Controversy Surrounding These Scientists and Their Careers – Research

Controversy surrounding these scientists and their careers. Both these men have since passed, but still today, activist groups are fighting to have these men stripped of their awards and achievements. These men had a passion for science from an early age. Strughold in the field of medicine and Rudolph was mechanically inclined at a very young age and became fascinated with rocket engineering. Strughold and Rudolph both has doctorate degrees, however Rudolph’s was an honorary doctorate that he received after the war and Strughold had attained his doctorate in natural sciences and medicine, medical, degree and habilitation doctorate prior to the beginning of WWII. Around the same time there two men were becoming some of the top scientists coming into the political picture. These scientists were not yet aware they would be asked to commit war crimes during WWII. The positions both men were in during the war would affect their future and legacy in the years following the war. Strughold would be cleared to come to America, as well as Rudolph, while their associates would be put on trial. These men escaped the fate of their associates and somehow were cleared by the U.S. intelligence agencies to begin working for the Air Force and NASA.

Hubertus Strughold was born in Hamm, Germany on June 15, 1898. Strughold attended Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich and Georg August University of Gottingen and studied the natural sciences of medicine which he received a doctorate for in 1922. In 1927, Strughold completed his doctorate in habilitation while attending the Julius Maximillian University of Wurzburg and also attended the university of Munster and completed his medical degree in the same year. Strughold would begin working as a research assistant under Dr. Maximillian von Frey, a renown German-Austrian physiologist. Dr. Strughold was also looking to start a career of teaching physiology at Wurzburg. It was after 1927 when Strughold became interested in Aviation Medicine and would begin studying the effects high -altitude flight does to the human body with the help of a former WWI pilot Robert Kitter von Greim. It was in 1928 when Strughold would visit the United Stated for the first time. Strughold was completing a year-long research fellowship through the Rockefeller Foundation. During his time in the states Strughold exclusively focused on the topic of aviation medicine. After his research fellowship, Strughold returned to Germany and taught at the Wurzburg Physiological Institute. In 1933 his last position before the formation of the Luftwaffe was as a professor of physiology at the Frederich Wilhelm University in Berlin.

Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph was born November 9, 1906 in StepferHausen, Meiningen, Germany. Early in life, it was easy to tell he was mechanically gifted. His mother Ida was raising Rudolph and his brother as a single mother since Rudolph’s father died in WWI. Rudolph’s mother sent him to technical school in 1921. Three years later he found work at a factory in Bremen, in 1924. August of 1927, Rudolph once again switched jobs and ended up at Stocks and Co. in Berlin before becoming a tool maker at Fritz-Werner. Rudolph began attending the technical college of Berlin and within two years received a Bachelor of Science degree. After graduating Rudolph began working at the corporation got industry gas utilization company in May of 1930. This is where Rudolph’s rocket career would begin. Rudolph met rocket pioneer Max Valier and immediately become fascinated with rocketry and rocket science. Valier had permission to perform tests on factory land.

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During these tests Rudolph worked with Valier and another man named Walter Reidel on rocketry projects in their spare time. On May 17, 1930, Max Valier was killed when an engine he was testing exploded. After the incident the supervisor prohibited any further tests. Rudolph continued to secretly perform tests even though it was prohibited. Along with the help of Reidel and many named Alfons Pietsch, Rudolph had developed a safer and improvised version of Valier’s design. The prohibition of testing was lifted, and Rudolph was giving financial backing to build a rocket cat that would be shown for admission. The project was successful, but due to the excessive fuel costs the it was scrapped. In 1931, Rudolph would become a member of the Nazi party and eventually joined the SA, which was the original paramilitary of the Nazi party. When Rudolph visited a meeting of the space flight society, he met Wernher von Braun. Von Braun was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Germany and an aerospace engineer and space architect. Rudolph is tasked to lead the design team for the A-4/V-2 production plant. This is where Rudolph’s actions will eventually become under investigation and scrutiny leading up to the end of the war.

