The Pioneering Years

One of the leading early rocket pioneers was Hermann Oberth, who had been born in Transylvania, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, in 1894 but who came to Germany to study physics in the early 1920s. His thesis at the University of Heidelberg, entitled ‘Die Rakete zu den Planetenraeumen’ (Rockets to interplanetary space), was rejected as being in the realms of fantasy, but he went on to publish a work in 1929 entitled ‘Wege zur Raumschiffahrt’ (Paths to Space Travel) which became a standard reference text for the early astrophysicists. He became one of the founder members of the German Verein fuer Raumschiffahrt (Society for Space Travel) in 1927, and a year later started working in Berlin as scientific advisor on Fritz Lang’s film ‘Frau im Mond’ (Woman in the Moon).