A chemical engineer, von Braun’s role in history is much more than “the younger brother of Wernher von Braun.” Like his brother, Magnus was a rocket scientist, and it was he who, on May 2, 1945, contacted U.S. Army troops during World War II to arrange the surrender of the team working on the V-2 rockets for the German war machine.
“It was quite courageous for Magnus to come down on his bicycle and find the American troops,” said Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger, 90, who was Wernher’s assistant. “He had a white handkerchief tied to the handlebars of the bicycle and that was all he had to protect him.” The team of more than 100 men survived essentially intact and went to work in the U.S. after the war, helping the U.S. not just design rockets as weapons, but also for Wernher’s ultimate peaceful goal of taking men to the moon.
Magnus worked on the fuels which launched the Saturn rockets to the moon. Wernher died in 1977; Magnus died June 21 in Arizona. He was 84.