July 2019 LIFE 17

The dark side of the moon mission When Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins flew to the moon 50 years ago, they used German technology

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that would elevate Apollo 11 to templative tone of voice, he notes: a comprehensive list of contrac- Erlangen was also involved in the former Army Research Center BY PHILIP ARTELT the moon in 1969. “Science in and “Some of the things invented in tors involved in the lunar landing, mission. It didn’t provide medical in Peenemünde: “Things have AND NANA BRINK of itself does not have a moral Peenemünde became crucial to but it contains no companies from equipment for the astronauts, as been growing here for the past dimension,” he would later say. US rocket technology, and many Germany. one might expect; instead, the 75 years,” says historian Philipp othing is impossible in In fact, von Braun was a clever German engineers like Wernher On the third day of the flight team was responsible for the zinc Aumann. “It shows us the extent the land of opportunity. opportunist who always achieved von Braun made a seamless transi- to the moon, Edwin “Buzz“ sulfide phosphors needed to light to which the efforts of humans N“We choose to go to the his goals – just like his rockets. tion in continuing their work after Aldrin radioed back to Earth: the ship’s instrumentation “in will eventually disappear in the moon in this decade and do the He was an exceedingly ambitious the war.” “We’re thinking about taking the magic green,” as the company’s forest.” Still, the site that many other things, not because they scientist. Even as a child, he was Yet another contribution to the monocular with us on the lunar in-house newspaper called it refer to as the “birthplace of are easy, but because they are constructing firework-like rockets history of space travel began in module.” He uttered these words back in 1969. This energy-saving space travel” continues to tell the hard,” said US President John F. and shooting them into the sky in Ladbergen, a town of 6,000 inhab- to the delight of many people at light was, in fact, a by-product story of the dark side of innova- Kennedy in 1962. And he wasn’t Berlin’s Tiergarten. itants in northwestern Germany. the optics manufacturer Leitz in created by the division and was tions in aerospace engineering. the only one who believed in the And von Braun never stopped To this day, one can find the farm the town of Wetzlar, Germany. usually employed in medical Shortly before the end of World unlimited possibilities ahead. wanting to go higher in the true belonging to Fritz Kötter, a young Just prior to that, however, Aldrin devices. War II, SS Sturmbannführer On July 21, 1969, US astronauts sense of the word. He wanted to man who left Germany for good had complained about the single- Retiree Peter Hitzschke enjoys Wernher von Braun traveled to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin go to space. But in order to do in 1864 and made his way to the barrel telescope made by Leitz. He talking about quartz glass, per- Bavaria – in anticipation of the set foot on the moon, infecting so, he made a pact with the devil, US. Roughly a century later, many had noted that the image was too haps even more than about the arrival of the US Army. In his an entire generation with space just like Goethe’s Faust. The Nazis years after the Kötters settled in shaky, and that the most sensible moon landing. And yet he, too, hand was a suitcase containing fever – even in Germany, at least financed his dream and his team Ohio and changed their name to way to keep the device steady was has a connection to the Apollo all of his knowledge concerning in the western part. But was the of researchers, and in 1937, he Katter, one of their descendants not to hold it at all; instead, Aldrin 11 mission: the small case con- the V2 rocket. The Nazi past of moon landing an exclusively became technical director of the became the first person to walk let the monocular float weight- taining quartz prisms that is still many German engineers would American success story? newly founded Army Research on the surface of the moon: Neil lessly in the air, allowing him to on the moon to this day. The be of little interest to the US mili- On Oct. 3, 1942, a young engi- Center in the fishing village of Alden Armstrong, a slight boy get a much less wobbly image. quartz crystals originated at the tary and later NASA. “These men neer named Wernher von Braun Peenemünde. There, on 25 square from Ohio who grew up loving air- The initial plan had been to leave Hanau-based high-tech firm Her- were too important, they were was in good spirits. The weather kilometers of land, emerged one planes, served in