The Last Nazi Rocket Scientist

[Dave Monroe]

Thanks!  Those von Braun installments of "Walt Disney Presents" were on the
Disney Channel on cable television here ca. last Christmas (of course), but,
unfortunately, I stumbled in on the first one during a "free preview" week, and
with a VCR which DOESN'T record anymore.  Never caught 'em coming back around.
Not sure just how cooperative the Disney people would be if you approached them
about those shows, but ... but both installments were about space exploration,
the fisrt in particular about building a space station, complete with nifty
special effects depictions thereof (top-shaped seven-armed personal construction
capsules and so forth).  But keep the references coming, and this website was
just forwarded to me as well: http://www.v2rocket.com/ ...

"Inger H. Dalsgaard" wrote:

> A belated response to Dave Monroe's questions about sources on von Braun,
> Rockets etc.
>
> I have a particular soft spot for the Final Frontier. I still think it is
> unique in what it does with history and literature. McHale, I seem to
> recall, also suggested that it had a fresh look at which were the
> interesting passages in Gravity's Rainbow, other than the gospel quotations
> we all know and love.
>
> Yves Beon's Planet Dora (orig. in French) might be read in tandem with Jozef
> Garlinski, who was also a prisoner and slave labourer at Mittelwerke. It is
> worth keeping in mind, when reading their desriptions, that the issue of
> sabotage at the rocket factory is (still)a bone of contention. It ties up
> with the difficult political relationship btw. Russian and French prisoners
> (mainly), who may still have a case to prove, as Beon's description may
> indicate.
>
> Pieskiewicz is continuing the work started by the books by Tom Bower, the
> Paperclip Conspiracy and Blind Eye to Murder, but the demolition job on von
> Braun's halo was started in the DDR (for political reasons) earlier.
>
> I think Speer is an interesting commentary both on von Braun's reticence and
> Dornberger's V2 memoirs. Do check out McLaughlin's work on their
> autobiographies vis-a-vis Poekler's in Connecticut Review and recent
> PynchonNotes. I think I had some ideas about how Pynchon uses the 'Theory of
> Ruin Value' in the latest PN?
>
> McDougall I recommend in general on space programs in the East and West, and
> as for direct sources for Pynchon's Peenemuende, the recently disgraced
> David Irving's Mare's Nest is often mentioned (where he got a sense of DORA
> is more of a mystery). Norman Longmate works with the impact of V bombs on
> London. (There are loads of other, older books of that nature but I'm
> Fulbrighting it in the States this summer and far from my book shelf, so I
> can't recite them all)
>
> Having just gotten back from the Nordhausen-Peenemuende Pynchon Run, I have
> a few recent German titles for those of you who can cope with the language:
>
> Bode, Volkhard and Gerhard Kaiser. Raketenspuren: Peenemunde 1936-1996(a bit
> of a coffee table book)
>
> Weyer, Johannes. Werner von Braun (a slim volume, not as shrill as
> Pieskiewicz or Tom Bower, probably, as far as I can see)
>
> Engelman, Joachim, V2: Aufbruch zur Raumfahrt (cheap, excellent photos and
> blueprint material, does exist in an English translation)
>
> And, wouldn't you know it: The DORA camp had a cinema?
>
> Finally, I'm distraught to have missed the re-broadcasts of Disney's von
> Braun Programs (was it the Men on the Moon/Mars or the children's
> shows/Tomorrow's World?) which have apparently been on TV here recently. I'm
> working on a book about the perceptions of von Braun in Germany and the US
> (hopefully with Pynchon material worked into it), so can anybody tell me
> what station they were broadcast on, whether tapes can be bought, borrowed,
> stolen of these programs?
>
> Thanks!!
>
> Inger H. Dalsgaard
>
> >From: "Dave Monroe" <monroe at mpm.edu>
> >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: The Last Nazi Rocket Scientist
> >Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 04:38:01 -0500
> >
> >... well, can't find now the message which brought this up, but ... but
> >that Michael Neufeld's The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemunde and the
> >Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era, is excellent, and might well be of
> >interest to any and all here.  See also his essay (at least) in Monika
> >Renneberg and Michael Neufeld, eds., Science, Technology and National
> >Socialism.  A few other titles:
> >
> >Yves Beon, Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust
> >     and the Birth of the Space Age
> >
> >Dale Carter, The Final Frontier:
> >     The Rise and Fall of the American Rocket State
> >
> >John Gimbel, Science, Technology and Reparations:
> >     Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany
> >
> >Benjamin King and Timothy Kutta, Impact:
> >     The History of Germany's V-Weapons in WWII
> >
> >Walter A. McDougall, ... the Heavens and the Earth:
> >     A Political history of the Space Age
> >
> >Dennis Piskiewicz, The Nazi Rocketeers
> >
> >Carter's The Final Frontier, of corse, would be of particular interest
> >here, weaving as it does in and out of Gravity's Rainbow--anybody here
> >familiar with it?  Any comments?  On any of the above?  Any other
> >references?  What might have been Pynchon's sources on the V-2, Dora,
> >Peenemunde, et al.?  Do have Walter Dornberger's memoir on the V-2, any
> >recommendations in re: Wernher von Braun?  Hope you all caught those old
> >(late 50's, early 60's) "Disney Presents" installments with him, not at
> >all out of character for Walt to give airtime to an ex-Nazi, apparently
> >...
> >
>
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