Early life
Born in Wirsitz, von Braun was the second of three sons.His father was the minister of agriculture, and his mother descended from pure royalty.Von Braun developed a passion for astronomy after his mother gave him a telescope. He was also very good a music, and wanted to become a composer when he was younger. He went to a boarding school where he applied himself to physics and mathematics. In 1930 he attended the Technical University of Berlin, where he mainly worked on military rockets.
Involvement with the Nazis
On November 12, 1937 he applied for a membership in the NSDAP, or the Nazis.In 1940 he was approached by a SS colonel who asked him to join the SS. He accepted and became a liutenant in the Allgemeine SS, which was the non armed portion of the SS. He was very loyal to the nazis, and was one of the top rocket developers. He then began to create the V2, which he thought would be used for space travel, was insted used to bomb London. In 1936 he began rocket aircraft experimenting.
Working with the Americans
Von Braun decided it would be best to surrender to the Americans. On May 2nd, 1945 Von Braun surrendered to the Americans. On june 20th, he began to work for the U.S.A. For the Korean war, he developed the Redstone rocket, which would eventually send Explorer 1 in orbit starting America's space program. He would go on to work with Walt Disney in space exploration movies. He would begin to build saturn rockets which could travel into space. His dream would finally come true to send man to the moon on July 16, 1969. After retirement he created the National Space Institute, but retired fully on December 31, 1976 due to health issues.