Аннотация: A teacher, a free man. A biographical sketch about Hermann Oberth.
A teacher, a free man. A biographical sketch about Hermann Oberth.
In the biography of Hermann Oberth, there are important features that have ambiguously influenced his entire life.
Firstly, this is the birth of Hermann Oberth in 1894 on the territory of Transylvania, which was part of Austria-Hungary before the First World War.
Secondly, his work as a teacher (teacher in a gymnasium).
After the First World War, the city where Hermann Oberth was born became the territory of Romania. This state was among the winning countries. Germany was defeated. After World War II, Romania became the socialist country for several decades.
The place of birth significantly influenced the life paths of Hermann Oberth.
Between the First and Second World Wars, Oberth felt a certain ill will from the officials of Germany, which had lost the war.
After World War II, Hermann Oberth encountered difficulties entering the United States.
The place of birth was one of the factors that made it difficult for Hermann Oberth (as a leader) to work on large, secret technical projects. Serious secret work was carried out in large, economically powerful states. To entrust them to a foreign citizen (Romanian citizen) was "against the rules."
Hermann Oberth was forced to concentrate on writing books and theoretical works.
The second factor that significantly influenced his life paths was his profession as a school teacher.
Those situations in life when Oberth was in charge of small-scale technical projects showed his high organization, ability to plan and overall success.
Purely hypothetically, the school teacher Hermann Oberth was inferior to Baron Werner von Braun, a man with great organizational potential and the ability to manage large projects. However, this judgment is purely hypothetical, as Oberth did not get a chance to lead large projects.
After completing the filming of "The Woman in the Moon" and Oberth's departure to Romania, Wernher von Braun gradually moved to the fore in Germany in a project that would later become a space project.
For many reasons, von Braun showed his respect for Oberth and recognized his merits, called him his teacher.
Understanding the enormous real potential of Hermann Oberth as a theorist and his supposed potential as the head of major technical works made the German authorities (after 1933) invite Oberth to work in Germany. These works were of a secondary nature, they were remoted from the main volume of secret activities. According to the biographical version, when Oberth, dissatisfied with his secondary role, announced his intention to return to Romania, he was faced with a choice: either obtain German citizenship and work in Germany, or move to a concentration camp. So Oberth received German citizenship.
History, it seems, has not preserved any entertaining psychological features of Oberth that deserve the attention of the general public. School teachers, as a rule, are quite cultured and tolerant people.
After World War II, Oberth's home in Germany was occupied by refugees. As a result, Oberth, instead of a conflict situation, preferred to build a second house next to his house and settled in it.
In the biographies of Hermann Oberth, a slight emphasis is placed on constant lack of money at him.
Are there many people who always have enough money?
In Oberth's biography, we see repeatedly encounters invitations from states and large companies with proposals to work on certain projects.
The wages of Oberth are not named, however, with such customers, these were, most likely, very noticeable amounts.
Oberth took care of receiving the pension. Firstly, he received a pension from the German government, and secondly, from the US government (several years of work in the US for the government and for one of the private firms gave him such a right).
The relative distance from large-scale secret work allowed Hermann Oberth to lead a relatively free lifestyle, to visit many different countries (including the USSR - in 1982 at the age of 88, where he was given great honor as one of the founders of cosmonautics, who knew Tsiolkovsky by correspondence). Hermann Oberth succeeded to maintain health and lived an unusually long life. He was a contemporary of the first manned flight into space. He saw - via television broadcast - the landing of a man on the Moon.
The birth in distant Transylvania and doubts about the ability of a school teacher to lead large technical projects eventually helped Herman Oberth to receive the fame in a role of one of the founders of modern cosmonautics, of a major generally recognized theorist. These biographical features allowed him to be a relatively free man (without the burden of secrecy and serious political accusations). He lived an unusually long life (1894 - 1989).
[MMСCXLV. Hermann Oberth and the eight cosmic million. A culturological and historical essay. - June 29, 2021.].
July 2, 2021 07:56
Translation from Russian into English: July 2, 2021 11:34.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Учитель, свободный человек. Биографический очерк о Германе Оберте'.