[Moritz Mueller-Freitag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Neufeld’s authoritative biography about Wernher von Braun (1912-77) explores two big themes:

First, it examines the profound moral complexities of a man who, before and during WWII, was the leading figure of the V-2 missile program in Nazi Germany and who, after the war, became the chief architect of Saturn V which propelled the Apollo spacecraft to the moon. In contrast to other biographies about von Braun, Neufeld doesn’t evaluate him in black-and-white terms. He doesn’t frame him as either a Nazi villain or a space hero. Instead, he acknowledges that von Braun was a complicated man whose conservative-nationalist upbringing and romantic obsession with space led him to sleep-walk into a “Faustian bargain” with an evil regime. Von Braun’s single-minded vision of exploring space blinded him to his moral responsibilities. He was, as Tom Lehrer so brilliantly put it, “a man whose allegiance [was] ruled by expedience.” Von Braun had an almost uncanny ability to attach himself to whoever was willing to fund the development of his rockets, and to then land on his feet when fortunes changed. His story holds important lessons for anyone who is working on frontier technologies today. No scientific or engineering work takes place in a vacuum.

The second theme of the book is von Braun’s genius for managing highly complex engineering projects. Popular mythology casts engineering leaders like von Braun as inventor-scientists. Nothing is farther from the truth. Von Braun was the undisputed leader of rocket development in Peenemünde and in Huntsville not because of his specific technical contributions but because of a very rare combination of talents: A high level of technical competence coupled with an uncommon skill for dealing with people. He was an enormously charismatic person who could manage vast technical teams. To quote the author: “Talented, creative engineers and scientists are essential for any program that is attempting to make fundamental technological breakthroughs, but those relatively rare skills are common in comparison to the few who have both superior technical talent and the ability to manage, lead, and inspire large, complex organizations.” Superb technical leadership is the foundation of every organization that is building frontier technology, whether it’s in the field of rockets (Elon Musk), finance (Jim Simons), or artificial intelligence (Demis Hassabis).

The exploration of these two themes results in an endlessly fascinating portrait of a complex, two-sided man. In the words of Neufeld, “here was a man who had shaken the hand of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon – but also Hitler, Himmler, Göring, and Goebbels.” Wernher von Braun was a giant of the 20th century and this book does justice to his moral complexity and place in history.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's odd that so few people know about von Braun today, given his importance to the US space program. I've never seen him in any documentaries about NASA, nor any of those fictional dramatizations like Apollo 13 and whathaveyou. This is a biography of a somewhat forgotten figure who was willing to do anything for the dream of spaceflight. He went to work for Hitler and was willing to use the labor of concentration camp slaves to build V2 rockets that bombed London. He helped create the balance of nuclear terror by perfecting the ICBM. And he also built the Saturn V, the most monstrous and flawlessly successful machine ever built by human hands, which took us from the earth to the moon.

The biography is exhaustive and detailed; sometimes too much so. There is also a great deal of technical detail, which may or may not interest viewers. Perhaps because the author was sticking to the archives and unwilling to launch into speculation, we seem to gain little insight into von Braun's inner workings. There must be some way to reconcile the extremes of his career, but Neufeld does not dwell on his psychology. Nor, unfortunately, does he spend much time placing von Braun in the bigger picture of the 20th century. As a rocket engineer, he was a symbol of humanity's command of awesome levels of power, for good or ill. As the manager of a massive organization he represented the ascendancy of technocratic government. And he also represented an older faith in a bright technological future that died around the same time that Apollo landed on the moon. I probably ask too much, wanting more on these subjects from what is already a sizeable book. But I found those themes fascinating, and I do want to read more.

[Andrew Junkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A culturally mandatory read considering my line of work and the area in which I grew up.

There are strong opinions about Neufeld’s book on both sides. Some say he gives von Braun the benefit of the doubt to an inexcusable degree. Others claim even mentioning a repentant Nazi’s past is tantamount to slander.

I say Neufeld’s assessment and conclusions is as fair as one can get with a historical figure as divisive as Wernher von Braun. The man knew how to sell a vision, no matter the cost of that vision. Because of this, he inspired generations and indirectly created the modern space industry. At the same time, Von Braun never had to truly grapple with his work for a genocidal regime. Does one act truly cancel out the other? I’d argue not.

But also, how many former Nazis truly faced consequences in proportion to their crimes? Those that didn’t, what did they give back to humanity as recompense?

