Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race

by Wayne Biddle

A stunning investigation of the roots of the first moon landing forty years ago. This illuminating story of the dawn of the space age reaches back to the reactionary modernism of the Third Reich, using the life of "rocket scientist" Wernher von Braun as its narrative path through the crumbling of Weimar Germany and the rise of the Nazi regime. Von Braun, a blinkered opportunist who could apply only tunnel vision to his meteoric career, stands as an archetype of myriad twentieth century technologists who thrived under regimes of military secrecy and unlimited money. His seamless transformation from developer of the deadly V-2 ballistic missile for Hitler to an American celebrity as the supposed genius behind the golden years of the U.S. space program in the 1950s and 1960s raises haunting questions about the culture of the Cold War, the shared values of technology in totalitarian and democratic societies, and the imperatives of material progress.

A New York Times Book Review "Editor's Choice"

12 illustrations.

Genres: Space, Nonfiction, History, Science, Biography, Politics, War

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Alexia Gordon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dark Side of the Moon read like a glorfied op-ed piece. Biddle sprinkled his manuscript with quotes from secondary sources and lots of German and French words (which slowed down the reading without adding anything to the story) to try to hide the fact that this book is really just an essay on his low opinion of Germany. Wernher von Braun seemed an afterthought in his own biography. Biddle would go on for pages about the narrow-mindedness of the German aristocratic class and the ineptitude of early German rocket scientists, make some vague effort to connect this to the rise and subsequent atrocities of the Nazi regime (details of which he doesn't spend much time on), and then toss in a mention of Werhner von Braun, along with some disparaging comments about his aristocratic background, near the end of a chapter. "That one figure who would later achieve worldwide acclaim appeared in their midst around this time serves to lend them all more credibility than they otherwise deserved. At about the age of eighteen, for reasons that puzzled even his own father, Wernher von Braun joined Nebel's coterie of Berlin rocketry enthusiasts. His youth and social stature, at least, distinguished him from the gang of n'er-do-wells."--the last paragraph of the third chapter--is about the extent of Wernher von Braun's appearance until chapter 4. Von Braun's marriage was reduced to one sentence in the epilogue (page 148 of 152 pages), buried in the middle of yet another paragraph disparaging German aristocrats--"Early in 1946, Wernher learned that his parents were alive, albeit completely dispossessed, in Silesian territory now part of Poland, thus reenacting the centuries-old ebb and flow of Junker fortunes. The family's experience with gaining and losing estates was truly prodigious. Wernher was allowed to return to Germany under round-the-clock military guard to marry his eightneen-year-old first cousin, Maria von Quistorp, in March 1947. On the same trip he collected the baron and baroness [his parents who were descended from the baronial class but were not actually titled gentry], who immigrated along with his bride to El Paso that month under the dependent provisions of Operation Paperclip." Von Braun's parents' marriage, on the other hand, rated a whole page, which followed several pages of discussion of the history of the German nobility, including the etmymology of von Braun's family name. Biddle periodically notes that documents relating to Wernher von Braun's pre-1945 life are scarce--implying that they were lost, destroyed or classified in the process of sanitizing von Braun's life story--as though this excuses Biddle's writing about everyone except the man about whom the book purports to be about. It doesn't seem as though Biddle made much of an effort to uncover anything about von Braun's murky past. He didn't talk to any classmates, old girlfriends, former teachers, old neighbors or their descendants. The quotations from the few of von Braun's colleagues Biddle cited seem to have been culled from secondary sources instead of actual interviews or letters or journals (and for some reason Biddle seems willing to take much of what Albert Speer wrote in his autobiography at face value while denigrating nearly everything that von Braun said--why is one Nazi more reliable than another?). According to Biddle's endnotes (which, at 43 pages, go on longer than many of his manuscript's chapters) he obtained "files" under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) but he doesn't give much detail about what was in the files. Biddle hardly mentions Operation Paperclip, the US government program through which many German--Nazi--scientists, not just von Braun, were brought to the US, their Nazi pasts buried in exchange for helping the US beat the Soviets into space. Biddle dismisses von Braun's being brought to the US, under US government auspices, with the comment (in his endnotes) "Details of the journey from Germany to Texas have been filled in by voluminous worshipful writing about von Braun over the years, much of it generated by himself. I have chosen not to traffic in them here." Yet the subtitle of his book, "Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race", suggests that "the journey from Germany to Texas" is exactly what he's going to "traffic in." I bought the book hoping to learn how an SS officer who built rockets using concentration camp slave laborers was transformed into a respected member of the US space program (von Braun even narrated films for Disney). Sadly, after reading Biddle's book, I learned less than I would have learned from watching a History channel special.

