Wernher Von Braun

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Allan J. Teichroew

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1978

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services, 1999 January; encoding completed by Manuscript Division, 1999

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms998011

Latest revision: 2007 August

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Related Material

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Wernher Von Braun, engineer, rocket scientist, and space program administrator, were given to the Library of Congress by Von Braun between 1962 and 1971. Additional papers were deposited in the Library by Von Braun in 1971, but later given to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama, by his widow, Maria Von Braun, in 2007. Photocopies of the addition were made by the Library and retained as part of the collection.

Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Tapes have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Wernher Von Braun Papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Wernher Von Braun in these papers and in other collections of papers in the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Wernher Von Braun Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Wernher Von Braun (1912-1977) span the years 1796 to 1970, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the decades 1950 to 1970. A few items in the collection predate Von Braun's emigration to the United States and his postwar duties with the United States Army as part of the “Paperclip” project, but most of the papers relate to his work at the Redstone Arsenal and the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama. Consisting largely of office files and fan letters, the collection includes extensive public relations matter, general correspondence, an invitation file, subject files, speeches and writings, and miscellaneous printed matter. Nearly half of the papers consist of fan mail, some of it topical and scientific correspondence requiring original replies by staff members, but more of it from autograph seekers and admirers who were especially prolific following major space accomplishments. Also in the collection are bound volumes of photocopies of Von Braun's scrapbooks, 1930 to 1958, which treat the evolution of rocketry from the perspective of his V-2 research for Nazi Germany and his guided missile work for the United States Army after World War II.

Born in Wirsitz, East Prussia, in 1912, Wernher Von Braun early became interested in rocketry and pursued studies at the Berlin Technical Institute and the University of Berlin which prepared him for his career. His success as a rocket expert coincided with the technological outburst of the World War II period and the space and arms developments in the postwar period. These papers emphasize Von Braun's scientific contributions to the United States space program as well as focusing on his role as a spokesman for space exploration in competition with the Soviet Union. They portray his association with the American Rocket Society and the Gellschaft für Weltraumsforschung, his duties as chief of Guided Missile Development at Huntsville, and his directorship of NASA's Marshall Flight Center. The files most reflective of Von Braun's official responsibilities are the subject files and the general correspondence, which include letters, notes, memoranda, and such related material as technical reports, drawings, charts, and personnel forms.

Von Braun was an early advocate of space conquest and exploration whose views were carried by popular weeklies and the daily press years before the success of Sputnik imparted greater urgency to a stepped-up American space effort. Two files of more than usual interest are the subject files regarding Congress and space, and a folder entitled “A. V. Grosse Action” which contains responses to Grosse's plan for the launching of an American satellite in the mid-1950s. Also of significance are speeches which Von Braun gave before scientific, business, and other organizations. These speeches delineate his projections and later his reminiscences of the development of space science. Other important papers include manuscripts of some of Von Braun's books, his correspondence with German and American publishers, his exchanges with such former German rocket specialists as Herman Oberth, and his correspondence and memoranda concerning the major American space shots from the Explorer firings to Apollo 11.

Von Braun moved from Alabama to NASA headquarters in Washington shortly after the 1969 moon landing, and in 1972 he left government service for private industry. The latter facets of his career are not covered by the papers in this collection. Absent also are family papers and primary documentation of his work on the V-2 and his capture and impressment into the service of the United States Army.

Correspondents in this collection include Aristad V. Grosse, Donald Jackson, Robert C. Truax, Frederick C. Durant III, F. D. McHugh, Armitage Watkins, Igor Sikorsky, Fred L. Whipple, John S. Burlew, Wilbur M. Brucker, J. B. Medaris, I. M. Levitt, Willy Ley, Cornelius Ryan, Chesley Bonestell, Heinz Hermann Kölle, Heinz Gartmann, G. Loeser, K. Shuette, Jupp Gerhards, Otto Wolfgang Bechtle, D. C. Fahrney, Kenneth W. Gatland, Bert J. Slattery, Ernst Stuhlinger, Lee James, J. Preston Layton, James J. Harford, Walter R. Dornberger, A. J. Eggers, and John Sparkman.

Von Braun had considerable correspondence with leaders in the aerospace industry, including Aerojet General Corporation, Lockheed, General Dynamics, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Sperry-Rand, Douglas Aircraft, General Electric, Northrop Corporation, and International Business Machines. The bulk of the letters and memoranda, however are from NASA headquarters in Washington and from Marshall Space Flight Center.

Appended to the collection is an addition which consists mostly of speeches from the mid-1960s and fan mail from the Apollo 11 mission.

Related Material

A substantial collection of Von Braun papers is also located at the U. S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in seven series:

• General Correspondence, 1950-1969
• Invitation File, 1952-1967
• Public Relations Correspondence, 1952-1969
• Subject File, 1949-1968
• Speeches and Writings, 1934-1969
• Miscellany, 1796-1968
• Addition, 1913-1970, n.d.

Description of Series

Container List