Michael Neufeld should have spent a greater section of this book reflecting not only on Von Braun’s motives to work for the U.S. army’s ballistic missile program, but what it meant ethically for the U.S. to aggressively pursue him and use his talents to build even more weapons of war. Is the U.S. not guilty of the same Faustian sin?

[Hadrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biography of a rocket scientist and administrator, noting that he was fundamentally "obsessed with space and indifferent to party politics but comfortable with his father’s values" (55); that is, a conservative Junker elite. The early chapters show some considerable detail on von Braun's early life, but much of the book, understandably, is focused on his career in both Germany and the United States. The success of the later programs, starting from the Mercury-Redstone era and continuing to the development of the Saturn V, is dependent on von Braun's managerial skills.

There is the unavoidable question of von Braun's knowledge of, and complicity with, the use of slave labor for the construction of rockets in Nazi Germany. The author continues to refer to a Faustian bargain metaphor throughout the book, but even suggests he may have felt as apolitical as he claims. With the benefit of hindsight, it seems less like a lack of concern and more like naivete.

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes big books are worth it. Unfortunately this book is guilty of repeating points too many times-von Braun was raised as an aristocrat, he turned a blind eye to Nazi atrocities and like everyone else felt no guilt over serving Nazi Germany, etc. Yet the book points out that von Braun was never an ideological Nazi and was interested in flying rockets, the Allies were guilty of atrocities as much as Nazi Germany, and they were certainly willing to use Nazi scientists for themselves. (I remember when Arthur Rudolph was deported in 1985, people called the US government hypocritical for it after using him for 40 years.)

I did not bother reading the whole book; it just had too much in it. But ironically enough it pointed out that Hitler himself got the idea that the rocket program was not a good use of resources and even foresaw that the V-2 would prove a big waste as a weapon, doing little damage when it reached its target. Also, despite all rumors, Hitler gave every indication of being an atheist.

[Antti Kauppinen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Von Braun emerges from Neufeld's account as a sort of Bill Clinton of space - a charismatic, intelligent salesperson and people manager, ready to compromise for idealistic aims. Contrary to some recent media portrayals, it's also abundantly clear that he wasn't a Nazi and had no causal responsibility for the horrors involved in V-2 production (and detested the people who did). Still, like so many other Germans, he did turn a blind eye to the despicable nature of the regime that was clear from the start. But then again, most of us would have done no better...

[Ruben · Rating 4 out of 5]

One very balanced account on his life, it talks a lot about his dreams, and his determination to acomplish them, as much as his compromises with the Nazi regime. Extremely well documented and full of quotes from him and his friends and family. Maybe lacking detail on the space missions, which would've added drama to the book, other than that, a great historic document ... Highly reccomendable.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid biography of Von Braun, though his days as part of the German program read more like a biography (even with less source material available) and his time in the US sometimes strays into a history of the early NASA rocket program vs. a biography of a man.

[Samar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, detailed book. Can be a bit hard to read at times but I thoroughly enjoyed it

[Lloyd Earickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biographies are a fascinating means through which to learn about history, and I usually find when I read one that I pick it up almost as much for that historical insight as I do for insight into the individual being therein explicated.  It’s one of the prime reasons that I enjoy biographies, and yet I find that I read them only occasionally, mostly because I find it difficult to choose sufficiently high quality treatments of the individuals of most interest to me.  Chernow’s biographies are consistently fantastic (he wrote the one that inspired the Broadway play Hamilton, and another one on Washington, both of which I read and found excellent), but most other biographies I’ve read have been lackluster.  Not bad, but not remarkable.

Although I’d long desired to find a biography of Werner Von Braun, one of the more complex and mysterious figures of early rocketry, most of the treatments I found seemed unlikely to provide the kind of detail and depth of analysis that I was seeking, so when I came upon a biography of him that was consistently billed as the best study yet done of him and his history, I was optimistic enough to add it to my reading list, and excited enough by its possibilities to read it within a year of its addition.

I’m getting ahead of myself, however; I really should explain what makes Von Braun such an interesting figure, since despite his former celebrity, his name now goes largely unrecognized outside of the astronautical engineering circles in which I roam.  Werner Von Braun was one of the pioneers of modern rocketry, and built what was arguably the world’s first, practical, liquid-fueled rocket: the German V2.  That is just a small part of what makes him such an intriguing character; he is frequently depicted as an apolitical and amoral opportunist obsessed only with rocketry, and caring little for the means by which that goal is attained, or the uses to which his inventions are put.  The truth is far more complicated, as it always is, but it is a convenient shortcut to explain away his time developing military rockets for the Nazis before coming to the US to build nuclear ballistic missiles, and eventually the rocket that landed astronauts on the Moon.

