PEENEMUENDE, NATIONAL SOCIALISM, and the V-2 MISSILE, 1924-1945 Michael

ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: ENGINEERING CONSENT: PEENEMUENDE, NATIONAL SOCIALISM, AND THE V-2 MISSILE, 1924-1945 Michael Brian Petersen, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Jeffrey Herf Departmen t of History This dissertation is the story of the German scientists and engineers who developed, tested, and produced the V-2 missile, the world’s first liquid -fueled ballistic missile. It examines the social, political, and cultural roots of the prog ram in the Weimar Republic, the professional world of the Peenemünde missile base, and the results of the specialists’ decision to use concentration camp slave labor to produce the missile. Previous studies of this subject have been the domain of either of sensationalistic journalists or the unabashed admirers of the German missile pioneers. Only rarely have historians ventured into this area of inquiry, fruitfully examining the history of the German missile program from the top down while noting its admi nistrative battles and technical development. However, this work has been done at the expense of a detailed examination of the mid and lower -level employees who formed the backbone of the research and production effort. This work addresses that shortcomi ng by investigating the daily lives of these employees and the social, cultural, and political environment in which they existed. It focuses on the key questions of dedication, motivation, and criminality in the Nazi regime by asking “How did Nazi authori ties in charge of the missile program enlist the support of their employees in their effort?” “How did their work translate into political consent for the regime?” “How did these employees come to view slave labor as a viable option for completing their work?” This study is informed by traditions in European intellectual and social history while borrowing from different methods of sociology and anthropology. I argue that a web of professional ambition, internal dynamics, military pressure, and fear coal esced in this project. The interaction of these forces made the rapid development of the V-2 possible, but also contributed to an environment in which terrible crimes could be committed against concentration camp prisoners in the name of defending National Socialist Germany. ENGINEERING CONSENT: PEENEMUENDE, NATIONAL SOCIALISM, AND THE V-2 MISSILE, 1924-1945 by Michael Brian Petersen Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Mary land, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2005 Advisory Committee: Professor Jeffrey Herf, Chair Professor C. Fred Alford Professor John Lampe Professor Marsha Rozenblit Professor Th omas Zeller ©Copyright by Michael Brian Petersen 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was completed in very large measure because of the patience and guidance of my committee of readers. My advis or and mentor, Jeffrey Herf, proved to be especially forbearing while also pushing me to conceptualize this work in a way that addressed important historical issues beyond the scope of its subject. In addition, his insightful criticism improved each draft that I handed him. I owe him a great deal. Thomas Zeller availed me of his notable intellectual gifts, his impressive knowledge of German technical archives, and his warm friendship. Marsha Rozenblit and John Lampe provided a great deal of friendly and helpful advice, especially at the earliest stages of this project, and C. Fred Alford graciously came aboard at a late stage to help usher the project along to completion. Though not on my committee, I also owe a number of other readers a deep debt of gratitude. Second to none in this regard is Michael Neufeld. He generously commented on numerous drafts and offered the benefit of his extraordinary knowledge of the German missile program as well as several obscure, but important sources necessary to co mplete this work. Also helpful were Martin Collins, John Delaney, David DeVorkin, Wolf - Grüner, Martina Hessler, Laura Hilton, Alex Roland, and Jill Stephenson, who read early versions of chapters presented at various conferences and talks. I owe a specia l debt of gratitude to Suzanne Brown -Fleming, who provided both intellectual and moral support at the most difficult stages of this process. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the University of Maryland, which supplied me with research and tra vel funding to carry out much of this work, and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum for the very ii generous Guggenheim Pre -Doctoral Fellowship that enabled me complete a great deal of research and writing. Great thanks are also due to the staff at the Archives of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Garber Facility. The archival staff there was fantastically accommodating to a researcher who spent more than his fair share of time requesting rolls of microfilm and taking up space in thei r rather cozy, but rich archive. I quickly came to value their expertise and friendship. In Germany, I had the benefit of expert advice from other notable historians, archivists, and curators. Andreas Heusler provided me with helpful research advice for German archives. Jens-Christian Wagner shared his first- rate knowledge of Dora - Mittelbau and the incumbent historical issues that are wrapped up in what Jeffrey Herf has called the “Divided Memory” of the post -war Germanys. Dirk Zache and Manfred Kanetz ky of the Historisches- Technisches Informationszentrum Peenemünde paid me the great privilege of making available their raft of archival and museum holdings that are normally not open to the public. Their contribution is writ large across the pages that follow. Frau Bärbel Galonska, archivist at the Stasi Archive in Berlin, went well beyond the call of duty to provide me with many important documents while regaling me with stories of her childhood outside of Peenemünde and stories of the fall of the Berli n Wall. Peggy Schmidt generously opened her wonderful apartment in the center of Berlin and gave me not only a comfortable couch to sleep on, but also a trove of great memories that include trips to see the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra perform and thrice -weekly jogs through the Brandenburg Gate. iii My friends, family, and loved ones deserve all of the thanks that one person can muster. John Apinis always provided the best laughs when I needed them most, and Rugby reminded me that even in the most difficult parts of dissertation writing, it was still fun to wrestle on the living room floor. My parents, Hans Petersen and Theo Fellows, first inspired my love for history and nurtured it through many years while no doubt silently wondering what I would do with a degree in history and when I would finally find a “real” job. Finally, this project would never have been completed if not for the love and encouragement of Heather Jacobsen. Her steadfast support and profound patience were constants throughout this process, and it is to her and my parents that this work is dedicated. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: The Community of Innovation and Culture of Consent in the Raketen -Stadt ……………………………………………….1 Chapter 1: “Help Build the Spaceship!”: Culture and Community in German Rocketry, 1924-1934……………………………………...19 Chapter 2: State Commitments, State Secrets: Establishing the Peenemünde Community of Rocketeers……………………………78 Chapter 3: “It was a Fantastic Life!”: Living and Wo rking in a Secret Rocket Facility……………………………………………………...148 Chapter 4: The Armaments Ministry, SS, and Foreign Labor at Peenemünde...225 Chapter 5: Manufacturing the V -2 at Dora -Mittelbau………………………….270 Chapter 6: Götterdämmerung: The End of the V-2 Program…………………..351 Conclusion: Engineering Consent at Peenemünde……………………………….412 v Introduction The Community of Innovation and Culture of Consent in the Raketen - Stadt It’s a factory -state here, a City of the Future full of extrapolated 1930s swoop-facaded and balconied skyscrapers, lean chrome caryatids with bobbed hairdos, classy airships of all descriptions drifting in the boom and hush of the city abysses, golden lovelies sunning in roof gardens and turning to wave as you pass. It is the Raketen -Stadt. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow1 It occurred just after twelve noon on October 3, 1942, a clear, unseasonably warm day on the Baltic coast. With great anticipation and a deafening roar, twenty - five tons of thrust lifted the forty -six foot tall A-4 (or V-2), the world’s first large, liquid -fueled ballistic missile, from its launch moorings and into the sky. The black and white test missile accelerated rapidly until it hurtled through the air at nearly 3500 miles per hour, cut off its thrust, slipped out of Earth’s atmosphere, and then came careening back to the planet at over three times the speed of sound, landing five minutes later some 125 miles away in the Baltic Sea. 2 The scientists and engineers at the huge missile research facility at Peenemünde had carried out the first successful launch of the A-4. For the first time, humans had managed to launch an object into space, an epochal achievement which was accomplished with virtually no previous practical knowledge and only a few years of theoretical experience. This feat is made even more impressive when one considers that the plans for this particular rocket were hammered out and facilities constructed for its development in 1937 and it only 1 Thoms Pynchon, Gravit y’s Rainbow (New York: Viking Press, 1973), 674. 2 Walter Dornberger, V-2 (New York: Viking Press, 1955), 3 -15. 1 took a mere five years for this fi rst successful test to take place. It was a scientific and technical event of nearly unparalleled magnitude and of fundamental importance to the modern world. However, though many of its ambitious developers would argue after the war that they dreamed of nothing but spaceflight, this was no humanitarian project.

Load more