[Христо Блажев · Rating 4 out of 5]

Тъмната страна на Луната – или истината за Вернер фон Браун: http://knigolandia.info/book-review/t...

Всъщност книга е до голяма степен историята на ракетостроенето във Ваймарска и Хитлеристка Германия – от първите опити, които са рожба на чист ентусиазъм и нямат особена практическа стойност, през наливането на огромни пари в тази област, което вече задвижва колелата на превръщането им в страховито оръжие. Бидъл проследява участието на Фон Браун в тези събития, като го окачествява основно като полезно лице пред екипа изобретатели, което впечатлява нацистите със своя произход. Той се рови упорито в документацията около “забравения” концлагер “Дора” в ракетния център Пенемюнде и твърди, че няма доказателства за решаващ принос на Фон Браун в разработването на ракетите “Фау”.

CIELA Books
http://knigolandia.info/book-review/t...

[Greg Stoll · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The point of the book is to show that Wernher von Braun was really a Nazi and not nearly as innocent as he later claimed. The book is relatively short (~150 pages) but very dry and a bit hard to follow. (disclaimer: I read this when I was exhausted, so it's possibly less dry than I thought, but I'm sure not going to read it again to find out)

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possibly the worst biography I've every read. This is less a biography and more a reminder that there were once these people called "Nahtsees" and these "Nahtsees" were the most evil irredeemable force of total destruction that the world has ever seen. And did you know that our very own U S of A went and hired some of these "Nahtsees" and put them in charge of their adopted country's own space program. Don't you forget how bad those "Nahtsees" were now, they were really really bad news.

Bad news.

[Charlotte Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was a gripping account of Von Braun and documents his journey in becoming a world renowned rocket scientist. The book does delve into his involvement with the Nazi Party. I think it is unlikely he would not have known about the horrendous treatment of slave workers at the military base where he spent so much of his time during WW2. However Dark Side of The Moon does also focus on what Von Braun wanted to achieve, to get mankind into space. And on to the Moon.

This book was given to me as a Christmas present by a very good friend of mine and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I could only give it 4 stars because I would have liked to have seen a chapter or two exploring his time at NASA! However this book is a marvellous read for anyone studying Nazi Germany from a historical perspective like I am and also for those who are fascinated by all things to do with space! ☺

[Harry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat disappointing (almost any many footnotes as narrative). Von Braun was the darling of the "space race" media in the 60's. Even then it smelled of bull-shit...former Nazi leads US to victory in space race against the Commies.

[Marod · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very poorly written, incredibly biased short book which, I guess, is supposed to show us - are you ready for it? - that one of the chief engineers of V-2 rocket was, indeed, a Nazi. He may have even lied a couple of times. As if though this is some kind of big revelation worthy of a 240 page treatise (of these the main text is just around 150 pages, the rest are notes, references and bibliography.

In fact It is simply unclear what was the author's intention. It is definitely not Von Braun's abridged biography as the book barely even touches upon him. His skills, talents, personality, aspirations practically go unmentioned. Neither are his friendships, his connections and his marriage literally gets an off-hand, "by-the-way:" type remark at the end.

Is the book supposed to focus only on Von Braun's relations with the Nazi regime? Well, if that's the main goal, then the book does a horrible job doing it. The fact that Von Braun was a member of a Nazi party and SS was widely known and the book simply does not give away any additional details. The sources are all secondary with main biographies (disparagingly called "hagiographies" by the partial author) are almost completely ignored.

In fact, I would not be surprised that the main purpose of the book was simply monetary as a very thorough, objective and full biography of Von Braun by Michael Neufeld came out just a year before this one and the author was definitely acquainted with it, as he is used it as a source and listed in the bibliography. Interestingly, instead of relying heavily on this recent authoritative biography, he rarely cites it instead choosing to depend on rather wonky secondary sources. I have a feeling this was done purposefully to hide any connections (without fully ignoring it as then some charges of plagiarism may arise) with that successful biography and the fact that this one is merely trying to shamefully capitalize on it.