The glaring question of Von Braun’s potential complicity in the atrocities committed under Hitler’s regime looms large in Neufeld’s treatment of the engineer, but Neufeld seems determined to reduce the question to a simple, pithy answer.  He denies that the question can be answered simply while in the same sentence attempting to distil just such a straightforward determination, and he gives pride of place to the argument as both his opening thesis and his dominant conclusion.  It is the flaw in an otherwise insightful and detailed biography, and Neufeld’s preoccupation with revisiting the question sometimes interferes with the overall text.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that the question is not a significant one, or that it is one not worth considerable contemplation.  What I am saying is that humans are complicated.  Attempting to reduce as dynamic and varied a persona as Von Braun to strictly the concept of a Faustian bargain undersells him, the tangled skein of humanity, and the richly textured tapestry of history.  While we have today reduced the Nazi regime to a pure embodiment of all that is evil in humanity, the reality is much more complex, and while that may be true of the atrocities of the Holocaust, other aspects of the regime, and those with which Von Braun would have been familiar, had a more nuanced character: still authoritarian, still at odds with modern, Western morality, but not truly evil or horrific in the way that the Holocaust was.  While those perhaps cannot be truly separated, they can be in terms of what an individual may have been aware of, especially keeping in mind that this was not the period of ubiquitous and easily accessed information on everything that we enjoy (endure?) today.  My point, if I have one, is that for all that Neufeld dwelt on this matter, he did not really dig into its complexities, content to point to evidence that supports his thesis of the Faustian bargain.

With that, I will stop belaboring the point that I was complaining about being too belabored, and instead talk about the rest of the biography, which was otherwise excellent.  Neufeld was able to learn an immense amount of detail about Von Braun’s childhood and time in Germany, periods of his life that are usually shrouded in mystery from a combination of secrecy and loss of documents in his removal from Germany at the end of World War II in what became known as Operation Paperclip.  His early participation in rocket experiments, how he became enamored with rocketry and space travel, and his relationship with other early rocket pioneers was new information to me, and provides a solid foundation upon which the rest of the text proceeds.

Perhaps the greatest insight contained in Neufeld’s treatment was Von Braun’s genius as an engineering manager, rather than an inventor.  Like other rocketry pioneers ala Goddard, Von Braun is frequently depicted as the solitary, visionary genius, inventing key technologies and single-handedly propelling humanity to spacefaring capability.  The truth is that Von Braun personally invented few technologies, was conservative in his innovations, and his visions for the future, while grand in scale, were largely derived from his reading of other visionaries, like Oberth.  His genius, and key contribution by which he can be rightfully given credit for rocketry advancements from the V2 to the Saturn V, was his ability to gather, organize, direct, and inspire massive teams of engineers, manufacturers, laborers, and others towards space goals.

Second to his skill as an engineering manager was apparently his skill, or perhaps more his relentless enthusiasm, for promoting space travel to the public.  Rocketry in general, and space travel especially, was little more than the stuff of outlandish science fiction when Von Braun was starting in the field, but especially after he reached the United States he began passionately, vocally, and incessantly promoting space travel, its possibility, its imminence, its importance, and its utility to anyone and everyone who would listen.  Although it is difficult to pin down a single factor, it would not be an understatement to claim that Von Braun helped pave the way for the public’s acceptance of a Moon landing as even a possibility.

Unfortunately, Von Braun’s career followed much the trajectory of NASA, peaking with the Apollo program and declining rapidly afterwards, until his eventual death.  He was a complicated man, who lived through some of the pivotal events of the last century, and Neufeld captures him vividly.  When chronicling the death of Von Braun’s father, Neufeld observes that the man had lived to see two World Wars, and his son land a man on the Moon.  It is an observation I have made in a general sense, rendered much more personal.  Von Braun himself lived from cars being a rare luxury to seeing his dream come true, although he himself never left Earth, as he had longed dreamt of doing.  It was perhaps the one dream that he did not realize before his death.

