Major-General Dr. Walter Robert Dornberger (September 6, 1895 – June 26, 1980) was a German Army officer who worked as an artillery expert during World War I and World War II. He led Nazi Germany’s V-2 rocket program and other projects at the Peenemünde Army Research Centre. After the war, the United States’ Operation Paperclip program brought him to the U.S., where he avoided punishment for his role in war crimes. He held important positions in aerospace companies, including Bell Aircraft and Boeing, for many years.

Early life

Walter Dornberger was born in Gießen, Germany, in 1895. In 1914, he joined the German army during World War I. In October 1918, as an officer in the artillery unit, Dornberger was captured by U.S. Marines and held in a French prisoner of war camp for two years. He spent much of this time in solitary confinement due to multiple escape attempts. In the late 1920s, Dornberger completed an engineering program with high honors at the Berlin Technical Institute. In the spring of 1930, he graduated after five years with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg in Berlin. In 1935, Dornberger received an honorary doctorate, which Colonel Karl Emil Becker arranged as Dean of the new Faculty of Military Technology at the TH Berlin.

Rocket development

In April 1930, Dornberger was appointed to the Ballistics Council of the German Army (Reichswehr) Weapons Department as Assistant Examiner under Klaus von Duffenberg. His task was to secretly develop a military liquid-fuel rocket that could be mass-produced and had a longer range than artillery. 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 (Rocket Flight Field). They then issued a contract for a demonstration launch. 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 (13 ft) pole.

In 1933, Waffenamt Prüfwesen (Wa Prüf, Weapons Testing) 1/1, under the Heereswaffenamt (Army Weapons Department), began work under Colonel Ing. h. c. Dornberger. Dornberger also took over his last military command on 1 October 1934, a powder-rocket training battery at Königsbrück. In May 1937, Dornberger and his ninety-man organization moved from Kummersdorf to Peenemünde. In September 1942, Dornberger was given two posts: coordinating the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket development programs and directing active operations. The first successful test launch of a V-2 was the third test launch on 3 October 1942.

In June 1943, Dornberger gave a speech to nearly 6,500 German employees and soldiers in Peenemünde. He combined traditional German patriotism with Nazi ideas and emphasized the importance of their work in missile development. He also highlighted the significance of their efforts to the war effort and referenced fears of the Soviet Union and Western Allies.

On 7 July 1943, Ernst Steinhoff flew von Braun and Major-General Dornberger in his Heinkel He 111 to Hitler's Führerhauptquartier "Wolfsschanze" headquarters. The next day, Hitler viewed a film of the successful V-2 test launch (narrated by von Braun) and saw scale models of the Watten bunker and launching-troop vehicles.

In January 1944, Dornberger was named Senior Artillery Commander 191 and was based at Maisons-Lafitte near Saint Germain. In December 1944, Dornberger was given full authority for anti-aircraft rocket development (Flak E Flugabwehrkanonenentwicklung). On 12 January 1945, at Dornberger's request, Albert Speer replaced the Long-Range Weapons Commission with "Working Staff Dornberger." In February 1945, Dornberger and his staff moved their headquarters from Schwedt-an-der-Oder to Bad Sachsa, then from Bad Sachsa to Haus Ingeborg in Oberjoch near Hindelang in the Allgäu mountains of Bavaria. Before moving to the Alps, General Dornberger hid detailed V-2 documentation in a mine near Goslar. These documents were recovered by the US 332nd Engineer Regiment on 16 May 1945 during a secret operation when Goslar was already occupied by the British Army.

On 2 May 1945, Dornberger, von Braun, and five others left Haus Ingeborg and traveled through Gaicht Pass toward the Austrian village of Schattwald. They met American soldiers who escorted the group to the Tyrolean town of Reutte for the night. After the war, at an internment camp known as "CSDIC Camp 11," the British monitored Dornberger. In conversations with Generalmajor Gerhard Bassenge (GOC Air Defences, Tunis & Biserta), Dornberger said that he and Wernher von Braun realized in late 1944 that the situation was worsening and had communicated with the General Electric Corporation through the German Embassy in Portugal, hoping to reach an agreement.

Postwar

In mid-August 1945, after participating in Operation Backfire, Dornberger was taken from Cuxhaven to London by British officials for questioning related to the use of forced labor in the production of V-2 rockets. He was then moved to Bridgend in South Wales, where he was held for two years.

Along with other German rocket scientists, Dornberger was released and brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip. He worked for the United States Air Force for three years, helping to develop guided missiles. From 1950 to 1965, he worked at the Bell Aircraft Corporation, where he contributed to several projects and eventually became Vice-President. He played an important role in designing the North American X-15 aircraft and served as a key advisor for the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar project. He also helped shape ideas that eventually led to the creation of the Space Shuttle. Dornberger developed Bell's ASM-A-2, the first guided nuclear air-to-surface missile created for the Strategic Air Command. He also advised West Germany on a European space program. During the 1950s, he had disagreements with von Braun and helped recruit several engineers from the Huntsville team to work on U.S. Air Force projects. These engineers included Krafft Ehricke, who later designed the Centaur rocket stage and worked on other defense projects.

After retiring, Dornberger moved to Mexico and later returned to West Germany, where he died in 1980 in Baden-Württemberg.

Works

• Dornberger, Walter (1952). V-2, the Shot into Space: The History of a Great Invention (in German). Published by Bechtle Verlag in Esslingen. OCLC 175065526.
• Dornberger, Walter (1954). V-2. Published by Viking Press in New York. OCLC 1223668.

Awards and decorations

• Iron Cross (1914), 1st and 2nd Class (during World War I)
• Knight Second Class of the House Order of the White Falcon, with Swords (during World War I)
• Hesse General Honor Decoration (during World War I)
• Wound Badge (1918), in Black (during World War I)
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award, 4th to 1st class
• War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd Class with Swords
• Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords (29 October 1944)