Hermann Oberth

Born
25 June 1894
Nagyszeben, Kingdom of Hungary,
Austro-Hungarian Empire (today
Sibiu, Romania)
Died
28 December 1989 (age 95)
Nuremberg, Germany
Citizenship
Romanian, Hungarian
[citation needed]
,
German
[1]
Nationality
German
Fields
Astronautics and physics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hermann Julius Oberth (25 June 1894 28 December
1989) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and
engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of
rocketry and astronautics.
1 Early life
2 Rocketry and space flight
3 Later life
4 Legacy
5 See also
6 Books
7 References
8 External links
Oberth was born to a Transylvanian Saxon family in Sibiu
(German: Hermannstadt, Hungarian: Nagyszeben), Austria-
Hungary (today Romania).
[2]
By his own account and that of
many others, around the age of 11 years old, Oberth became
fascinated with the field in which he was to make his mark
through reading the writings of Jules Verne, especially From
the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, re-reading them
to the point of memorization. Influenced by Verne's books
and ideas, Oberth constructed his first model rocket as a
school student at the age of 14. In his youthful experiments,
he arrived independently at the concept of the multistage rocket, but he lacked then the resources to pursue his
idea on any but a pencil-and-paper level.
In 1912, Oberth began the study of medicine in Munich, Germany, but at the outbreak of World War I, he was
drafted into the Imperial German Army, assigned to an infantry battalion, and sent to the Eastern Front against
Russia. In 1915, Oberth was moved into a medical unit at a hospital in Sighisoara, Transylvania, in Austria-
Hungary (today Romania).
[3]
There he found the spare time to conduct a series of experiments concerning
weightlessness, and later resumed his rocketry designs. By 1917, he showed how far his studies had reached by
firing a rocket with liquid propellant in a demonstration to Hermann von Stein, the Prussian Minister of War.
[4]
On July 6, 1918, Oberth married Mathilde Hummel, with whom he had four children. Among these were a son
who died as a soldier in World War II, and a daughter who also died during the war when there was an
accidental explosion at a liquid oxygen plant where she was in August 1944. In 1919, Oberth once again moved
Hermann Oberth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth
1 of 6 2/28/2013 9:48 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth
Hermann Oberth as a young boy, ca.
1901.
to Germany, this time to study physics, initially in Munich and later in
Gttingen.
In 1922, Oberth's proposed doctoral dissertation on rocket science was
rejected as "utopian". He next had his 92-page work published privately
in June 1923 as the somewhat controversial book, Die Rakete zu den
Planetenrumen ("By Rocket into Planetary Space"). By 1929, Oberth
had expanded this work to a 429-page book titled Wege zur
Raumschiffahrt ("Ways to Spaceflight"). Oberth commented later that he
made the deliberate choice not to write another doctoral dissertation. He
wrote, "I refrained from writing another one, thinking to myself: Never
mind, I will prove that I am able to become a greater scientist than some
of you, even without the title of Doctor."
[5]
Oberth criticized the German
system of education, saying "Our educational system is like an
automobile which has strong rear lights, brightly illuminating the past.
But looking forward, things are barely discernible."
[5]
Hermann Oberth
was finally awarded his doctorate
[6]
in physics with the same rocketry
paper that he had written before, by the University, Cluj, Romania, under professor Augustin Maior, on May 23,
1923.
[3]
Oberth became a member of the Verein fr Raumschiffahrt (VfR) - the "Spaceflight Society" an amateur
rocketry group that had taken great inspiration from his book, and Oberth acted as something of a mentor to the
enthusiasts who joined the Society. Oberth lacked the opportunities to work or to teach at the college or
university level, as did many well-educated experts in the physical sciences and engineering in the time period
of the 1920s through the 1930s with the situation becoming much worse during the worldwide Great
Depression that started in 1929. Therefore, from 1924 through 1938, Oberth supported himself and his family
by teaching physics and mathematics at the Stephan Ludwig Roth High School in Media, Romania.
