) , image = File:HolzerHelmut Huntsville.jpg , image_size = 100px , caption = Helmut Hölzer in Huntsville, Alabama , birth_date = , birth_place = Bad Liebenstein,

Thüringen Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

, death_date = , death_place =

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...

, United States , residence = , fields =

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical s ...

, alma_mater = Technische Hochschule Darmstadt , doctoral_advisor = , academic_advisors = , doctoral_students = , notable_students = , work_institutions = 1933-tbd: teaching
1939:

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company'). The name "Telefunken" app ...

(Berlin)
1939-1945:

Peenemünde Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The communi ...

1940's-1950's:

Fort Bliss Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of William Wallace Smith Bliss, LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President ...

/ WSPG
1950's-1950's:

Redstone Arsenal Redstone Arsenal (RSA) is a United States Army post and a census-designated place (CDP) adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The Arsenal is a garrison f ...

1950's-1960's: ABMA
1960-1970's:

Marshall Space Flight Center The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center. As the largest NASA center, MSFC's first ...

(Director, Computation Division) , known_for = Designing an electronic simulator for the

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...

control system. , author_abbrev_bot = , author_abbrev_zoo = , influences = , influenced = , awards =

Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is an annual award bestowed by the since 1952 for investigations in medicine. It carries a prize money of 120,000 Euro. The prize awarding ceremony is traditionally held on March 14, the birthday of N ...

, footnotes = , religion = , signature = Helmut Hoelzer was a

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

engineer who was brought to the United States under

Operation Paperclip Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World Wa ...

. Hoelzer was the inventor and constructor of the world's first electronic analog computer.

Life

In October 1939, while working for the

electronics firm in Berlin, Hoelzer met with

Ernst Steinhoff Ernst August Wilhelm Steinhoff (February 11, 1908 – December 2, 1987) was a rocket scientist and member of the " von Braun rocket group", at the Peenemünde Army Research Center (1939–1945). Ernst Steinhoff saw National Socialist (Nazi) d ...

Hermann Steuding Hermann or Herrmann may refer to: * Hermann (name), list of people with this name * Arminius, chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe in the 1st century, known as Hermann in the German language * Éditions Hermann, French publisher * Hermann, Mis ...

, and

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

regarding guide beams for a flying body.p. 107 In late 1940 at

, Hoelzer was head of the guide beam divisionp. 140 (assistant Henry Otto HirschlerH. Otto Hirschler, 87, Aided Space Program
/ref>), which developed a guide-plane system which alternates a transmitted signal from two antennas a short distance apart, as well as a vacuum tube mixing device (german: Mischgerät) which corrected for momentum that would perturb an object that had been moved back on-track.p. 104 By the fall of 1941, Hoelzer's "mixing device" was used to provide

rate measurement instead of rate gyros.p. 106 Then at the beginning of 1942, Hoelzer built an

analog computer An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. In c ...

to calculate and simulate

trajectoriesp. 106 Hoelzer's team also developed the Messina telemetry system. After evacuating Peenemünde for the Alpenfestung (Alpine Fortress), Hoelzer returned to

via motorcycle to look for portions of his PhD dissertation prior to surrendering to United States forces at the end of World War II. Hoelzer was a student of

Alwin Walther Alwin Oswald Walther (born 6 May 1898 in Reick; died 4 January 1967 in Darmstadt) was a German mathematician, engineer and professor. He is one of the pioneers of mechanical computing technology in Germany. Life Alwin Walther was born in May ...

Family

One of his grandchildren is Olympic swimmer

Margaret Hoelzer Margaret Josephine Hoelzer (born March 30, 1983) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. Hoelzer competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Olympic Games. Biography While in Huntsvil ...

References

Sources

External links

Helmut Hoelzer Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holzer, Helmut 1912 births 1996 deaths Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni Early spaceflight scientists German aerospace engineers German emigrants to the United States V-weapons people NASA people German rocket scientists German spaceflight pioneers Operation Paperclip Engineers from Thuringia People from Wartburgkreis