While the biography stands well on its own, I will make one more observation; it references a great deal of other history and events of the time periods involved that could easily be the topic of entire books in and of themselves.  The ballistic missile race, for instance, is thoroughly covered in A Fiery Peace in a Cold War, and the Apollo 8 decision is detailed in Rocket Men.  Both of those books would be excellent supplements to this biography, but whether you have a certain fascination with the Space Age like I do, or are interested in the specific story of one of the most dynamic players of the twentieth century, I would definitely recommend reading Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War.

[Glennchuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The short version: Read this book if you want an exhaustively detailed and documented account of Wernher von Braun’s life and work, delivered with little sense of drama. This is a scholarly work and I’m glad I read it, but it was tedious. Three stars for thoroughness, NOT readability.

The long version: I happened to finish this book on the 30th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle tragedy. About an hour before finishing Neufeld's book, I read an article about how Peggy Noonan, in 1986, had just a few hours to crank out President Reagan’s moving speech about the Challenger, which he delivered instead of his scheduled state of the union address.

Noonan nailed the landing on that speech by sampling the first and last lines of of John Gillespie Magee’s poem, “High Flight”: “Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...and touched the face of God.” Now THAT’S the kind of soaring language that got space dorks like me hooked on books about our Apollo era heroes.

As I’ve gotten older and get-off-my-lawnier, I’ve moved on to more historically and technically accurate books on this subject. And although they expose the grittier details of human space exploration, they still provide that jolt of vicarious thrill from the sheer adventure of it all--even the rather dry accounts like John Young’s supremely understated autobiography, “Forever Young,” and Grumman Chief Engineer Tom Kelly’s autotechnography, “Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Moon Lunar Module.” (Okay, maybe "autotechnography" is not an actual word.) (I'm not trying to blow up the whole Dewey Decimal system or anything.) (If the Dewey Decimal system is still, you know, a thing.)

All of this is to say, I fully expected Neufeld’s book to be somewhat dry and technical, but I also expected that the tale of this larger-than-life genius would pack an emotional punch.

It mostly doesn’t.

This book seems to be strictly a work of scholarship (in my non-scholarly opinion). You have to provide your own sense of drama--because the writing won't--when you come across some truly compelling details about World War II, the development of long-range weaponry, unrealized dreams of how to explore space, the triumph of the Saturn V moon rockets, and the political intrigue behind the Apollo program's rise and fall. These details are delivered in exactly the same voice as the vast amount of mundane setting-the-record-straight material.

Imagine a conversation with a husband telling his wife, in rapid monotone, "...so I paid the heating bill, Jimmy's at that soccer thing tonight, aliens abducted your mother from the George Washington Bridge, I think we need to change the furnace filter, I'm making tacos for dinner..."

I appreciate the value of researching, organizing, and presenting a comprehensive account of the life of this seminal figure in the history of human innovation. Overall, I’m glad I read this book. But DAYAM, what a slog.

[Paul H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The historical detail of this book is quite impressive, and Neufeld is a passable writer. With that said, there were aspects of it that consistently irritated me. Neufeld's "Faustian bargain" theme is hammered home to a truly absurd degree, where he really seems to expect von Braun (and every other German citizen?) to have risked death and imprisonment rather than engage in ANY collaboration with the military authorities, even before the beginning of WW2. Neufeld is of course quite right to mention the important issue of von Braun's collaboration with the Nazi party, but such an excessive focus is not needed. Related to this, the relatively straightforward cultural conservatism of von Braun is treated as just one tiny step removed from the Holocaust, which is obviously not the case (this would be like saying that your average Bernie Sanders supporter has basically already joined the Khmer Rouge).

In general, Neufeld takes a patronizing and condescending tone to von Braun, who (ironically enough) comes across as being quite a bit more subtle than Neufeld gives him credit for (in the lengthy quotations from von Braun's letters).

Another flaw is the lack of a wider context; Neufeld follows von Braun a little too closely, as it were, and very rarely widens the scope of his narrative ... we learn almost nothing about the wider history of rocketry (apart from passing mention of Goddard and others), the military/political context of the missile/space program in the U.S. from 1945 to 1960 (apart from perfunctory one-sentence summaries of the Korean War and similar events), etc.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warts-and-all biography of Wernher von Braun

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.

To learn more about this book, check out the following link: http://www.getabstract.com/summary/91...

