The Hermann Oberth Society is an association named after

Hermann Oberth Hermann Julius Oberth (; 25 June 1894 – 28 December 1989) was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics, along with Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Konstantin Ts ...

, the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

astronautics pioneer and the authoritative expert on

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

ry outside the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, which develops and builds rockets and trains engineers in

space technology Space technology is technology for use in outer space, in travel (''astronautics'') or other activities beyond Earth's atmosphere, for purposes such as spaceflight, space exploration, and Earth observation. Space technology includes space vehicles ...

. The Society was established in 1952 by

Karl Poggensee Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

as the German Agency For Affairs of Space Travel (

DAFRA Dafra Motos, or Dafra is a Brazilian builder of motorcycles founded in 2007 by Itavema Group. History Dafra Motos was founded in 2007 using the concept "CKD" (completely knocked down) i.e. bringing the disassembled-bikes made by Asian manufact ...

), tasked to develop civilian rockets. Early on in Hespenbusch, near

Großenkneten Großenkneten is a municipality in the district of Oldenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Großenkneten is one of the largest municipalities in Germany, in terms of its area, and is situated between the rivers Hunte and Lethe, in the land ...

, various prototype rockets were developed, which soon reached heights of a few kilometers. The available area in Hespenbusch quickly became too small to continue to conduct rocket tests there. In 1957 the rocket experiments of DAFRA, which was renamed the DRG (German rocket company), moved to

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

, where rocket tests were resumed in 1959. On December 15, 1960, the first launch of the Kumulus, which had a maximum height of 20 kilometres, took place and on September 16, 1961, the first launch of the Cirrus, which had a maximum height of 50 kilometers, took place. At this time Berthold Seliger began to build rockets in this society, which was renamed the Hermann Oberth society. In 1961 Berthold Seliger created his own company, the

Seliger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH The Berthold Seliger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (BSFEGmbH) was a company founded by West German rocket technical designer Berthold Seliger in 1961. Seliger was a former assistant theoretician professor Dr. Eugen Sänger. The comp ...

, which cooperated with the Hermann Oberth society. The Seliger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH developed several two- and three-stage rockets, which could reach heights of up to 150 kilometers, between 1962 and 1963. After a disputed flight demonstration of the Seliger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH militarily usable rockets before military representatives from non-NATO states at Cuxhaven on December 5, 1963, a break between the Seliger Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH and the Hermann Oberth society occurred. The latter continued to make rocket launches until June 1964. After the termination of rocket launches in the Cuxhaven area the Hermann Oberth society put its emphasis on the education of future space technology engineers. In 1993 the Hermann Oberth society and the Otto Lilienthal society united to form the German Society for Air and Space Technology,

DGLR German Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (DGLR; german: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth e.V.) is a German aerospace society. It was founded in 1912 under the name of ''Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für ...

References

{{Authority control Human spaceflight