After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 and a series of aw are allowed to pass, Hitler essentially becomes dictator of Germany. Shortly after in April 1933 the Luftwaffe is formed when the Rech Aiation Ministry is established. The Reich Aviation Ministry’s purpose is the develop and produce are crafts. This was a plan for rearmament. Eventually Strughold’s organization the Research Institute for aviation medicine became a part of the Luttwaffe, Strughold made head of the organization in 1933. At the beginning of World War II, the Institute became the medical service of the Luftwaffe and it was renamed the air-force institute for aviation medicine. The Luftwaffe surgeon-general Eric Hippke would assume command after the instate was absorbed. Strughold was commissioned as an officer and would achieve the rank of colonel. Strughold’s leadership helped the institute to become Germany’s foremost aeromedical research establishment. Unfortunately for Strughold, this is where his career and actions came under question because he accused of having knowledge of experimentations being done on concentration camp prisoners.

In 1942 Strughold and Hippke attended a medical conference that SS Physician Rascher was presenting at. Rascher would into detail about the experiments conducted on prisoners from Bachau. In these experiments prisoners were submerged in freezing water, placed in air pressure chambers and operated on without being administered anesthetic. Many of the prisoners died during these experiments. Numerous Luftwaffe physicians were involved in these experiments, and a good number were close associates of Strughold. A Nuremburg trial memorandum has Strughold listed as a person implication in these crimes committed. Just as Strughold had been accused of knowing about the experiments, Arthur Rudolph is accused of using prisoners from concentration camps as labor in his facility. Where an estimated 12,000 -20,000 prisoners died while building V-2 rockets. After Rudolph’s unit surrendered to the allied forces he was transferred to the British as part of operation back fire, in October of 1945, Rudolph was transferred back to the Americans. November 1945, Rudolph, Van Braun and the rest of the V-2 team are reunited for six months. Operation overcast was renamed Operation Paperclip in March of 1946.

Rudolph had a background check on January 2, 1954 and received a less than enthusiastic review but regardless, was pushed through. Rudolph was appointed to be the technical director of the Redstone missile projects in 1950. Project manager of the Pershing Missile project in 1956 and Rudolph would receive an honorary doctorate from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida on February 23, 1959. Rudolph also received the decoration for exceptional civil service award which is the highest award a civilian can be given by the army. In 1966, Rudolph moved to NASA and began working for von Braun. Rudolph had become the assistant director of systems engineering at NASA and would be named the project director of the Saturn 5 program in august of 1963. The first Saturn V launch was a success in 1967. Rudolph would retire from NASA on January 1, 1969. On July 16, 1969 the Saturn V launched for the Apollo II and we put a man on the moon. Rudolph was awarded the NASA exceptional service medal and the NASA distinguished service medal. In 1979, by chance Eli Rosenbaum who works for the office of special investigation reads that Rudolph had used forced labor while working under the Nazis. In November or 1983 Rudolph signed an agreement to renounce his citizenship and move to Germany as long as his wife and daughter were allowed to stay.

After the war Strughold begins working for the U.S. Air Force and is brought to America in 1947. It was during the time that strughold became known as “the father of space medicine” due to the role he played in pioneering the study of physical and physiological effects of manned space flight. Once back in Germany Rudolph was tried for war crimes but found not guilty. Strughold would become the first and only professor of space medicine at the school of aviation medicine established by the air force. Strughold would make many contributions to studies on physical effects of weightlessness, atmospheric controls, disruption of normal time cycles. From 1952-1954, Strughold oversaw the building of the space cabin simulator. Strughold was granted U.S. citizenship in 1956 and also became the chief scientist of NASA’s medical division in 1962.

Strughold was investigating three separate times while he was with the U.S. in 1958, 1974, and 1983. The first two times strughold was found innocent the third time didn’t go to trial due to strugholds death in September of 1986. After Strughold’s death his connection to experiments conducted at Dachau had become clearer than its to new evidence from the release of U.S. army intelligence documents from 1945 stating in the documents Strughold was a sought-after criminal. This evidence had a significant impact on his reputation and Strughold was stripped of any awards he had received. In 2004 information surfaced about Strughold performing experiments on epileptic children. After the most recent evidence was found many groups want Strughold’s name and legacy wiped out. Although there are some that say his contributions are far too great to wipe out, and that there was not enough evidence linking Strughold to the experiments.

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