Von Braun and rocketry without WW2?

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Deleted member 1487

Standard no WW2 TL, Hitler dies in 1936 after the Rheinland reoccupation, Nazis start to fall apart, a more rational government comes to power, no WW2, Europe stays relatively peaceful and economically recovers by the end of the decade.
So what happens to rocketry and von Braun?
 
Probably somebody sees the potentially of rocketry eventually. Maybe the Russians? Goddard is probably discovered eventually, since he held hundreds of patents relating to virtually evry aspect of rocketry, but Von Braun is probably a lost genius
 
the Aggregate project would be still a Reichswehr research program
the German Military had look into option of Rocket to replace the artillery forbid by Treaty of Versailles.
 

Deleted member 1487

Probably somebody sees the potentially of rocketry eventually. Maybe the Russians? Goddard is probably discovered eventually, since he held hundreds of patents relating to virtually evry aspect of rocketry, but Von Braun is probably a lost genius
The German military was employing von Braun before Hitler was in power:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Dornberger
In the spring of 1932, Dornberger, his commander (Captain Ritter von Horstig), and Col. Karl Emil Becker visited the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR)'s leased Raketenflugplatz (English: "Rocket Flight Field") and subsequently issued a contract for a demonstration launch.[4][5] On 21 December 1932, Captain Dornberger watched a rocket motor explode at Kummersdorf while Wernher von Braun tried to light it with a flaming gasoline can at the end of a four meter long pole.[3][4][5] In 1933, Waffenamt Prüfwesen (Wa Prüf, English: "Weapons Testing") 1/1, under the Heereswaffenamt (Army Weapons Department), commenced work under the direction of Colonel/Dr. Ing. h. c. Dornberger. Dornberger also took over his last military command on 1 October 1934 — a powder-rocket training battery at Königsbrück.[3] In May 1937, Dornberger and his ninety-man organization were transferred from Kummersdorf to Peenemünde.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_rocket#Developmental_history
In the late 1920s, a young Wernher von Braun bought a copy of Hermann Oberth's book, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket into Interplanetary Spaces).[6] Starting in 1930, he attended the Technical University of Berlin, where he assisted Oberth in liquid-fueled rocket motor tests.[6] Von Braun was working on his doctorate when the Nazi Party gained power in Germany.[7] An artillery captain, Walter Dornberger, arranged an Ordnance Department research grant for von Braun, who from then on worked next to Dornberger's existing solid-fuel rocket test site at Kummersdorf.[7] Von Braun's thesis, Construction, Theoretical, and Experimental Solution to the Problem of the Liquid Propellant Rocket (dated 16 April 1934), was kept classified by the German Army and was not published until 1960.[8] By the end of 1934, his group had successfully launched two rockets that reached heights of 2.2 and 3.5 km (1.4 and 2.2 mi).[7]

At the time, Germany was highly interested in American physicist Robert H. Goddard's research. Before 1939, German engineers and scientists occasionally contacted Goddard directly with technical questions.[7] Von Braun used Goddard's plans from various journals and incorporated them into the building of the Aggregat (A) series of rockets,[7] named for the German for mechanism or mechanical system.[9]

Following successes at Kummersdorf with the first two Aggregate series rockets, Wernher von Braun and Walter Riedel began thinking of a much larger rocket in the summer of 1936,[10] based on a projected 25-metric-ton-thrust engine.
 
He was employed, and there would be experiments, but without the spur of the war (and Allied air dominance), it likely becomes much less of a funding priority.
 
He eventually immigrates to America where he is offered a suitcase full of cash to build rockets in an ATL Cold War. Germany is in this scenario allied with the US, so the brain drain occurs as much as the US can afford.

Also, he probably ends up not marrying his cousin.
 

Deleted member 1487

He eventually immigrates to America where he is offered a suitcase full of cash to build rockets in an ATL Cold War. Germany is in this scenario allied with the US, so the brain drain occurs as much as the US can afford.

Also, he probably ends up not marrying his cousin.
Why do you think he'd leave Germany for the US? They weren't even funding Goddard. Also why would the Germans allow him to leave? The US isn't going to be allying with anyone without WW2 and Germany will probably run its own power bloc in Europe.
 
Rocketry would probably still advance, but at a much slower pace. Without WW2 to spur innovation and throw huge sums of money into both programs the development would be delayed.
The major powers would probably have rocket programs but without WW2 and the subsequent cold war they would probably receive much less funding and priority.
If a cold war did erupt and the US and USSR began pumping tons of money into ballistic missile programs it is hard to speculate what would happen to Von Braun personally. Perhaps he has been employed by the German government that entire time, but without the V-2 program how well known would he be?
In real life his only choices were to surrender to the US or the west or be killed by the SS before he was captured. Staying in Germany wasn't a choice.
Without WW2 would he want to leave Germany? If he had to be enticed would the US being willing to pay him huge sums of money to move to the US and put him in charge of their programs? If he had a half-decent life in Germany I don't see why he would want to move to be a mid-level worker with an average salary in the US.
 
Possibly Big Butterfries.

Why do you think he'd leave Germany for the US? They weren't even funding Goddard. Also why would the Germans allow him to leave? The US isn't going to be allying with anyone without WW2 and Germany will probably run its own power bloc in Europe.

One scenario:
1936, Hitler dies in car crash.
1938, Nazi dictatorship under (Der Grossherman?) collapses in food riots due to incompetent Nazi handling of economy.
1940, France takes Rhineland, in deal with Soviets who take Poland (the deal, no war over Poland.) :eek:
1944, Fearing a Soviet take-over, von Braun and the VfR flee to England. The Brits, seeing the "mene, mene" on the wall, decide to fund rocket research for self-defense. :cool:
1945, the US, finally seeing the Red Menace come to life when Germany is absorbed into the GSU, begins to fund Goddard's Children in order to "stop the Reds at the Atlantic." The US and Brits share much info, not yet realizing how deep the Soviet moles have burrowed under the Transatlantic Union. But having notes on research is not the same as practical experience, as Soviet rocketeers discover.:D
1947, a von Braun multistage bomb-thrower topped with a plutonium head is operational. The Soviets begin to reconsider their rocket program.
1948, Hoover's FBI exposes Soviet spies in the US, with leads to the Brit's network also. James Bond has a field day with his authorization.
1953, von Braun orbits a grapefruit-sized transponder from a rocket base near Woomera. Stalin dies of heart failure.
1959, the first US-British space station becomes operational, complete with space-spy gear, and atomic bombs marked with names like "Moscow", "Stalingrad", and "Baikonur". Admiral Heinlein, on loan from the USN, commands the station.
1964, first Moon landing, followed in two years by Moonbase One.
1989, the GSU collapses in economic chaos, Germany, Poland, and parts of the former Soviet Union become Republics ( thug-run kleptocracies, but who's counting?) :confused:
 
1989, the GSU collapses in economic chaos, Germany, Poland, and parts of the former Soviet Union become Republics ( thug-run kleptocracies, but who's counting?) :confused:

Why do the commies collapse faster? No WW2: No Barbarossa, no millions and millions of Soviet and Polish casualties. Also no US industrial growth fueled by war, it will grow but never to the same extent. Actually the Cold War will be much more even this time.

OTOH, why does no one ever consider Pedro Paulet in rocketry timelines and posts? His contributions were huge. And if it weren't because his nation of origin was not industrialized, he would have made even more.
 
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