the Korean War the monocular in the Columbia aeus, Peter Hitzschke’s former simply years ahead of American was no doubt perfect as he walked of the most high-tech labora- and journeyed to the moon on space capsule, but the fact that employer. scientists,” explains Aumann. through the forest on the north- tory landscapes in the world at behalf of his country. One could it even made it onto the Apollo The communications depart- The Saturn V rockets that would ern tip of the German island of the time. And the legendary Test argue that Armstrong owed this moon mission was a big deal. ment at Heraeus is celebrating bring the first men to the moon Usedom on the Baltic Sea. For Stand VII was the heart of the opportunity to his great-grand- Due to limitations regarding the the 50th anniversary of the moon were to become von Braun’s three years, the charismatic direc- operation. father Fritz, who changed conti- weight and space taken up by each landing to a greater degree than greatest achievement. The tor of Germany’s Army Research In order to get to Test Stand VII nents to avoid being drafted into item, NASA had been forced to other companies in Germany. German engineer would even go Center in Peenemünde had galva- today, historian Philipp Aumann the Prussian army. plan precisely which equipment They’ve even set up a website on to become an American media nized the team of scientists work- has to drive through a jungle-like Armstrong never made a big deal could be brought aboard the lunar featuring short films and comics star known as the “missile man.” ing with him. And now, finally, he landscape. The surrounding area of his German heritage and never module. Some items were even left and are seizing on the anniver- Every now and again, it is sug- found himself gazing at the rocket has been a nature reserve since visited Ladbergen. And “unex- behind on the moon to make room sary to boost their stature with gested that the Text Stand VII launch pad known as Test Stand 1990 and is not open to the public. cited” is also probably the best for collected moon rocks. the general public. Heraeus is be reconstructed and made open VII and his Aggregat 4 rocket, Aumann is scientific director of word to describe Germany’s cul- At Leica, as Leitz is known today, also one of the few companies to the public. It would be a dif- which stood 14 meters high and the Peenemünde Historical Tech- ture of remembrance with regard the NASA monocular is not a big to contact eyewitnesses like ficult task, and an expensive one. weighed almost 13 tons. When the nical Museum, so he knows how to the moon landing. But this topic. “Binoculars never had a Peter Hitzschke. In the 1960s, No one knows exactly what lies rocket’s 8,600 kilograms of alco- to steer his jeep over barely visible doesn’t diminish the fact that it special cachet,” explains Alfred Hitzschke worked as a mechani- beneath the overgrown remains hol and liquid oxygen ignited, the paths with crushed trees and over- would have been inconceivable for Hengst, former head developer cal engineer at the company and in the restricted area. If it were sound was deafening. It shot into grown railway tracks to the right two Americans – no matter what of the relevant division at Leica helped produce the glass made up to the historian Aumann, they the sky with 650,000 horsepower, and left of him. their family origins – to walk on and now a retiree. People mostly of Brazilian rock crystal that ulti- would do nothing: “Decay is part taking it a full 84.5 kilometers The site was used by the East the moon in 1969 without the con- talked about “the Leica,” the mately ended up in the moon of this story,” he says. “I find it straight upward. German army until 1990. It con- tributions of German scientists. world-famous camera, he notes. case. much more exciting than walking Wernher von Braun had tinues to be a restricted area to And Wernher von Braun was only Still, the Leitz Trinovid binoculars The smoothed quartz from through some sort of Disneyland achieved his goal. The first step this day, contaminated by the one of them. Space pioneers such were a great innovation; they were Hanau resembles the orange cat- where everything is displayed the had been taken. For the first time remains of munitions and rocket as Hermann Oberth, who became small and light yet had outstand- eye reflectors mounted on the way it was back then.” in history, a man-made object was debris. The only thing visible from famous for his work The Rocket ing optical performance thanks spokes of bicycles. If you aim a able to reach the border to outer afar is the former power plant that into Planetary Space (1923), and to their newly developed roof laser at the quartz, you can mea- space. once provided electricity