[3]
In parts of 1928 and 1929, Oberth also worked in Berlin, Germany as a scientific consultant on the first film
ever to have scenes set in outer space, Frau im Mond ("The Woman in the Moon"), which was directed and
produced by the great film pioneer Fritz Lang at the Universum Film AG company. This film was of enormous
value in popularizing the ideas of rocketry and space exploration. One of Oberth's main assignments was to
build and launch a rocket as a publicity event just before the film's premiere. He also designed the model of the
"Friede", the main rocket portrayed in the film.
On June 5, 1929, Oberth won the first (Robert Esnault-Pelterie - Andr-Louis Hirsch) "Rep-Hirsch Prize" of the
French Astronomical Society for the encouragement of astronautics in his book Wege zur Raumschiffahrt
("Ways to Spaceflight") that had expanded Die Rakete zu den Planetenrumen to a full-length book.
[7]
In the autumn of 1929, Oberth conducted a static firing of his first liquid-fueled rocket motor, which he named
the Kegeldse. The engine was built by Klaus Riedel in a workshop space provided by the Reich Institution of
Chemical Technology, and although it lacked a cooling system, it did run briefly.
[8]
He was helped in this
experiment by an 18 year old student Wernher von Braun, who would later become a giant in both German and
American rocket engineering from the 1940s onward, culminating with the gigantic Saturn V rockets that made
it possible for men to land on the Moon in 1969 and in several following years. Indeed Von Braun said of him:
Hermann Oberth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth
2 of 6 2/28/2013 9:48 PM
Hermann Oberth was the first, who when thinking about the possibility of spaceships grabbed a
slide-rule and presented mathematically analyzed concepts and designs.... I, myself, owe to him
not only the guiding-star of my life, but also my first contact with the theoretical and practical
aspects of rocketry and space travel. A place of honor should be reserved in the history of
science and technology for his ground-breaking contributions in the field of astronautics.
[9]
In 1938, the Oberth family left Sibiu, Romania, for good, to first settle in Austria, then in Nazi Germany, then in
the United States, and finally back to a free Germany. Oberth himself moved on first to the Technische
Hochschule in Vienna, Austria, then to the Technische Hochschule in Dresden, Germany. (A Technische
Hochschule at that time was a technical college offering advanced professional training in selected fields, rather
than an institution also engaged in basic research, as a university.) Oberth moved to Peenemnde, Germany, in
1941 to work on Nazi German rocketry projects, including the V-2 rocket weapon, and in about September
1943, he was awarded the Kriegsverdienstkreuz I Klasse mit Schwertern (War Merit Cross 1st Class, with
Swords) for his "outstanding, courageous behavior ... during the attack" on Peenemnde by Operation Hydra,
part of Operation Crossbow.
[10]
Oberth later worked on solid-propellant anti-aircraft rockets at the German WASAG military organization near
Wittenberg. Around the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, the Oberth family moved to the town of
Feucht, near Nuremberg, Germany, which became part of the American Zone of occupied Germany, and also
the location of the high-level war-crimes trials of the surviving Nazi leaders. Oberth was allowed to leave
Nurmberg to move to Switzerland in 1948, where he worked as an independent rocketry consultant and a writer.
In 1950, Oberth moved on to Italy, where he completed some of the work that he had begun at the WASAG
organization for the new Italian Navy. In 1953, Oberth returned to Feucht, Germany, to publish his book
Menschen im Weltraum (Men in Space), in which he described his ideas for space-based reflecting telescopes,
space stations, electric-powered spaceships, and space suits.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Oberth offered his opinions regarding unidentified flying objects (UFOs). He was
a supporter of the extraterrestrial hypothesis for the origin of the UFOs that were seen at the Earth. For example,
in an article in The American Weekly magazine of October 24, 1954, Oberth stated, "It is my thesis that flying
saucers are real, and that they are space ships from another solar system. I think that they possibly are manned
by intelligent observers who are members of a race that may have been investigating our earth for centuries..."
