Magnus von Braun
| Magnus von Braun | |
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Magnus von Braun (far left, cropped), two U.S. soldiers, Walter Dornberger, Herbert Axster, Wernher von Braun (center), Hans Lindenberg, and Bernhard Tessmann after surrendering to the Allies in 1945
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| Born |
10 May 1919 Greifswald, Germany |
| Died | 21 June 2003 (aged 84) Phoenix, Arizona, USA |
| Fields | Aerospace engineering, chemistry |
| Alma mater | Technische Universität München |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans Fischer |
| Spouse | Hildegard Buchhold (1950-1955) Nathalie "Nan" Heaton-Woodruff (1957-2003) |
| Children | three |
| Notes | |
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY:Braun, Magnus Freiherr von (1965). Weg durch vier Zeitepochen (Way through four time periods) (in German). Starke: Limburg an der Lahn.
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Magnus "Mac" Freiherr von Braun (10 May 1919 – 21 June 2003) was a German chemical engineer, Luftwaffe aviator, and rocket scientist at Peenemünde, the Mittelwerk, and after emigrating to the United States via Operation Paperclip, at Fort Bliss. He was the brother of Sigismund and Wernher von Braun.
Von Braun was born in Greifswald, Pomerania, to Magnus Freiherr von Braun and Emmy von Quistorp. After completing boarding school at Hermann Lietz-Schule in Spiekeroog, he began his studies in 1937 at Technische Universität München. There he remained after receiving his master's degree in organic chemistry, and became an assistant to Nobel laureate Hans Fischer.
Von Braun arrived at Peenemünde in July 1943 at the request of Wernher von Braun. In March 1944 he was arrested with fellow rocket specialists Wernher von Braun, Klaus Riedel, Helmut Gröttrup, and Hannes Lüersen, but was later released. In late summer 1944 he transferred to the Mittelwerk where he engineered V-2 rocket gyroscopes, servomotors, and turbopumps.
The Mittelwerk was an underground munitions factory dug into Germany's Harz Mountains in order to avoid aerial bombardment by British and American planes. It consisted of two tunnels bored through the mountain range near the town of Nordhausen, each a mile long and connected by dozens of cross tunnels. Railways laid through the main tunnels brought raw materials in and finished rockets out. The entire cavity provided some 35 million cubic feet of space. After massive Allied bombing disrupted the original V-2 development center in the Baltic town of Peenuemunde in mid-1943, the majority of German rocket production was moved to the Mittelwerk. Prisoners from the nearby Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps provided slave labor for this huge endeavor. Inmates were marched into the tunnels daily and compelled to work by the notorious Nazi SS, who handled all security issues. The usual horrific methods were employed and over 20,000 slaves perished during this subterranean rocket factory's existence.
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