for the engineer Walter Hohmann, who prisms. The Wetzlar-made binoc- sure the distance between the Philip Artelt and Nana Brink While one could contest that the elaborate experiments and serves distanced himself from rocketry ulars were ultimately convincing Earth and the moon. Scientists are reporters for the German history of the moon landing began today as an exhibition space. In for a time, were responsible for enough to win over NASA. use this method to gain informa- radio station Deutschlandfunk at Test Stand VII, it’s indisputable front of the power station, a black- much of the preparatory research At the time, however, they were tion about the position of the Kultur. Their complete that it launched the incredible and-white V2 rocket towers up that was eventually merged to much too bulky, so the space Earth in space, about the conti- broadcast on the subject can be heard on that station on career of Wernher von Braun. The into the sky. It’s a popular back- create an almost 111-meter-high agency ordered a single-barrel nents and even about the inner July 18 at 1:05 pm. outer-space visionary, born into drop for selfies taken by visitors rocket in the US: the Saturn V. version, pretty much a pair of structure of our home planet. www.Germanyfunkkultur.de/ a German noble family in 1912, to the museum. “Many people are With names such as Zeiss and binoculars cut in half. They also Heraeus had sold glass to NASA laenderreport would become famous for inspir- unaware that what they’re photo- Varta, roughly half a scrapped the attractive leather for various uses even before the ing both Adolf Hitler and John F. graphing is a weapon of terror,” dozen medium-sized encasing, as it was unnecessary in Apollo 11 mission, and in this Kennedy. says Aumann. German companies the spaceship. One of these rare sense the quartz prisms were “a Von Braun built the Aggregat 4 After arriving at a particular worked on prod- monoculars is said to have been regular job,” Hitzschke recalls. for the Nazis. It was a rocket that point in the dense forest, Aumann ucts for Apollo bought years later by a very lucky Still, he does exude a hint of would go on to spread fear and gestures towards an inconspicu- 11; and they did individual at a flea market in the pride at the fact that the case terror as the infamous V2 – V for ous stone; on it are the words so largely unno- US for only a handful of dollars. continues to fulfill its pur- Vergeltung, retribution. It would “Launch site of the A4 rockets.” ticed by the Other German companies have pose; indeed, even today, sci- indeed eventually cost the lives of Does that mean that this spot is general public. completely forgotten their own entists send out lasers to the tens of thousands of forced labor- the “birthplace of space travel”? These contri- contributions to the moon land- moon on occasion. In fact, the ers, concentration camp prisoners, The stone sits on a small granite butions have ing. The team at Healthineers, the quartz prisms from Hanau are and residents of London, Antwerp base. “Concrete would have rup- also been spin-off medical division of the the only Apollo mission experi- and Paris. tured due the enormous heat cre- mostly forgot- Siemens corporation, was sur- ment that is ongoing 50 years After the war, von Braun went ated by a launch,” says Aumann, ten by NASA. prised by the request for infor- later. on to develop the Saturn V rocket looking up to the sky. In a con- When asked, mation about the moon landings. In contrast, there’s not much WIKIPEDIA the agency However, the company previously going on today at the once leg- responded known as the Wernerwerk für endary Test Stand VII, the launch THE FIRST ROCKET IN SPACE that it had Medizinische Technik based in pad for rockets on the site of the Between 1936 and 1945, the Army Research Center in Peenemünde was one of the most high-tech centers in the world. It was here that scientists launched the first-ever rocket into space. Tens of thousands of forced laborers, concentration camp inmates and prisoners of war were employed in the construc- tion of the “weapon of retribution” known as the V2 rocket, starting in 1943 in the underground tunnel system belong- ing to the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp in the Harz Mountains. Up to 20,000 of them lost their lives. Historian Philipp Aumann: “Wernher von Braun was involved from the very beginning in the system of forced labor relating to the Rocketmen: Wernher von Braun and John F. Kennedy war effort. He even selected inmates himself.” Hitler’s Wunderwaffe (miracle weapon) was used roughly 3,000 times until March 1945, in particular against the UK, France and the Netherlands. These rockets caused the deaths of approximately 8,000 people.