Wernher (center) with his two brothers. Magnus (left) would also grow up to be a rocket scientist.
Source: http://pastpicture.com/childhood-pic-Wernher_von_Braun.php

Wernher Von Braun was born in March of 1912 in Prussia.  He came from an aristocratic family and his father was a government official. At this time, the study and experimentation of rocket propulsion was a fringe scientific endeavor.  Von Braun first became interested with rocket propulsion when the pyro-technician Fritz Von Opel broke speed records using rocket-powered rail track cars called the RAK. Series. A 12-year-old Von Braun first experimented with rockets of his own by strapping toy rocket fireworks to a coaster wagon.  The wagon sped around in random directions with a cloud of smoke trailing behind until the fireworks burned out.  This caused a major commotion in a crowded street and the young Werner was taken into police custody until his father came and collected him.  Von Braun was a very intelligent young man, but more than that, he was daring and repugnant of strict behaviors of conduct.

The RAK. 3 Rocket Car Set a speed record of 290 km/hr
Image Source: hlhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-06121,_Burgwedel,_Raketenwagen_auf_Eisenbahnschienen.jpghjjjjjjjj

• In Gymnasium (high school), Von Braun was not an excellent student.  He allocated most of his time to pursuing his own scientific interests, rather than the prescribed areas of study given by his teachers. He spent one year attempting to reconstruct an automobile with a friend in his father’s garage.  He first became interested in Astronomy when his mother gifted to him a telescope, with which he would spend hours surveying constellations.  The vision of space travel first entered his mind when he read By Rocket into Planetary Space by the physicist Hermann Oberth (who would also later work on German military rocket projects).  Von Braun at first found the book extremely confusing because it contained many physical and mathematical laws and derivations that he didn’t yet understand. Consequently, he asserted his will to start doing better in his mathematics courses and both learned how to speak and understand the language of physics and got his grades up to the point that he graduated a year ahead of his class.

Von Braun at Peenemunde
Source: http://bocktherobber.com/2007/12/wernher-von-braun/

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• Braun moved to Berlin and worked as a mechanic’s apprentice.  He also joined the German Society for Space Travel, a small fraternity of rocket enthusiasts, led by Professor Oberth.  He also enrolled in the Berlin Technical Institute, and eventually graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1932, and a PhD in Physics in 1934 from Berlin University.  His thesis was a proposal of the use of liquid propellant in rockets rather than contemporary solid (powder) propellants.  His thesis was so well-received that it effectively placed him as one of Germany’s most renowned experts in rocket engineering; just at age 22.  Most of his thesis was classified (made secret) by the German military for the purpose of hiding his theories from scientists and engineers in other countries.
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Allied Reconnaissance Photo of Peenemunde Testing Facility
Source: http://www.v2rocket.com/start/makeup/v2_cutaway.jpg

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• Following his PhD, he started is official career at the same time the NSDAP came to power in Germany and began the process of rearmament.  Rocket powered weapons rose to the height of interest in the new regime and Von Braun was put at the head of a large team of engineers and given enormous funding. The team’s top secret test facility was at Peenemunde, a small town on an island off the coast of northern Germany.

Title Page	Introduction	Early Life	The V-1
The V-2	NASA and the Saturn V	Death and Legacy	Bibliography