HEROES OF SPACE
WERNHER VON BRAUN
From working for the Nazis to becoming a space hero
© Getty Images
Von Braun was born on 23 March 1912 in the town of Wyrzysk in Poland. His mother gave him a telescope at a young age, which inspired his passion for astronomy, while his love of rocketry was apparent from the age of 12 when he accidentally blew up a firework-powered toy car in a crowded street. Von Braun and his family moved to Germany following World War I, and it was at school in Weimar, and later on the island of Spiekeroog, that von Braun took up physics and mathematics to learn more about rocket engineering. In 1932 he graduated from the Berlin Institute of Technology with a degree in aeronautical engineering, and two years later he had a PhD in physics from Frederick William University, now the Humboldt University of Berlin.