One last thing to note is incredibly sardonic, vile tone the author talks about, well, everything - starting with Von Braun and ending with Imperial Germany. Von Braun may not have been an angel (did anyone actually believe he was?), but the author's incredible negative attitude is simply unsubstantiated and biased. It would be one thing if the author discovered some new, reliable sources indicating that Von Braun participated in atrocities or something of the ilk, but the argumentation is extremely weak and based on the testimonies of few inmates of Dora-Mittelbau camp. At best it is "implied" that Von Braun knew about atrocities.

The author then tries to avoid this issue by again heavily implying that Von Braun and his associates destroyed most of the evidence. This is pure speculation and conjecture not backed up by anything. At one point the author even wonders why there are no wartime diaries or other writings from Von Braun while his post-war record was pretty prolific. The answer may simply lie in the fact that Von Braun might have been just busy building the rockets, aware of the dire circumstances that may befell him lest he failed to keep up with the demands of the Army and then SS. But the implication from the author is that the cunning Von Braun simply destroyed all of his diaries to start anew in America with a clean slate.

In short, do not buy this book. If you are interested in Vin Braun's life, pick up any of his biographies. In fact, the one of those glowingly positive old "hagiographies", as author calls them numerous times, would still be much better than this short, pointless book.

[Mark Potts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did find it this an enjoyable read, as far as it goes. Whilst it does provide, I believe, important background historical context to the evolution of Von Braun's empire, and places events in context with, and it did place the achievements in perspective with contemporaneous events. However, Biddle fails to expand in so many areas. For example, he is one of the few to mention General Hans Kammler's part in their escape from Germany, but he fails to expand on it, which is what we were reading the book to find out about. Every chapter leaves you feeling, yes, and, go on, tell me more about that...

He fleetingly mentions Robert Goddard, in passing, and never mentions Jack Parsons at all. Did Von Braun not know of their activities, not care or, consider them insignificant? Surely, even in Nazi Germany their achievements were known? Operation Paperclip is mentioned once in passing, as a development of Project Overcast, 4 pages from the end. It is this kind of lack of development that is this book's big weakness. It's great as far as it goes, it just leaves you not really knowing any more than when you picked it up. I guess if you know nothing at all about Von Braun, it's a good introduction. Disappointing though, if you already knew about who he was.

[Yovelina Langureva · Rating 3 out of 5]

„Тъмната страна на Луната“ от Уейн Бидъл е критичен биографичен разказ за Вернер фон Браун – германския инженер, който преминава от създател на нацистките ракети „Фау-2“ до водеща фигура в американската космическа програма. Авторът изследва не само научните му постижения, но и моралните компромиси, които фон Браун прави, работейки за режима на Хитлер и по-късно адаптирайки се към новата си роля в САЩ.

Бидъл очевидно подхожда с критичен поглед и акцентира върху етичните въпроси около фон Браун – връзките му със СС, използването на принудителен труд и последвалата му реабилитация в Америка. Макар книгата да е богата на исторически факти и задълбочени изследвания, тонът на автора често загатва лична неприязън към фон Браун, представяйки го повече като опортюнист, отколкото като визионер.

За тези, които търсят задълбочен, но критичен анализ на фон Браун и епохата, в която е живял, „Тъмната страна на Луната“ предлага провокативен и добре аргументиран разказ.

[Javier Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is far more a moral tale than it is a biography, a history, or the telling of a story. In reality, it reads much like a paper of indictment against Dr. Von Braun and his fellow scientists, engineers, and workers at Pennemunde. If the charge is that those in the know knew that slave labor was being used to build their rockets for the purposes of destruction, then I believe that this is not up for dispute. The tragedy is that this is not a Faustian choice that only Von Braun and his associate had to face. The same could be said for the first designers of the Atomic Bomb, the designers of chemical warfare in World War 1, and so many other weapons of war. This is a story that needs to be told in the context of all scientific research, since an overwhelming resource of funding for this venture is sadly, the militaries of the world.