[11]
He also wrote an article in the second edition of Flying Saucer Review titled "They Come From Outer
Space". He discussed the history of reports of "strange luminous objects" in the sky, mentioning that the earliest
historical case is of "Shining Shields" reported by Pliny the Elder. He wrote, "Having weighed all the pros and
cons, I find the explanation of flying discs from outer space the most likely one. I call this the "Uraniden"
hypothesis, because from our viewpoint the hypothetical beings appear to come from the sky (Greek -
'Uranos')."
[12]
Oberth eventually came to work for his former student, Wernher von Braun, who was developing space rockets
for NASA in Huntsville, Alabama. (See also List of German rocket scientists in the United States). Among
other things, Oberth was involved in writing the study, The Development of Space Technology in the Next Ten
Years. In 1958, Oberth was back in Feucht, Germany, where he published his ideas on a lunar exploration
vehicle, a "lunar catapult", and on "muffled" helicopters and airplanes. In 1960, back in the United States again,
Oberth went to work for the Convair Corporation as a technical consultant on the Atlas rocket program.
Oberth retired in 1962 at the age of 68. From 1965 to 1967 he was a member of the National Democratic Party,
Hermann Oberth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth
3 of 6 2/28/2013 9:48 PM
The statue of Hermann
Oberth in front of Sibiu city
hall
which was considered to be far right. In July 1969, Oberth returned to the United States to witness the launch of
the Apollo project Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that carried the Apollo 11 crew
on the first landing mission to the Moon.
[13]
The 1973 petroleum crisis inspired Oberth to look into alternative energy sources, including a plan for a wind
power station that could utilize the jet stream. However, his primary interest during his retirement years was to
turn to more abstract philosophical questions. Most notable among his several books from this period is Primer
For Those Who Would Govern.
Oberth returned to the United States to view the launch of 61A, the space shuttle Challenger launched October
30, 1985.
Oberth died in Nuremberg, West Germany, on 28 December 1989, just shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain
that had for so long divided Germany into two countries.
[4][14]
Hermann Oberth is memorialized by the Hermann Oberth Space Travel Museum
in Feucht, Germany, and by the Hermann Oberth Society. The museum brings
together scientists, researchers, engineers, and astronauts from the East and the
West to carry on his work in rocketry and space exploration.
The Oberth effect, in which a rocket engine when traveling at high speed
generates more useful energy than one at traveling at low speed, is named after
him.
There is also a crater on the Moon and an asteroid named after him.
The science-fiction movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock mentions the
Oberth-class of starships hypothetically to be in his honor. Later on, this same
class of starships is mentioned in several episodes of the American TV series
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa features Hermann
Oberth as the "teacher" of the movie's protagonist, Edward Elric. Oberth is also
mentioned in the last episode of the TV series Fullmetal Alchemist. In this
episode, Elric has heard of a great scientist, named "Oberth", with curious theories (The English dub explicitly
states his name and research into rocketry). The last moments of the series depict Elric on board a train on his
way to meet Oberth, determined to study rocketry with him.
The mecha anime series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross from the early eighties featured a type of
military spacecraft used by the U.N. Spacy Earth forces called the Oberth Class Space Destroyer. A character
from the series, Captain Bruno J. Global, was supposedly the first to engage another space combat vessel with
this type of ship using nuclear weapons.
Outer space
List of German inventors and discoverers
Hermann Oberth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth
4 of 6 2/28/2013 9:48 PM
High altitude wind power
Die Rakete zu den Planetenrumen (1929) (By Rocket into Planetary Space) (in German) OCLC 6026491
(http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6026491)
Ways to Spaceflight (1929) OCLC 255256956 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/255256956)
The Moon Car (1959) OCLC 574140 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/574140)
The Electric Spaceship (1960) OCLC 20586236 (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20586236)
Primer for Those Who Would Govern (1987) ISBN 0-914301-06-3
^ Horia-Nicolai Teodorescu, Hermann Oberth And
His Professional Geography in the European Context
of the 20th Century (http://noesis.racai.ro/Noesis2004
/2004Art13.pdf) PDF (261 KB)
1.