[Bob Koelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The boy wonder rocketeer became the exemplary rocketry manager, even before leaving Germany. the most common metaphor for von Braun is Dr. Faust, and considering the increase in investigations of Nazi criminals in the early 80s in the US, you can say that he died just in time (1977). The grandeur of your dream is no inoculation for the crimes you're willing to tolerate to achieve them. He sounds like quite a great boss, if your working condition is not being enslaved. I didn't know anything about what a public celebrity he was in the 1950s and early 60s, with magazine contracts, and short films for Disney, some of which are easily available online. A telling detail is how much his spaceflight novel meant to him, even in the opening hectic stages of the Space Race. His inner Junior Spaceman never left him.

[Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neufeld provides a thorough and well researched biography of the life of a very important figure. Von Braun was instrumental to humanity's journey to the stars. His life is uniquely interesting and he is perhaps the only man to have shaken the hands of four U.S. presidents and the top four of the Nazi regime. I also enjoyed how Neufeld presented the reader with the facts but did not tell the reader how to interpret them. I appreciate this in a history writer.

With this all being said, the reason for only three stars is because Neufeld's writing, while fine, is uninspiring. The book is readable but should have been more enjoyable and moving given the quantity and quality of material.

[Paul Kinzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic biography of the perhaps the most well known German-American Rocket Engineer. Unbiased, thoroughly researched, well written, and highly detailed. The only thing that would have made it better is if WvB had still been alive for interviews; He died way too young. A must-read for Space History geeks.

[Stone Shelnutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read. I’ve slowly read this book over the last 6 months. Author doesn’t shy away from WVB’s past as a Nazi and his SS history which I appreciate. Apparently WVB was converted to Christianity when he came to the states. Hopefully 🤷‍♂️. Man was a genius though. Interesting life to read about no doubt.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviews say this is the most thorough and balanced biography of von Braun yet written. I haven't read any of the others but I am inclined to believe it. The two main thrusts of Neufeld's approach are von Braun's obsession with going into space (himself if possible, by others if not) and his single-minded determination to work for whomever might make the obsession come true. He doesn't hide the fact of von Braun's association with the Nazi party and the SS—that would be impossible, given all that has come to light. What he does is put it in context, demonstrating rather convincingly that because of a confluence of circumstances, Nazi Germany happened to be where von Braun found himself just at a time when the Nazis were the only government on Earth willing to fund his research. Neufeld shows von Braun as a politically naive and by nature and choice apolitical, so while he became belatedly aware of the use of slave labor to build some components of the V-2 rocket, he wasn't involved in that decision. Complaining about it too loudly would have endangered his life (as it was, he suffered a brief arrest by the Gestapo near the end of the war) as well as his vision, and to von Braun the latter mattered more than the former.

Neufeld's discussion of von Braun's years in the US working with the Army and later with NASA is interesting and VERY well researched, but the real point of the book is his Faustian bargains (that term is used a lot) of working to build weapons of mass destruction for whichever government could pay for them, in the name of getting humanity out into space. It's a complicated moral tale and I would challenge anyone else to navigate the complexity of it with the success that Wernher von Braun did.

[Kursad Albayraktaroglu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael J. Neufeld's "Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War" is a very well-written and balanced biography of Wernher von Braun; perhaps the most influential figure in the history of modern rocket engineering and space exploration. I enjoyed the book immensely, and learned a great deal about a man whose story has fascinated me since childhood.

The book presents a fairly balanced view of von Braun's youth and early years in Germany as a young rocket enthusiast first, and the architect of V-2 "vengeance weapon" in Peenemunde later. The author does not sugarcoat von Braun's work on the V-2 (which killed thousands of civilians in London and Antwerp) and provides a detailed account of this period. I particularly enjoyed reading about von Braun's interactions with Hitler and Himmler, and the discussion of whether von Braun knew about the terrible conditions in the slave labor camps where the V-2 rocket was produced.

The later sections of the book cover von Braun's years in the US after his surrender to the US forces in the last days of WWII; and his involvement in the US space programs. The level of attention to detail in these chapters is nothing short of amazing, and reveals a great deal of information about how the US space technology evolved from its humble beginnings.