[Skywalker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, the author did NOT like Wernher von Braun, that was evident. Which is well enough.
But I did not like the amount of assumptions and allegations based on the auther‘s personal opinion of von Braun and his past. It‘s just not my prefered style of writing.
The reading was strenuous, because of the multitude of notes, sometimes every sentence. Often enough, the notes had no direct context to the main reasoning and impeded reading. More often than not, they were made to support the author‘s opinion and assumptions.

Without further detailed knowledge of the whole rocket science in Nazi Germany, it’s hard to place the book.

Personally, no recommendation.

[Jenna]

What I learned: Wernher von Braun was a Nazi, full stop, who got a completely undeserved second chance at a life & career because the US was desperate to build rockets. It’s even more outrageous to find out that the dissembling bastard didn’t know half as much about building spacecraft as he claimed.

[Галина Петрова · Rating 4 out of 5]

Другият, незахаросан поглед към личността Вернер фон Браун.

[Brittany Murhammer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very detailed biography.

[O. Jennings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Wayne Biddle described the fascinating events and zeitgeist in the Germany of Werner Von Braun's parents and his childhood leading up to Hitler's rise to Chancellor. He describes the romanticising of technology that gripped the imagination of the German people and Nazis in particular. This lead to the acceleration of rocket science development for the Nazi war effort. The rockets that were mass produced by the Nazi regime were created with slave labor in inhuman conditions. Thousands of French prisoners of war along with Polish and other concentration camp inmates died during the making of the weaponized rockets. And more than 2500 British civilians in London were killed by Nazi rocket attacks. But Von Braun was extremely lucky to have been spared retribution for his involvement. He was brought to the U.S. by our government and became a founder and principle architect of our space program which culminated in sending men to the moon. One takeaway I gleaned from the book is that science and technology are neutral and need to be driven by a value system. Under the Nazis, technology was value-driven by dreams of global military conquest by the German Master race. In the U.S. the values that drove our rocket program were ostensibly more benign while giving us a different kind of supremacy in the global marketplace. Fascinating story and well told.

[Max Williamson · Rating 3 out of 5]

very well written and clearly well researched. recommended to anyone with an interest in any of the areas it covers.

opens by considering von braun's career and life in the wider context of the relationship between scientific discovery and morality, and whether a scientist has a case to answer for applications that arise from his work.

what he brings to light about von braun's upbringing is also very interesting and revealing

however, i had expected and hoped the book would cover his work for the nazis and nasa in equal measure, at least, this is what the title indicated to me, perhaps others will read it differently. but as this is 90% von braun and the third reich, i finished it feeling i'd only been given half the story

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because von Braun was able to transform his status from Nazi rocket scientist to father of the U.S. space program, biographer Biddle was challenged to overcome the lack of information on -- some would say willful disinterest in -- the first four decades of his subject's life. The result is a book that at once is too long and too short. Worth reading, though.

[Cailin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting topic, but I found the writing incredibly dry. This book had made me think much more critically about the Von Braun mythology. I would have liked to delve deeper into his post-war career, but that wasn't really within the scope of this book.

[Keval · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the historical context of how the rocket programme started and where it was going, but at the same time, the point about how von Braun is 'special' and was spared trial for his Nazi credentials became a tad repetitive.

[Stewart Cotterill · Rating 2 out of 5]

A disappointing book. It has the feel of a number of newspaper articles cobbled together. Throughout the book there is dangled the promise of either an expose of what v B knew of the holocaust or what he did for the US space agency. Neither of this promises are fulfilled.

[Cira · Rating 2 out of 5]

+5 stars for the aggressive historical context
-2 stars for adding nothing to Neufeld's work
-1 star for the bizarre writing style; it's weird what Biddle chooses to focus on (and dismiss)

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was eye-opening for a person like me who watched the Apollo launches and all the praise heaped on Werner von Braun. In the pages of this book I learned the dark past of the man.

[Justine · Rating 1 out of 5]

So poorly written and argued that I could not finish it.

[Ira Langstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent. Exposes the many innate contradictions in what we call: being human.

[Aaron Cochrill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very academic book. It was interesting and detailed, but not necessarily my cup of tea. I was hoping that Himmler and his fascination and melding of the occult would be more discussed.