^ Joseph E. Angelo (2003). Space Technology.
Greenwood Press. pp. 70. ISBN 1-57356-335-8.
2.
^
a

b

c
(Romanian) Jrgen Heinz Ianzer, Hermann
Oberth, printele zborului cosmic ("Hermann Oberth,
Father of the Cosmic Flight") (http://www.aspera.ro
/dl/oberth.pdf) , p. 3, 11, 13, 15.
3.
^
a

b
Mort de Hermann Oberth, pionnier de la
conqute spatiale ("The Death of Hermann Oberth,
Space Conquest Pioneer"), in (Le Monde), (1 January
1990, p. 3, 16, accessed on 7 October 2006).
4.
^
a

b
"Hermann Oberth, Father of Space Travel", at
Kiosek.com (http://www.kiosek.com/oberth/)
5.
^ Europe's space programme: to Ariane and beyond -
Page 2 (http://books.google.com
/books?id=kYZBLzW7r4cC&pg=PA2&
dq=Hermann+Oberth+1923&hl=en&
ei=A_qkTKisOpDQjAfjmI2fDA&
sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&
ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA)
6.
^ L'Aerophile, 115 June 1929, p.176; L. Blosset,
Smithsonian Annals of Flight, No. 10, p. 11
7.
^ The Rocket and the Reich, Michael J. Neufeld 8.
^ [1] (http://www.oberth-museum.org/index_e.html) 9.
^ Ordway, Frederick I., III.. The Rocket Team.
Apogee Books Space Series 36. pp. 36.
10.
^ Schuessler, John L., "Statements About Flying
Saucers And Extraterrestrial Life Made By Prof.
Hermann Oberth, German Rocket Scientist" 2002
(http://www.mufon.com/MUFONNews
/znews_oberth.html) ; for example, the American
Weekly article also appeared in the Washington Post
and Times Herald, pg. AW4, and Milwaukee Sentinel
(http://news.google.com
/newspapers?id=Pm8xAAAAIBAJ&
sjid=MRAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5451,3094226&
dq=hermann+oberth&hl=en)
11.
^ Hermann Oberth "They Come From Outer Space"
Flying Saucer Review Volume 1 Number 2, May-June
1955 p12-14
12.
^ "Hermann Oberth"
(http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay
/SPACEFLIGHT/oberth/SP2.htm) , at the U.S.
Centennial of Flight Commission
13.
^ "Hermann Oberth, 95, German Rocket Expert"
(http://query.nytimes.com
/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFD81F3DF932A05751
C1A96F948260) . New York Times. 31 December
1989. http://query.nytimes.com
/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFD81F3DF932A05751
C1A96F948260. Retrieved 2008-04-10. "Hermann
Julius Oberth, a pioneer of the space age who worked
with Werner von Braun to help develop Germany's
V-2 rocket, died on Friday. He was 95 years old. Mr.
Oberth died at a hospital in Nuremberg after a short
illness, the Hermann Oberth Museum in Feucht said
in a statement."
14.
The Hermann Oberth Space Museum (http://www.oberth-museum.org/)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hermann_Oberth&oldid=539431628"
Hermann Oberth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth
5 of 6 2/28/2013 9:48 PM
Categories: Early rocketry Early spaceflight scientists Romanian Protestants Romanian Lutherans
Romanian physicists Romanian essayists Romanian schoolteachers
Romanian expatriates in the United States German expatriates in the United States German physicists
German essayists German Lutherans German people of World War II
German military personnel of World War I Members of the Romanian Academy elected post-mortem
Babe-Bolyai University alumni Austro-Hungarian people Austrian people of Hungarian descent
Romanian people of German descent Transylvanian-Saxon people People from Sibiu
People from Sighioara 1894 births 1989 deaths
Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
This page was last modified on 21 February 2013 at 15:07.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Hermann Oberth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Oberth
6 of 6 2/28/2013 9:48 PM