Activities in Rocketry and Politics Before The Second World War
He was an early member of the VfR and assisted with Hermann Oberth's failed publicity stunt on behalf of the group to launch a rocket at the premiere of Fritz Lang's film Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon). Despite this failure, Nebel continued to seek sponsorship from the Reichswehr as well as individuals as diverse as Adolf Hitler and Albert Einstein.
Nebel acted very much as the group's spokesperson, organising the donation of materials from various local businesses, and negotiating with the Berlin municipal council for the use of a disused ammunition dump for the VfR's launchsite or Raketenflugplatz. He later talked the Magdeburg council into funding the launch of a rocket with a human passenger on board, a scheme that never materialised.
His right-wing politics and affiliation with the paramilitary veterans' organization Stahlhelm fit easily with his promotion of the possible military uses of rockets. Despite this, he had a difficult relationship with Karl Becker of the Army Weapons Office. Becker distrusted Nebel's showmanship and publicity seeking and by May 1931 had temporarily cut off official contact with him. In April 1932, Becker accepted a proposal from Nebel for army funding of a rocket launch on the condition that certain criteria were met. The launch on June 22 of that year was a failure and Nebel and his crew received no payment for the attempt. When Becker offered to bring the team into a strictly controlled army rocketry project, Nebel refused, saying that he and his colleagues had invented the technology and that the army would "choke us with their red tape". Conversely, Wernher von Braun accepted the offer.
Von Braun later tried again during the war to have him join, but by now the SS regarded Nebel as untrustworthy and had von Braun cease his attempts.
Read more about this topic: Rudolf Nebel
Famous quotes containing the words world war, activities in, activities, politics, world and/or war:
“During the first World War women in the United States had a chance to try their capacities in wider fields of executive leadership in industry. Must we always wait for war to give us opportunity? And must the pendulum always swing back in the busy world of work and workers during times of peace?”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“...I have never known a “movement” in the theater that did not work direct and serious harm. Indeed, I have sometimes felt that the very people associated with various “uplifting” activities in the theater are people who are astoundingly lacking in idealism.”
—Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865–1932)
“Juggling produces both practical and psychological benefits.... A woman’s involvement in one role can enhance her functioning in another. Being a wife can make it easier to work outside the home. Being a mother can facilitate the activities and foster the skills of the efficient wife or of the effective worker. And employment outside the home can contribute in substantial, practical ways to how one works within the home, as a spouse and as a parent.”
—Faye J. Crosby (20th century)
“I think the Senate ought to realize that I have to have about me those in whom I have confidence; and unless they find a real blemish on a man, I do not think they ought to make partisan politics out of appointments to the Cabinet.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“God grant we may not have a European war thrust upon us, and for such a stupid reason too, no I don’t mean stupid, but to have to go to war on account of tiresome Servia beggars belief.”
—Mary (1867–1953)