NRM Lecture: Between Dream and Deed - Wernher von Braun and the V-2 rocket (Dutch)

A lecture will be organised by the National Space Museum (NRM) on Saturday 7 October 2023.
Start of lecture: 10:30 am (hall open from 10:00 am)

A boyhood dream that turns into a military weapon of destruction and the first humans on the Moon. These are two faces of the opportunist Wernher von Braun.

After World War I, a “rocket fever” developed in Germany as a direct result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The presentation shows why and how Germany developed rockets with the end result being the 14-metre-long A-4 rocket. Space enthusiast Wernher von Braun was instrumental in this development. Von Braun continued to dream of travelling to the planets, but his dream shattered

At the end of the war, this missile was renamed V-2, from ‘Vergeldingswapen 2’, or ‘Retaliatory Weapon 2’. More than 1,000 V-2s were fired in The Hague and the surrounding area alone, causing much damage and suffering in Britain. The British then bombed the research centre and launch site Peenemünde after which production went underground.The presentation shows how the rocket worked, how it remained stable and what preceded a launch. Many short pieces of video make the story understandable.

After the war, the A-4 rocket was tested extensively, mainly by the Americans. Von Braun enlarged the rocket and this became the ‘Redstone’, with which Alan Shepard made his ‘space jump’. That event eventually led to the manned moon landings. Thus, Von Braun’s dream came true after all.