The following lists contain names of

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...

s and

technician A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skill and technique, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Specialisation The term technician covers many different speciali ...

s specializing in

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 who originally came from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

but spent most of their careers working for the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

space program A space program is an organized effort by a government or a company with a goal related to outer space. Lists of space programs include: * List of government space agencies * List of private spaceflight companies * List of human spaceflight prog ...

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 ...

. Particularly after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, many engineers left Germany to pursue further rocket projects in the

U.S 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 territori ...

. The majority had been involved with the

V-2 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 develope ...

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 commu ...

, and 127 of them eventually entered the U.S. through

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 War ...

. They were also known as the Von Braun Group. Before and after Operation Paperclip, other German experts arrived in the US by individual

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

without

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

links and would only later join various space projects, primarily at NASA.

Operation Paperclip scientists

* Andreas Alexandrakis * Rudi Beichel *

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 ...

, Director, Marshall Space Flight Center,

from July 1, 1960 to January 27, 1970 *

Werner Dahm Werner Karl Dahm (February 16, 1917 in Lindenthal, Germany – January 17, 2008 in Huntsville, Alabama) was an early spaceflight scientist of the Peenemünde Future Projects Office who emigrated to the US under Operation Paperclip and was the ...

Konrad Dannenberg Konrad Dannenberg (August 5, 1912 – February 16, 2009) was a German-American rocket pioneer and member of the German rocket team brought to the United States after World War II. Early years Dannenberg was born in Weißenfels, Province o ...

Kurt H. Debus Kurt Heinrich Debus (November 29, 1908 – October 10, 1983) was a Nazi party member, rocket engineer, and NASA director. Born in Germany, he was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS) during World War II, where he served as a V-weapons flight test d ...

* Ernst R. G. Eckert *

Krafft Arnold Ehricke Krafft Arnold Ehricke (March 24, 1917 – December 11, 1984) was a German rocket-propulsion engineer and advocate for space colonization. Biography Born in Berlin, Ehricke believed in the feasibility of space travel from a very young age, ...

Anselm Franz Anselm Franz (January 20, 1900—November 18, 1994) was a pioneering Austrian jet engine engineer known for the development of the Jumo 004, the world's first mass-produced turbojet engine by Nazi Germany during World War II, and his work on tur ...

Ernst Geissler Ernst Geissler (3 August 1915 in Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany – 3 June 1989 in Huntsville, Alabama, United States) was a German-American aerospace engineer. After World War II, he came to the United States on 16 November 1945 as part of the A ...

Dieter Grau Dieter Grau (April 24, 1913 – December 17, 2014) was a German-born American aerospace engineer and member of the " von Braun rocket group", at Peenemünde (1939–1945) working on the V-2 rockets in World War II. He was among the engineers wh ...

* Walter Häussermann *

Karl Heimburg Karl Ludwig Heimburg (January 29, 1910 - January 26, 1997) was a German-American engineer and Operation Paperclip hire. Heimburg was a member of the " von Braun rocket team" and served as the initial director of the Test Division at the Marshall ...

* Emil Hellebrand * Otto Hirschler *

Helmut Hölzer ) , image = File:HolzerHelmut Huntsville.jpg , image_size = 100px , caption = Helmut Hölzer in Huntsville, Alabama , birth_date = , birth_place = Bad Liebenstein, Thüringen, German Empire , death_date = , death_place = Huntsville, Alaba ...

* Helmut Horn * Hans Hueter * Wilhelm Jungert * Georg ("George") Emil Knausenberger * Heinz-Hermann Koelle * Hubert E. Kroh * Hermann H. Kurzweg * Alexander Martin Lippisch * Hans Maus *

Fritz Mueller Fritz K. Mueller (1907 – 2001 Huntsville, Alabama, USA) was a German engineer. Mueller was hired by Kreiselgeräte Company in 1933. He developed the PIGA accelerometer. and worked on gyroscopes for Nazi Germany's '' Kriegsmarine''. Later ...

* William Mrazek * Erich W. Neubert * Hans R. Palaoro * Theodor A. Poppel * Eberhard Rees * Gerhard Reisig *

Georg Rickhey Georg Johannes Rickhey (25 August 1898, Hildesheim – 1966) was a German engineer and the general director of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau. Rickhey, a doctor of engineering, joined the Nazi Party in October 1931 as member number 664,050 ...

* Werner Rosinski * Ludwig Roth *

Arthur Rudolph Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph (November 9, 1906 – January 1, 1996) was a German rocket engineer who was a leader of the effort to develop the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany. After World War II, the United States Government's Office of Strategic Ser ...

* Friedrich von Saurma * William August Schulze * Walter Schwidetzky* *

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) ...

* Heinrich Struck *

Ernst Stuhlinger Ernst Stuhlinger (December 19, 1913 – May 25, 2008) was a German-American atomic, electrical, and rocket scientist. After being brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, he developed guidance systems with Wernher von Braun's t ...

* Bernhard Tessmann *

Adolf Thiel Adolf Karl Thiel (also spelled Adolph; February 12, 1915 – June 2, 2001 Los Angeles) was an Austrian-born German expert in guided missiles during World War II, and later worked for the United States Army and TRW. Thiel had been an associate pr ...

* Albert Zeiler * Theodor Karl Otto Vowe *

Georg von Tiesenhausen Georg Heinrich Patrick Baron von Tiesenhausen (May 18, 1914 – June 4, 2018) was a Baltic-German-born American rocket scientist. After being brought to the United States in 1953 as part of Operation Paperclip, he was part of Wernher von Braun' ...

Friedwardt Winterberg Friedwardt Winterberg (born June 12, 1929) is a German-American theoretical physicist and was a research professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is known for his research in areas spanning general relativity, Planck scale physics, nucle ...

* Albin Wittmann * Helmut Zoike * Hans Hosenthien, Director of Flight Dynamics, Marshall Space Flight Center,

After Operation Paperclip

* Fridtjof Speer *

Walter Dornberger Major-General Dr. Walter Robert Dornberger (6 September 1895 – 26 June 1980) was a German Army artillery officer whose career spanned World War I and World War II. He was a leader of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket programme and other projects a ...

* Hermann Oberth *

Jesco von Puttkamer Jesco Hans Heinrich Max Freiherr von Puttkamer () was a German-American aerospace engineer, senior manager at NASA, and a pulp science fiction writer. He was an advocate of human space exploration, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ...

* Guenter Wendt *

Robert Lusser Robert Lusser (19 April 1899 – 19 January 1969) was a German engineer, aircraft designer and aviator. He is remembered both for several well-known Messerschmitt and Heinkel designs during World War II, and after the war for his theoretical study o ...

* Gert Schmitz *

References

{{NASAMSFC German rocket scientists in the United States German-American history ! Marshall Space Flight Center NASA people

Operation Paperclip scientists

After Operation Paperclip

See also

References