As a scientist and engineer who almost singlehandedly paved the way for modern rocket technology in peace and war, von Braun deserves to better known and remembered by generations to come - I am grateful that this detailed biography was written; and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about von Braun's amazing life and accomplishments.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Faustian bargain, "aim for the stars, but instead land in London." This book was 3 to 4 stars depending on the portion of the book.
For those with an interest in and knowledge of engineering, science, and aerospace design, the parts of the book which caused me difficulty will likely by 4 stars. However, for the average history nerd, there were parts of the book which were difficult to get through simply because of the complex engineering aspects.
That being said, the book covers Von Braun's Faustian bargain and management skills in a way that is interesting and easy to read. His rise through the Nazi war apparatus and even the SS, Peenemünde, and the Mittelwerk camps are all covered in detail. Operation Paperclip and his time in the US Army and later NASA are covered explicitly as well, with the knowledge of his previous allegiance and work never far from mind.
Ultimately, I'd recommend this to anyone with a strong science/engineering history background, or just a general interest in rockets or NASA, with the knowledge that parts of the book may be a bit of a slog if you don't have the right background.

[Troy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slowly read this long bio over about a year. Really enjoyed it and the information and history held within is some of the most valuable and interesting that I have read. This biography covers essentially the last century of Western history with special focus on WW2 and the Space Race, obviously.
The author seems a little biased in his defense of Von Braun. As Tom Lehrer wrote before Von Braun's dark history was scrubbed from the general conscious, "That's not my department!" says Wernher von Braun." To simply call Von Braun a "Faustian" figure as Neufeld is wont to do is morally relativistic.
While he is clearly an intellect to be admired, the principles and ethics of Von Braun complicate, while making interesting, the history of rocketry. Don't let Neufeld's recitations of stories in which Von Braun takes a positive interest in his slave laborers remove your criticisms of the man.

[Daniel Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely in-depth look at the life, failures, and successes of the chief architect of the Nazi’s V2 rocket and later the US rocket program. Left me with lots of knowledge about the technical/programmatic challenges of early rocketry, and more importantly provided an insightful case study in engineering ethics, setting the example for what not to do when career opportunities and ethics clash.

I do think there are instances where Von Braun is given too much of the benefit of the doubt, but the author is careful to lay out the facts to let you come to your own conclusions (he is also very critical of many of Von Braun’s decisions).

If you are looking for a higher level overview of the man and don’t want every single tiny detail or aren’t interested in any of the technical content, this book isn’t for you.

[Paige · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used this book as a key resource for a research paper I did. It was very helpful and packed with information. I was so glad that it actually covered a large breadth of information about von Braun because so many books focus only on either his German work or his American work. It was so helpful that it finally included both. The reason for such a low rating is because of the amount of technical language and explanations that were given, and I don't think the majority of people who are reading this would understand and/or care about the exact specifics of the different information it was dragging on and on about. Over all, solid information, very wordy, and definitely not something you just read cover to cover.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to skim some of the material to get through a somewhat boring book; maybe the lengthy explanations are for someone more interested in technical details I don't know if there is new information in this biography as the author claims, since I have not read any other. I know about the space race, so this was a reminder to me of those times and who was involved. One tidbit that I did not realize was that Kennedy was only interested in going to the moon for political purposes (to beat Russia). The book does mention a few things like the assassinations during those years and protests over segregation and the Vietnam War.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

amazing man, incredible journey, but the details of the various rocket names/versions together with the myriad of acronyms for multiple agencies and task forces had me skimming many paragraphs. If someone had an abiding interest in the minutia of this part of history, this would be painstaking gift to them. For the casual reader looking for a big knock out punch of big issue and major accomplishments of this incredible man- well, you have to wade through a lot of other stuff to get that. Not a bad book, just not what I was looking for.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, and eye-opening exploration of the man who was first made it possible for humans to walk on the Moon. Much of the history is reconstructed from actual documents. Some of the more disturbing details of his life were not revealed until after his death in the 1970s.

The book also includes many details of the early days of ballistic missile development and the establishment of NASA.

[Mark Mears · Rating 5 out of 5]

Von Braun

Mr. Neufeld did an amazing job detailing Werner von Braun’s life. Forewarning that the book is well researched and very detailed. If I have any complaint, it would be some segments could have been summarized more. I admit I scanned some portions.

That said, Mr. Neufeld was fair and presented a neutral analysis of his subject. Which was important when your subject went from “Nazi” scientist to a major driver of the American space program.

What a life!

[Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. The beginning was the most readable, exploring his early life and that of working with the Nazis. The later NASA years was a bit tedious, as is any situation involving bureaucracy. Overall I'm glad I was able to read and understand the life of a man who, ultimately, didn't care how he achieved his goals. He wanted to build a rocket to space and the moon, unfortunately that involved slave labor.